There's Always a Way!

Our final day started out like the rest, a beautiful morning, mid 60s at 6:30 am...in January!!  When we arrived at the beach and got out of the car, we could hear the wind blowing on the beach. It was really blowing strong straight into the shore from the Gulf. I can bet that there will be some great shelling coming up in the next few days!! 

It was a beautiful sunrise one more time!

 

As I look at these pics now, you can't really tell by the waves how hard the wind was blowing, it was very strong, the waves were really rolling in.  As a result, shelling again would be different, and a challenge.  You know us shellers though, we will always find a way!! The high tide line was fairly barren, I walked a long way along the shoreline, and the middle tide line, Hubby even went the opposite direction looking for tidal pools or exposed sand bars. Neither of us had much luck, we even looked for areas to dig. When the tide was at it's lowest, we managed to find some treasures rolling around in the surf.  This is really working at it! You have one chance to spy it, either by color or shape, and you have to go for it with your hand or scoop....you may or may not get it, and very quickly 3 more waves have pushed it further in, or buried it under more shells or the sand.  It really was a lot of fun....and work! At one point, Hubby stumbled over some worn out fighting conchs buried in the sand under the surf and managed to dig a little and found quite a few shells that way.  I am really surprised how well we did!

Hubby's

Mine 

Hubby found some of my favorites...Horse conchs, look at that gorgeous color on the center one!

I found 2 more winged oysters!! That's a perfect score, I found at least one every day this trip....I have never seen so many! I probably have only found 4 or 5 in the almost 18 years we have been coming here. These were all very small, but I just think they are awesome, very rustic outside, with a very colorful pearl-like interior.

I didn't finish my new home project this trip, but I am documenting its progress with pictures, and hope to complete it next time! We did get some awesome gifts from our family for Christmas this year and I did get those put up.

Hubby's oldest daughter Stacey and her husband Steve gave us some wonderful pics of themselves, as did his middle daughter April and her husband Jon, a cool beachy looking frame with a family portrait with our 4 grandbabies! 

I plan on making one whole wall in our bedroom a 'family wall' and will hang them there when I get all organized. Meanwhile, they are with our most treasured pics on the bookshelf.

Stacey and Steve also gave us this awesome blown glass shell, that got it's place of honor with our signs in the den. 

Jess and Brad gave us this awesome wall hanging that we hung over our entry door, appropriate don't you think?

Our sister-in-law Maxine, gave us these cool little soap containers that, like the rest of our gifts, just happen to match our colors and decor! What a coincidence! :)

I hope you all have enjoyed the posts this trip. With a heavy heart, we will head up north early tomorrow morning, where it is at least 40 degrees cooler! ....and snow in our forecast for Monday!! <sigh>

I plan on playing with shells from this trip, so stay tuned for another post soon! BTW, our youngest daughter Jess is due in February, so expect some news and bragging soon! Thanks for tagging along!!

::Hugs::