After checking in at the Vero Beach Holiday Inn, I opened the sliding door and stood on the balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I took a deep breath, soaking in the soothing sound of the surf and relishing the salt air in face. Did I have any worries? Not at that moment.

Besides stress relief, I had another reason for coming to this portion of Florida’s east coast: treasure hunting. Hey, who hasn’t dreamed of stumbling across a trove of gold, silver, jewelry and other gleaming valuables? Armed with a state-of-the-art metal detector, hand trowel and mesh scoop, I was ready to strike it rich. Actually, I never really expect to hit a jackpot. But it’s fun hanging out at the beach for pretty much any reason. The sights and sounds of the waves, gulls and people having fun makes for a good mood as I swing the detector to and fro, waiting for that telltale sound of a “hit” in the headphones.

The beaches from Sebastian Inlet to Fort Pierce have been the scene of millions of dollars in treasure finds in the way of Spanish gold, silver, jewelry and artifacts from galleons that wrecked off the coast in 1715. Amazingly, people with metal detectors or even just eyeballing the sand when walking along the water’s edge still find coins on nearly a daily basis along this 70-mile treasure beach -- and thus the region's nickname as the Treasure Coast.

Years back I did the trick in this very area, digging up a silver reale coin and a musketball with the aid of a metal detector. The undated coin is only worth $60 or so and the musketball just a few bucks, but the fact I found them makes them special. I had the coin made into a necklace. Much of the treasure was salvaged soon after the wrecks by the Spaniards, but in the late 1950s and early 60s, Mel Fisher, Kip Wagner and others turned up millions of dollars in treasure and artifacts.

I went to the McLarty Treasure Museum, part of Sebastian Inlet State Park, which only costs a dollar. There you can learn about the history of these wrecks and see some of the recovered treasure. What’s great about hunting these public beaches is the fact it’s “finders keepers.” Just be sure to stay in the sandy areas from the water’s edge to where the beach ends and turns into a dirt escarpment, sea oats and other plants. And of course stay off private property -- you can find many public accesses to the beaches along A1A.

One great advantage of the beach is digging into soft sand as opposed to dirt and rock when my metal detector goes off to indicate something metallic below. I always refill my holes after digging, even on the beach, for safety and as a courtesy. Now and then, the misfortune of someone losing a gold ring or necklace becomes good luck for me as well.