An East Coast Adventure!

Cheri and I met through a facebook page called the Shellinators. It's a group of avid shellers who share their finds, and it has grown very large. Cheri and I are administrators for this group along with 9 others. Most of us 'talk' daily but haven't met in person, we had planned on as many as possible getting together in February, but unfortunately I was unable to make it. I did get to get together with 2 other admins, who hadn't headed home yet, Cindy and Liz.  

According to many posts on the Shellinators, there had been great shelling on the East Coast of Florida, Cindy, Cheri and Liz had been and had a great trip, so Cindy and Cheri decided to take me during the very quick trip that I had in Ft. Myers! 

So off we went, on another adventure! Road Trip!!!  The first thing I noticed, was the color of the water! These pictures don't do it justice, but believe me, it was an awesome tropical turquoise...

It was so different than anything I was used to...there were lots of rocks on the beach, and Coral everywhere! Of course, I came home with a bucket of pieces that I will have to clean up....I just couldn't resist!

There were so many BIG pieces of Large shells....

Like Cindy said, it was like being on another planet!  

Cindy and Cheri immediately went to a large pile of rocks and began looking around each one, almost instantly Cindy came up with this Beauty!!!

Obviously a cone, very similar to an Alphabet Cone but HUGE and much flatter on the top! Such a special find!!!

(I am still in search of an accurate Seashell Identification of many of the shells we found....)

Not long after that she found 2....yes...2...Scotch Bonnets!!

I'd say Cindy absolutely hit the jackpot...already!!!

I found a few Thorny Oysters...but not much else...

So....Cheri began scooping shells out of the surf and dumping them on the beach for us to go through, we found so many amazing things, a lot of which we had not seen before!

She found an awesome Helmet....

and this amazing Murex...and a tiny Nerite (I believe)

and laying right there on the beach, I picked up this Awesome Triton!!!!

Cindy and I plopped down in the sand, and Cheri basically brought us scoops from the surf to go through...how about that for service?!

I found what I believe is a Long spined star shell

 Both Cindy and Cheri picked up these Cowries...

 Cheri found a Cabrit's Murex, we found several of these through the day...they are very rare in Sanibel...

 Cheri also found a small Scotch Bonnet with an amazing tip....

 I believe this is a Beaded Periwinkle and a Flamingo tongue!

 Another Cabrit's for Cheri...

I found several of these Milk Moon Shells...obviously a close cousin to a shark's eye...

Cindy found another, smaller Cone....

I found this tiny little top shell....

Speaking of tiny...Cheri found this tiny Scotch Bonnet...

We also found several Rose Murex....

 Such fun....and so much to see!!! I also have a collection of minis that I am trying to identify, that will have to be another post!

Cheri recognized another couple of Shellinators there and they came up and talked to us, Tatiana and Clint. Clint had been posting some awesome finds on facebook, and found some more today....

 He had found both sides of a Thorny Oyster, a beautiful orange Horse Conch, a Fighting Conch and an Awesome Queen Conch!

 In just a few minutes he also found this awesome Vase Shell....

Tatiana came back and GAVE us some of their special finds....a beautiful Cowrie, a huge golden Cabrit's Murex and a Sundial!! How awesome is that?! Such special finds, and they shared them with us!

We talked with them for a long time, and they shared some amazing stories of their finds, as well as some suggestions of places for us to go....these are some awesome Shellinators! So glad to meet them both, and we hope our paths will cross again one day!

I so enjoyed this trip, and getting to know Cindy....this is a trip that we plan on doing again one day...Cindy will be heading home, but we have a plan to do this again!

Cheri, Cheri (me) & Cindy

Stay tuned....

::Shelllady Hugs::

Early Morning Tides in the Dark

Team Cheri got back together for 2 early morning shelling adventures.  I love these trips, so much to see! I think it would be a little bit freaky by yourself, because it is VERY dark, ...

but oh so beautiful! I love to see all the life out there....Like these tiny Sand Dollars....they were about the size of Quarters and Dimes....they were EVERYWHERE!

We also saw live Olives...

and of course Lightning Whelks of every size and Color!

...and Sea Stars....like this Millipede Sea Star...

and this Orange Ridged Starfish.

We saw a few Sea Urchins...

and OH so many Egg Casings....from every type of shell you could imagine! It must be Spring time on Sanibel!

I can't miss taking pics of these awesome little Calico Crabs...

This guy was peeking at us from a small tidal pool...

and this guy, hiding in this shell that ....loved these tiny claws sticking out of this shell that was obviously too big for him!

We had a couple days of pretty stiff winds...including this morning, so there was lots of vegetation washing up as well....you had to look closely so you wouldn't miss anything...Look closely and you should see a Banded Tulip and Nutmeg...

These pretty True Tulips were pretty easy to spot, they were neon orange!

 Almost Twins...

This nice True Tulip was just laying there, waiting for me to pick it up! Look at the colors of it, it has a nice orange tip!!

Cheri found this nice dark Alphabet Cone...

I found one also, ...in one of Cheri's footprints!!

Who could resist this Gaudy Nautica?..

There were lots of beauties hiding in groups in the sand....like this trio of Banded Tulips....one of them was in excellent shape...

There is a nice little Shark's Eye in this group....see it?

We saw some beautiful Sunrises too....

As usual we had a great time exploring, walking and talking....such great therapy and Always an adventure....and we went home with some treasures!

Cheri's finds...for one of the days....

My finds....sorry, not great focus! :/

Cheri found this awesome Violet colored Fighting Conch on the walk back....

and I found this weird jaw of a fish....

I got to meet a couple of people in person that I have chatted with online for many months...and had a couple more adventures! 

Stay tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::