Final Day in Christmas Paradise....Part 2 ....or is it?

We headed out yesterday evening to Sanibel for an early dinner and a good parking place for the Luminary festival. As it happened last year, my pics aren't great because it's so difficult to get a clear pic of Christmas lights at night...especially traveling on a trolley going down the road! I picked the best of the rest...So bear with me! 

At Luminary on Sanibel (Rotary club places the bags, Kiwannis lights them, and the Lions Club picks them up at the end of the night) bags with candles are placed straight down Periwinkle, from Bailey's to Pinocchios, and they offer 3 shuttle routes to cover the areas. One route is a loop from Baileys to Tahitian gardens with a stop at Periwinkle place. The second route is a loop from Periwinkle to Jerry's.  The third route is a loop from Jerry's to Pinocchios and back. ..Many shops along these routes offer free food, snacks, a craft show at the schoolhouse, some sort of entertainment at most places, and Santa travels the routes from place to place in a fire truck...and there lots of twinkling lights and decorations. This is our second year!

We started at Bailey's....

Bailey's Plaza 

Santa at Baileys'

Some of Tahitian Gardens lights

Our favorite Trolley and driver.... 

Full Moon over Tahitian Gardens

Closeup of the full moon

Nativity at Jerry's

Jerry's

Church next to Jerry's ....offers a live nativity, choral groups, snacks and a "Walk down a street in Bethlehem"  I HIGHLY recommend this stop....it has a little bit of a line but it is worth it!! Awesome!

Inside decorations in one of the trolleys

We decided to walk back to Bailey's from Tahitian and I was able to get some better pics and a couple of videos!

Island Cow

Luminaries leading into Tahitian

Flamingo sleigh outside Greenhouse Cafe

This Robogirl was outside of Island Cow....she was on stilts!

                           

One area of the bike path was completely covered with these twinkling lights...the whole area glowed....it was awesome!!

                           

It was a beautiful night and it was a great walk....Last year we really enjoyed it because the trolley from Jerry's to Pinocchios was driven by a lively fellow who sang Elvis' Blue Christmas among others, and we sang in the open air all the way down and back! It was a blast...this year was a little disappointing...we were in an enclosed trolley no Christmas music and we couldn't see very well....Oh well! It was fun anyway!!

I would suggest you ride at least one trolley, but walk a lot to take it all in!!....And you may not want to eat first....we were too full from dinner to try anything!!

We had been talking about staying another day since Saturday Morn was the lowest tide of the week (full moon) and it was at 7:00....but that would mean Hubby would have to take another day of leave from work....We decided to stay, just for the morning to catch the low tide and leave after a couple of hours on the beach!!! Woohoo....so I have one more shelling post for you!! Stay Tuned!!

::Hugs::

Final Day in Christmas Paradise....Part 1

I have always heard that every day is different at the beach, and Sanibel continues to verify that for us.  It was very cloudy, and looked pretty threatening when we got there at sunrise this morning.

 Look closely and you will barely see the sunrise....just a little pink on the horizon.

The wind picked up, and it even rained on us a little bit.  We found some minis but nothing like yesterday.  There was a constant chop in the water so it was pretty cloudy.

We did find this guy high and dry, and assisted him back into the gulf....

After a while, we began to get a little chilly and wet.....Not like up North, but chilly for here! :)

As we were heading back, we noticed that as the tide came in and the waves washed up, it was uncovering some pockets of shells.....we had to contend with the waves, but we just let them help wash out the pockets!  It's back breaking after a while, but just another way to hunt for treasures!  I had noticed that people were coming pretty close and picking up things, and that bothers me a little sometimes.  Hubby and I were probably six feet apart from each other....I found half of a beautiful alphabet cone, parts of true tulips, and we were getting sharks eyes, double jewel boxes, murexes....Hubby even found a piece of Junonia....it was a lot of fun....for a while...  

Then this lady came up with a digger spade about 4 or 5 feet away from me....and continued getting closer and closer....she would dig, then scoop and 2 others with her would go through the scoop.....she finally got within a foot or so, and that was too much in my bubble so I moved to her other side.....I wasn't find anything so I moved to the other side of Hubby, and one of the people with her stood right beside me!!  Maybe I'm too sensitive, but I thought that was rude!! I finally just left to avoid saying anything....my moment was spoiled by now anyway...

