The final party...

 A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.  ~Edward de Bono

 We got up before sunrise this morning for our final shelling day, and it was much cooler and cloudy, so I wasn't able to take a picture to share with you of the sunrise.  The shelling was great again today as you can see from the pictures below! We managed to collect 2 'boards' worth of shells this morning and a total of 6 more alphabet cones!! This is obviously alphabet cone territory this trip!! We also found this huge horse conch buried in the tidal pool! We decided he was too big, and needed so much work that we would leave it on the shore for someone to appreciate!

Horse conch front view, almost invisible against the sand

The inside view, it still has beautiful color!

Hubby got 4 alphabet cones!!

...I got 2!

He also got 2 beautiful king's crowns!

Today's finds part A

Part B

Board 2!

Pear Whelks and a paper fig

Both sides of a spiny jewelbox* and sharks eyes (Moon snails)

Baby horse conchs....I think the horse conch is my favorite!!

Banded and true tulips and a nutmeg

This is 3 days shelling worth....not bad huh?!!

Remember I told you about meeting up with Pam Rambo from I Love Shelling She posted the video and pics of our alphabet cones from yesterday, just click the blue link above and it will take you to the site! Notice also that the *spiny jewelbox above was the one Pam was talking about on her site!! It's funny how that all turned out!!

We head back home to VA tomorrow, and much cooler weather, I love Sanibel and I am always so sad to leave! Lily seems to like it here, so we plan to bring her back as often as we can! I hope you have enjoyed sharing our trip!!

Hopefully I'll post more often, my normal life is not nearly as exciting as these trips, but I'll try to post more often!

::Hugs::

Cheri

An Alphabet cone sort of day,...

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.  ~John Muir


We got out by sun-up again this morning and it was such a beautiful day!! It was another very low tide, which gave us lots of opportunities to shell the beach, sandbar and tidal pools! Hubby and I started out along the shoreline and ended up sifting through groups of pen shells in the tidal pools....what treasures they had....even live red (?) shrimp!! I didn't think about the fact that I had the waterproof camera in my pocket so I could have gotten some really neat pics!! I got so involved that I missed the sunrise!! :)  You can tell we were having fun!!

...Sorry I digressed!  While we were going through the shells, I mentioned that we had not found an alphabet cone in a long time.  Less than 5 minutes later, I turned around and laying right there at the bottom of the tidal pool was a beautiful Alphabet cone...and it was a biggie!! A few minutes later, hubby got one!!  I tried then to mention lots of other hard to find shells, Junonia, Lions Paw, Scotch Bonnet....but it didn't work, they didn't turn up!!

After we had finished searching the tidal pool we slowly made our way down the shoreline and I recognized a voice, it was Pam Rambo from I Love Shelling! And believe it or not, she remember me and Hubby, even our names and that we are from her home state of Virginia!! She even called me Shelllady!! I thought that was really neat!! She was making a video showing that she had also just found an alphabet cone!! So I was on her video for her blog!! A few minutes later she was talking to a girl from Seattle who also had just picked one up!!  Pam took pictures of all of our cones together and will post them, as well as the video....I will post a link to it here when she posts it!! Talk about coincidence! It was all very spooky!! Then on our walk back to the condo, I found ANOTHER Alphabet!! Obviously we had another great day shelling!!

This is a hermit crab in a banded tulip, he just sat there following me with his eyes in the bottom of the tidal pool....and he kept waving at me!!

Hubby's Alphabet Cone

My Alphabet cones

Today's shells part 1

Today's shells part 2

I found this Awesome Pear Whelk among those penshells!!

Apple Murex and Scallops

Lightning Whelks, Nutmegs, banded tulips and a pretty orange true tulip

Pam posing shells in the lady's hand for a photo opportunity!

How about this for a first I have a picture of Pam Rambo on MY Blog!! It's like running into a celebrity!! She is to us!! :)

After shelling, we came in and had some breakfast in the condo and Cabana boy Hubby setup the chairs and umbrella on the beach for the afternoon.  While we were there, we got to witness several dolphin feeding up against the shore....it was very impressive, and I couldn't catch it on video or still, as it was also so sparatic, let me tell you it was fun to watch!!

This was the best I could do with the dolphin pic....it was just too fast!!

