President's Day full of Life and Sunshine!!!

Today, fill your cup of life with sunshine and laughter.  ~Dodinsky

Yep, you guessed it!! We are back down to our house in Ft. Myers!! We just had to get away from the cold!! We actually saw snow until about the Georgia border and a lot of tree damage in SC due to ice!! 

So I sit here in my shorts and sleeveless shirt enjoying every minute of it I can for this short break from reality and I thought I would share some of it with you, knowing that most of you live where it is so cold!!

We opted out of going to Sanibel yesterday morning and just slept in. We did go today, and though we had very little shelling luck, it was a beautiful morning and is continuing to be a beautiful day!! Here is a little taste of it for you to enjoy too!! Turn up your speakers and just relax...it's 70 degrees!!!

We got there this morning just as the sun popped up...

As we walked on down the beach we ran across this guy....he had beached himself and was slowly flapping his wings....

I carefully picked him up and put him out into the water, he circled around and beached himself one more  time....I couldn't just leave him there so I picked him up one more time and took him out a little further.  He seemed to be having trouble but eventually made his way out into the gulf.  A lady in front of us came by and said we were her hero, she wanted to do something, but didn't know what!! It made me feel good!! ** Note: I just found out from visiting Capt. Brian's site here that this is a Manta ray....they have not been seen close to Sanibel in years!!! When I saw it, it reminded me of a manta, didn't realize they were that small!! So Cool!

When we got down the beach a ways we ran across this guy....a huge horse conch....live!! See the orange? That's the animal.....then i found at least 6 more!!!

Hubby went back the other direction and found at least 20 more he said.....all huge and all alive on a newly formed sand bar!! He came to get me but by the time I got there the water had begun to cover them...I tried to get a picture for you to see...conchs are circled in red.

Note to self: Tomorrow's adventure is that we go there and check this out more thoroughly but you know how that goes, it changes with each wave!!

The rest of the pics are just to bring you along on today's journey....

Today's finds:

A well worn auger, cone and nutmeg

A mussel

Both sides of a scallop

Both sides of a winged oyster!

Hubby always gets a turkey wing...this one is tiny! 

Daddy's favorite, a shark's eye

A purple sea whip

Coral

Life back at our place in Ft. Myers continued to thrive too!!

Great Egret with his plumage showing!

See the squirrel? He loves the maple 'helicopters'

Stick around here with me and I'll warm you up again tomorrow!! BTW it's 80 degrees now! :)

::Hugs::

Cheri