Catchin' Up With My Posts....Here and There in one day!

I got awfully busy the last couple of days, so am compiling the rest of the trip here. (We are already on our way back home) :(

Wednesday I had made a reservation on the iloveshelling cruise with Pam Rambo.  

Pam and I have been blogging buddies for years, and we have so much in common, when we finally met in person a few years ago, we hit it off! So much in common!

This trip was to Big Hickory island, a place I had never been... We left from Ft. Myers Beach, and 45 minutes later pulled up at the island.

The underside of a false angel wing!

This was mini territory, with lots of worm shells, coral, and a few false angel wings!

Pam is quite the hostess on these cruises, she really enjoys this, and loves to share it with everyone!

I got back to Ft. Myers Beach about 12:45, and after an AWESOME lunch at Parrot Key Restaurant there on the docks, Hubby and I headed out to Sanibel for some more shelling....Sanibel style.  This time shallow digging was what was the most plentiful.

Do you see it?....

Voila!...
A Sand Dollar, barely buried....

Check out this fighting conch....He had Bright purple trim around it's shell...how cool is that?  

He was live so was put back in place after his photo op!
Here is the final tally for the day.....

Lots of Minis

 I think this is the smallest turkey wing I have ever seen!

 Coral from Big Hickory...

 False angel wings...have never found any on Sanibel, only Cayo Costa and now Big Hickory...

 More minis from Big Hickory...turkey wing, wentletrap,  hmmmm will have to look it up again, I forget what the third shell down is, and a marginella.

 A good pic of the calico scallop pair with the colorful side and the white side...

And LOTS of worm shells from Big Hickory, these are not found on Sanibel very often either...

These busy shelling day ended with a beautiful sky....as usual!! 

My plan was to get up early the next morning for one last shelling trip, but I decided to sleep in instead.  I have a couple more stories to tell about this trip, so will post again soon! 

Stay tuned!

::Hugs::

Final day in Paradise...for now!

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire. ~François VI de la Rochefoucault

We are back home to 'real life' after our great week in paradise and I felt like I had left some of you wondering how the last day went....No, alas, I did not find my alphabet cone.  But there is always next time, and that is just one more thing to look forward to! I did give it a great effort though and the shelling was actually pretty good! 

I had continued shelling to the west, and decided to turn around and head back to Gulfside park as it was producing some nice minis the first time through, and the tide was continuing to drop.  When I turned around and headed that direction, I noticed a group of people gathered...as I suspected Pam and Clark Rambo were out there, and they are such ambassadors of Sanibel, they visit with everyone they meet and share stories!

Gulfside park had lots of minis and they were obviously rolling in during this tide, as usual, you just needed to be at the right place at the right time!  Clark actually picked up a small alphabet as soon as he got there this same evening, on the same beach I was combing.  It's all about being at the right place at the right time! Look at these amazing finds he picked up in about 30 minutes!

It was a beautiful evening, and I really couldn't have enjoyed it more!

I had noticed these Ibis and wondered about the differences in color from the ordinary white ibis we had seen and after some research I found out that these are just very young white Ibis.  They start out brown with pale orange beaks and legs and will mature into the pure white ibis with the bright pink beaks and feet! How unusual is that? Somehow that seems sort of backwards to me! What do you think?

Here are the young Ibis...

Here is a mature ibis...

Here is the resident Great Egret behind our house in Ft. Myers.....I couldn't resist the opportunity to get a couple more pictures of him!

This adventure is ending, but another one will begin again soon, College Football begins next weekend, so we will switch to tailgating mode!  We will go from the Gulf, to the Blueridge Mountains!  Go Hokies!! 

Stay Tuned!

::Hugs::

Cheri

Cruzin' with Pam!!

“When the tides of life turn against you and the current upsets your boat, don't waste those tears on what might have been, just lie on your back and float.” ~Author Unknown Today was another adventure....we went Cruzin' with Pam Rambo from I Love Shelling! It was a lot of fun, and there were a lot of people!! I would guess there were 30 or more! Pam did her best to walk around and talk to each and every group personally, what a tour guide she is!! :)  We went to Cayo Costa as the tides were going out, and as usual, it went by much too quickly but it was a lot of fun!! I took LOTS of pictures so enjoy!! Mangroves at the dock On the way to the island....Jess and Brad spotted a Loggerhead turtle! Hubby and I enjoying the wonderful view and breeze The Cayo Costa point Periwinkle snails in the tree roots Check out these cool fish...couldn't catch them any closer....they were too shy! A newborn horse conch in a quahog shell Brad found this pregnant crab Brad found while digging for angel wings, as a teacher does, he shared it with some of the kids on the cruise. Some of the houses on North Captiva, no way to get here except by boat or small plane and land on a grass strip!! A fish house on North Captiva Pam visiting as we arrived back at the dock. Brad's finds from the cruise, and when we got back to the beach by the condo Jess' finds...she stumbled on mini angel wings, some even in pairs while at Cayo Costa and was nice enough to share her spot with us!! Pam took pictures of her for her blog, so I expect Jess will soon be famous by being featured on her blog! My finds from the day My mini angel wings....thanks Jess!! Jess' mini angel wings we found paper figs while digging at the condo after the cruise... Notice Jess' teeny tiny scallop! Brad found an Alphabet cone and King's crown while digging! Another Great Day! I hope you all are enjoying this as much as we are!! ::Hugs:: Cheri