We went to dinner at Gramma Dots, I had the fried Grouper and hubby had the popcorn shrimp caesar salad and of course we shared a piece of there absolutely wonderful key lime pie!!

We came back in time to see another glorious sunset!

Only one more morning left of sunrise shelling :( I anticipate we will be spending a lot of time at the beach so I will have at least one more entry before we head back home!! Enjoy!!

::Hugs::

Cheri
 

Sunrise to Sunset in paradise!!

The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.  ~Author Unknown

We finally got up before the sun this morning and went out to the beach! It was absolutely perfect! It is just hard to explain how therapeutic it is to be shelling as the sun rises on the gulf, among the birds and wildlife!! It really is good for the soul!!

I missed the beginning....too busy shelling!! :)

 ...And a new day has begun in paradise!!

Hubby was busy shelling and nearly missed the sunrise!!

We did very well shelling today, no really fantastic finds, but we found plenty, and ran out of time before the tide began to come in!! Not bad for only a couple of hours...huh!?

The beautiful Lightning whelk top left was Hubby's find, it's perfect!! We found an abundance of fighting conchs (all sizes), tulips Olives, Murex, sharks eye, pear whelks all kinds of pretties!!  This is half of the board....

...and this is the other half!!

Lots of shark's eye, My Daddy's very favorite shell! ...And a few orange scallops (for Della) :)

Lots of banded tulips!

Hubby's whelk!

I found this huge scallop, and my favorite, an orange horse conch!! I kept it even if it did have a hole in it!!

This is Lily's collection! For some reason she likes to find sticks, bring them back to her towel and chew on them until she is bored with them, then out to get a new one!! Such fun!! If only we could teach her to collect shells!! :)

Here she is checking out her collection!

A beautiful end to a beautiful day!

 Today was another great day!! Lily is so enjoying it here, as of course are we!! Time is beginning to go by so quickly...one day we will stay for 2 weeks again, that is about perfect timing!! Did I mention how perfect the weather is?? The AC doesn't even come on, we leave the patio doors open...it's wonderful!! I could certainly get used to this!!  We love the new condos here at Island beach club, and are considering this to be our new hangout when here!!

We tried a new restaurant here today (still looking for a favorite to replace the closed Hungry Heron).  It is called Sanibel Fish House, it is the old McT's building (for those of you familiar with the area). Hubby had the Grilled Salmon caeser salad which he says was awesome, I had the gried grouper fish tacos, they were awesome!! Prices were very reasonable, especially during their happy hour specials!! We will be going back!! 

BTW Jess completed here NAVLE (Veterinary boards) today, I believe she is relieved but will have to wait until January to see how she did!! Then she will just complete the year (until May) and will officially be a DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine)!! This has been a lot of work and school for her, and we are so proud of her!! This is what she has always wanted to do, and we are excited to see her finish this chapter!!  We Love you Baby Girl, and are so very proud!!

We will be back out early tomorrow to fill up another board or two of shells, and will post more tomorrow!!

::Hugs::

Cheri

 

It's still all about Lily...and the birds!!

The man who doesn't relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and trained nurse, a little later on.  ~Elbert Hubbard

We decided to sleep in a little past sun-up again this morning, so missed the low tide that was at 5 something this morning....oh well, another day of relaxation!! Sounds tough doesn't it?  We got up and had an early breakfast at Jerry's and picked up a few snacks and headed to the beach for the day.  The gulf was as calm as a lake....it was wonderful!! We did just walk along the high tide line and pick up a few little pretties....nothing spectacular, just a leisurely stroll....I couldn't believe how far Lily walked, she was so excited to pick up sticks, and then bring them back to the umbrella to chew on them!  What fun we had!! She enjoyed watching all the birds also!!

I believe this is a Ruddy Turnstone

This is a sandpiper

Birdwatching!!

Snowy Egret

 

 We came in early evening and made dinner from leftovers brought in all week, and went back out to catch another beautiful sunset on the gulf!

Like I said before, we plan on going out for the -.6 tide in the morning at sunrise, hopefully I'll have some neat shell pics for you!! If not, it's just another day in paradise!! :)

I took another video, the end of another perfect day in paradise....I hear it's raining and nearly 30 at home, so close the curtains, turn up the speakers and enjoy some paradise of your own for a few seconds!!

 ::Hugs::

Cheri