Hubby stayed for a little longer, but she moved in on him also, so he just told her she could have it and how rude she was!  Am I wrong? It's a huge beach, do we have to stand cheek to cheek to shell?? Maybe I'm just too sensitive....

We ended up doing pretty well, and the clouds started to break about the time we headed home, but it did still rain a little on the way.  

Here is today's catch! Not bad at all....

More double jewel boxes, both sides of a small cockle, and some mini Lightning whelks

Coral, olives ,a mussel, and of course the juvenile fighting conchs

Sharks eyes, worm shells, barnacles and a piece of a junonia!!

Hubby got a pretty lace murex to go with his Junonia piece too!!

We are heading back out to Sanibel for Dinner and Luminary night! I hope to have some awesome pics to share with you for Part 2!! Stay tuned!

::Hugs::

Major-Mini Haul!!

I have a confession to make....I overslept yesterday so we didn't go out at sunrise! So I spent yesterday doing some more shopping....This sure doesn't look like December 3rd where I am from....how about you??

 

This truly is paradise!  I did go to Bunche Beach here in Fort Myers for an hour and had a little bit of luck...

...a couple of Kings Crowns!

These are mostly shells from the day before....with a few scallops we picked up this morning...

Today however, we did get up and got out to Gulfside park just before sunrise....it was so beautiful and very calm!!

...It was mini heaven....you could walk out and see in the clear calm water...We both had so much fun....and boy did we find the minis!

Hubby said he was in the water just picking up one thing after another and this Alphabet cone rolled up next to him!! It's not perfect, but they have been pretty scarce for us this year!!

It was amazing how much was out there, there were still some sea squirts rolling around, but there were minis everywhere....in the water, on the beach, high tide line...just everywhere! 

See for yourself!

Hubby hit the jackpot with Olives and Mini horse conchs....

I did pretty well with mini shark's eyes and double jewel boxes!

...and tiny lightning whelks and apple murex....the apple murex above are 'average' size that you normally see...

This group was there just like this...the only thing that was live was the mussel....the rest went right into my shell bag!

 So many minis.....look how tiny!

A double jewel box, tiny kittens paw and teenie nutmeg!!

I did find a baby's ear and a paper fig, a few olives and an awesome barnacle bunch....

....and a piece of Christmas Candy!! :)

Even though low tide was well before sunrise, with the calm water we could see very well and stayed until 9:30 or so!! Breakfast at Jerry's was calling for us, so we left....very satisfied!! We can't wait until tomorrow....it's different everyday so you never know.....wish us luck, this will be our last day of shelling....:(    This trip!

::Hugs::

Enjoy....so relaxing!!

It's Beginning to Look (a little bit) Like Christmas....

Shelling yesterday was not nearly as plentiful.  

The tides aren't very good during the daytime, and the wind picked up yesterday so the water was not very clear. It was beautiful though, so you will not hear any complaints from me!

I did manage to pick this creature up....

It startled me at first and I dropped it back in the water, then realized it was some sort of a shrimp I think!! You can see how big it is against my foot!! He wasn't alive, but was still freaky!

The best low tides are going to be early morning...before daybreak, so we may get up and be there at daybreak to get a chance to get some special treasures.  Today had little to no low tides so we just hung out at home, walked around the neighborhood, and did a little housework.  

We intended to bring some Christmas decorations down when we came, but with all that was going on, forgot...so I decided to go do a little shopping to find us a small tree.....or something 'Christmasy'.  I found all kinds of beachy trees....

Made from Calico Scallops....

Trees made from a variety of white shells, and even sea urchins....

There was even a beautiful abalone tree!

 

I didn't feel like I could get one of these because I could make one....hmmmm that's an idea!! :)  I just couldn't decide what to do, it's only for a few days!

I finally found this awesome tiny tree that I couldn't pass up!!

It's made of glass and it couldn't get more beachy!! No sparkling lights, but I loved it anyway!  I also found this wreath I couldn't pass up...

I think I will be adding some shells to it later to customize it a bit!!

Now it is beginning to look (a little bit) like Christmas in one corner of our Florida home! (Notice the AWESOME signs made by Kim and Chablis from Snug Harbor Bay Etsy Shop ...click on the link on the right of Kim's blog)

Hopefully tomorrow I will have a very different post about some awesome shelling! We are having a good....relaxing time! Stay tuned!

::Hugs::