Beach Bummin' the Gulf Coast...the Finale!

First, let me add this pic from yesterday that Jess took from the car as we were headed down the road toward our hotel! I think it's the perfect shot! Doesn't it make you just say "Ahhhhh!"?

 We got up early this morning and headed out to continue our beach trip to Fort Myers. The little town of Carrabelle is very remote and we found that it was going to take a lot of driving the get to a beach. Most of what we found was heavy woods and small remote towns. On the roads we chose, there was nothing to see. We realized it was going to take several hours to get back to the beaches, as the 'Big Bend' of Florida was more marshy, kind of like the everglades, and very wooded. I didn't want to go into Tampa, St. Pete as it's entirely too populated, so we finally ended up on I 75 headed to Sarasota to hit Siesta Key. It took several hours and we didn't arrive there until 2:30, so we decided to make the most of it as it would probably be our last beach for this trip...It also is a very populated area, but we finally made it!

It was a beautiful day!

Jess found another Keyhole Limpet...

and a sweet little Sand Dollar...

We picked up a few more little things, nothing really special, but it was a very nice walk on a beautiful white sand beach....Great Therapy!!!

We decided to find another fun place to eat, and found Siesta Key Oyster Bar another nice restaurant with seating outside!

We had another wonderful meal....!!

and of course had to try the Key Lime "pie"!! It also was great!!!

We arrived home about 8:00 tonight in Fort Myers....we missed a few beaches between Siesta Key and here, but ran out of daylight...that will have to be another trip! For now, I get to mark through another item on my Bucket list and got to spend some time with Jess and make some wonderful memories! Jess flies home late tomorrow afternoon and will spend her Christmas with her boys, I will miss her like crazy! We will have some more adventures in the not so distant future....

Thank you for coming along!

Stay Tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Beach Bummin’ the Gulf Coast Part 2

 We got up early this morning and headed directly to Navarre Beach.  This has been one of the beaches I’ve been most interested in, in fact, it’s on my bucket list! We parked at the public beach parking lot, (Which is free by the way!) and headed down the beach toward the pier. Today most of the Blue Bottles (Man of war) were deflated above the high tide line so we didn’t have to worry too much about that…except for this one that was pretty far down the beach. Look how long those tentacles are!

I did find a few treasures today… a flat, (zig zag scallop) not perfect but I kept it!

Atlantic pearl oyster half

A tiny Bittersweet

And also a HUGE Bittersweet

And my best find of the day…a Baby Bonnet! (Scotch Bonnet)

Another Imperial Venus

And another great find….an Octopus! (He’s plastic!) 😂 

Jess found a keyhole Limpet

And a juvenile pelican….

She was approaching the pelican to take his picture, and as she got closer, she realized he was all tied up in fishing line. We called a local wildlife rehab person and asked for help. Basically she told us we could try to get it ourselves, or we would have to wait about an hour for someone to come help us. So Jess decided we would try. The poor thing couldn’t fly and in the process of trying to get away from us would get in the waves and nearly drown. I ran to the car and grabbed a towel and we approached him from both sides at once. He came my direction with that huge beak open and hissing, I hesitated to grab him, but Jess got him from behind. He did manage to get her on her hand with the front of his beak, but it wasn’t too bad.

We then took him in the car to the rehabbed who cut the lines off as we helped and we found at least 2 hooks that were in him, so she was to work at removing them, she told us she thought he would be fine and she would release him soon! How about that for an adventure!! We saved a life today!! 

We headed on down the coast, looking for more adventures….Our next stop was Destin Beach.

The beach had little to no shells but was absolutely gorgeous! We walked for a little bit, took a few pictures….

The clouds disappeared and the sun finally came out, and the water was crystal clear, and a beautiful Green!

We found this beachside restaurant called the Crab Trap and we had a wonderful lunch will looking over the beach! So nice, I recommend it if you're ever in Destin!

We continued on down the coast, passed by Tyndall AFB in Panama City where my Dad was stationed and I went to the 3rd grade, (a few years ago). As we passed by I saw they had 3 of the planes my Dad flew on display near the front gate, it made me pretty emotional, and was really nice to see!  We continued on along the coast thru Port St. Joe, then Appalachacola until we reached the tiny town of Carrabelle. We are there tonight at a Marina Motel looking out over some of the boats decorated for Christmas!

Tomorrow we complete the journey, we plan to skip over the Tampa area (too congested) and maybe hit a couple of beaches between Brandenton and Fort Myers….

Stay Tuned!

~Shelllady Hugs~

’Beach Bummin’ the Gulf Coast… Part 1

I’m on a mini vacation this week with my Daughter Jess! So let me lay the ground work so hopefully you can follow along!…

Monday, I flew in to Virginia from our home in Fort Myers.Wednesday, I picked up Hubby’s car and drove to my daughter’s house in Salem Virginia. Jess, me and the boys spent some great times together, did some shopping and had our own Christmas. Saturday morning Jess and I headed down to Pensacola Beach Florida for a fun little trip. It was a long 12 hour drive but we made it with no issues. The plan now is to hit the beaches between Pensacola Beach and Fort Myers, we have until Wednesday when Jess will fly back to the cold in Virginia! 

So now you have the story, just follow along! This will probably be several posts, with more pictures than words as I don’t have my laptop and am doing this on my ipad, so bear with me.

Here is the least fun part of the trip, down from the 28 degrees of Virginia to the 66 and windy temps in Pensacola Beach.

We got in around 7 or so and saw so many fun restaurants that we wanted to try, we settled on Flounders

The trip was off to a GREAT start, a fun little restaurant where we had red snapper and shrimp and artichoke dip and some of the best Key Lime pie we have ever had. Soon after we crashed in our hotel with plans on an early start on the beaches.

It was chilly, cloudy and very windy, but we were determined to walk the beach!

We were up and out early and the first thing we saw were Blue Bottles, or Portuguese Man of war! They are fascinating but a little scary. You should know you cannot touch them as they have a pretty powerful sting I understand, even after they have been laying on the beach for a few days!

They were everywhere, big ones and tiny ones! 

We found a couple Imperial Venus also

Lots of broken Sand dollars, cockles and other shells, but nothing much to keep, we walked about a mile out under the pier and turn around and came back, the wind was ferocious and it was quite the workout. Here’s a few more pics that Jess and I took….

We then decided to do the touristy thing, do some shopping, had lunch at Redfish Bluefish were we had Mahi tacos and seafood chowder, drove around a bit hitting local shops and ended up at Crabs for Dinner tonight. To me a big part of the adventure is the food you find!

She-crab soup, deviled crab and Jess had a Crab Trap drink! All excellent …I recommend all the restaurants we tried…. everything is amazing so far!

Tomorrow we head down to Navarre Beach and keep heading south, we’ll see where we end up! 

Stay tuned!

~Shelllady Hugs~