Beach Therapy...Being the Cone!

I finally am back home in our favorite place! We arrived yesterday and Team Cheri got out bright ...or should I say early this morning for some much needed Beach Therapy!! The beaches, at least, Bowman's and Blind Pass beaches on Sanibel have changed so much since I was last here.  They had a few winter storms that have turned up some amazing treasures! I just had to get down here and try my luck!! Hubby bought me a new water camera, so bear with me through the growing pains of learning to use it .....in the dark!!

Cheri and I walked for a bit this morning before we saw anything  extara special....there were lots of shells, the standards..like Arks, Scallops, Cockles etc....and look what I saw peeking out of the sand in the tidal pool!!

SCORE!!! I finally found that Alphie (Alphabet Cone) I have been searching for!!

Ok...now the rest is just pure therapy.....the weather is amazing....I've been in cold rain in Virginia forever! It was just a bit cool this morning....65, warming up to the lower 80s!! Who can't feel better in those conditions!

We were watching the sun slowly rising...and ran across an area where the water slowly lapped onto the beach, you've got the picture, walking ankle deep just a slow mosey.....Cheri looked down and saw this AMAZING Flat!!

Then she noticed another Alphie....slowly drifting along....

I looked down and saw 2 more.... all together!!! All about the same size....

Before we were done...in a very short distance, we had 11 Alphies!!! Talk about fun!!!

I also found a few Shark's eyes....

a double Jewelbox....

Cheri picked up a big Horse Conch....

which she tossed back into the Gulf....and a nice Lightning Whelk, which I grabbed before she threw back! ;)

I found a few Olives with a perfect tip

and we both found a few Banded tulips and Nutmegs of different sizes...

We continued down the beach, just chatting and enjoying this beautiful morning....

I did find a piece of a Junonia.... (sorry about the focus!)

Here are a few of both our favorites from this morning....

and a better picture of Cheri's amazing Flat Scallop!

So my first day back was a huge success....and gave me lots of needed therapy....I can't wait to get back out there!! 

Stay tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Island Hopping with Friends!

My time to leave is rapidly approaching, so I am trying to fill every minute with adventures! A couple of days ago, we went and toured the 10,000 islands by kayak! I am not a kayaker...this is only my second time ever, so that is an adventure all by itself...it was a load of fun and I was with some great folks....including the Shellinator himself, Donnie!

From Left: Jodi, Donnie, me and Cindy!

Donnie immediately found this beautiful orange True Tulip and gifted it to Cindy to welcome her home! How sweet is that?

I finally did it!!! I found my Alphabet Cone....Whooop Whoop!....and it's a beauty!!

My day was complete at this point!!! But of course, I couldn't stop looking for treasures!
I saw lots of double Spiny Jewelboxes....

Jodi found this awesome Spiny too....

Donnie picked up this Live 'Freak' Lightning whelk....

and put it back into the water to continue growing!

He found this live Lace Murex...climbing on a mangrove root....

and this HUGE Angel Wing...

Before the day was done...he found a BUNCH of them!

There were shells all over the islands! It was Sensory overload....under logs....like this pretty little Lace Murex....

 It will clean up nicely!

...this Gaudy Nautica sitting there waiting for me!

a pretty Florida Cone....in among the other shells...

and my goodness the Alternate Tellins!!!! so Many I just had to ignore them all!

and pretty Scallops, and Angel wings...

...Olives, this one has Golden Olive tendencies, not sure it is truly a Golden though....

Donnie found this HUGE Apple Murex....

and the tiny Sand dollars! I had to grab a few and got some of them home unbroken...

I'd say it was a pretty good day!

There were huge Jingles too! That's a quarter for size comparison!

I picked up a few other cones....not great, but kept them anyway...and a Salmon colored Fighting Conch...

lots of small False Angel wings, even some pairs!

I can never pass up the colorful Scallops and the Top Shells!

Florida Cones, More jingles and some tiny ones!

...and of course, the Olives...for my Friend Sheila....I call them 'Sheila Shells' there are a couple with some Golden colors....

and I had to bring home 3 of the Big Angel Wings!

This folks are so much fun....I can't wait to come back after Christmas and have some more adventures!

We traveled to the East Coast to try some shelling yesterday!!! Stay tuned for pics from that trip!!!...Maybe later today!

::Shelllady Hugs::

More Friends and an Attempted Rescue

I'm still here! More of my Friends have come down and we have been pretty busy scouring the beaches. The shelling hasn't been great but the company has been awesome! We have been fortunate to see a lot of wildlife, which is such a pleasure since the red tide was so devastating a couple of months ago....

Cheri rescued this Pygmy Octopus from a ladies shell bag....

We had passed two ladies and a little girl on the beach and one of the ladies started screaming...she ran back to us because she had just seen this little guy in her bag....apparently he had been in a shell she picked up from the water. She was both excited and distraught! She couldn't figure out how to get him out of her shell bag! By now y'all know Cheri.... She just reached in and picked him up....the best part was he wrapped himself around her finger hanging on for dear life...and of course, neither of us thought to take a pic of that! I think that lady will not soon forget him!

We have seen LOTS of birds.... like this Reddish Egret...he was doing his little fishing dance when we came across him...

a Snowy Egret....gotta love his yellow feet!

We even saw a Skimmer, trying to hide himself among some Royal Terns...

The most interesting was trying to rescue this Cow-nose Ray!

Cheri found him up on the sandbar, and at first, thought he was dead....we saw just a little movement in his wings, so we decided to help him out to deeper water....these guys are a bit slimy....and HEAVY.  You have to be careful of the barb on their tale, so we needed to be careful!

We got him turned around and headed out ...

it was really difficult to get him out there....and as the waves would come in, he would end up back on the beach!

We did it multiple times, and once he even ended up flipped over by the waves...

Out we took him again....but he just didn't have much fight left in him...

so as Cheri put it, we decided to let nature take its course....and we found him on our way back, just there on the sand bar....

Very sad....but we tried!....and thank you Jodi for being our photographer!!!

As I said before the shelling wasn't very good, but our friend Jodi found a few treasures....a LIVE Florida Cone....don't worry, she gently put it back....

a BEAUTIFUL Candystick (I think) Tellin!

and a Baby's ear....

Cheri found this nice set of Shark's eyes....

I found a Jewelbox pair...

and an Olive trio...

and (pardon the bad pictures) an Alphabet Cone....

piece!!!! ;(

Pardon the bad pictures....obviously I was so excited I splashed water on the lens of my camera!!! 

 This 'Fearsome Foursome' will be together for the next few days...and we have many adventures planned so stay tuned!!

From left: Jodi, our photographer; The Other Cheri, our Beautiful Cindy and Me, This Cheri!

::Shelllady Hugs::