Sanibel Morn

Another beautiful morning in paradise.  Hubby decided to sleep in so I went to Sanibel solo this morning, the shelling was ok, but the views continued to impress.  I will clean the shells we have tomorrow just to show you what we have.

Love the colors this morning....notice the bright crescent moon, looks almost like a typical Florida postcard, don't you think?

This morning's greeting came from a squadron of pelicans in nearly perfect formation...

The sunrise was once again beautiful and nearly on fire!

Live was the theme again this morning, like this bright sea star....

 Lightning Whelk egg cases were all over the beach this morning, quite a few more than yesterday.

 These ibis were very bold in their mating colors....they almost look painted!

We spent a lot of time today working on projects at home, and when we sat down for lunch we got to see 'Big Bubba' ! I would guess he was 5 or 6 feet long. He was in the pond behind our house.....Lily, our chihuahua will not be spending time out back!!

I went and checked on our owl neighbors, and the 'babies' were still hanging out together on a different branch.....

....While Mom or Dad watched from the next tree....

I have to say, this trip has shown us so much wildlife! I love it!!!

Hopefully I will have some shell pics for you tomorrow along with all the wildlife!! Stay tuned!

For now, come along on the stroll with me this morning, sit back and just relax.....

::Hugs::

Final day in Paradise...for now!

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire. ~François VI de la Rochefoucault

We are back home to 'real life' after our great week in paradise and I felt like I had left some of you wondering how the last day went....No, alas, I did not find my alphabet cone.  But there is always next time, and that is just one more thing to look forward to! I did give it a great effort though and the shelling was actually pretty good! 

I had continued shelling to the west, and decided to turn around and head back to Gulfside park as it was producing some nice minis the first time through, and the tide was continuing to drop.  When I turned around and headed that direction, I noticed a group of people gathered...as I suspected Pam and Clark Rambo were out there, and they are such ambassadors of Sanibel, they visit with everyone they meet and share stories!

Gulfside park had lots of minis and they were obviously rolling in during this tide, as usual, you just needed to be at the right place at the right time!  Clark actually picked up a small alphabet as soon as he got there this same evening, on the same beach I was combing.  It's all about being at the right place at the right time! Look at these amazing finds he picked up in about 30 minutes!

It was a beautiful evening, and I really couldn't have enjoyed it more!

I had noticed these Ibis and wondered about the differences in color from the ordinary white ibis we had seen and after some research I found out that these are just very young white Ibis.  They start out brown with pale orange beaks and legs and will mature into the pure white ibis with the bright pink beaks and feet! How unusual is that? Somehow that seems sort of backwards to me! What do you think?

Here are the young Ibis...

Here is a mature ibis...

Here is the resident Great Egret behind our house in Ft. Myers.....I couldn't resist the opportunity to get a couple more pictures of him!

This adventure is ending, but another one will begin again soon, College Football begins next weekend, so we will switch to tailgating mode!  We will go from the Gulf, to the Blueridge Mountains!  Go Hokies!! 

Stay Tuned!

::Hugs::

Cheri

An Exciting end to the day!

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. ~John Burroughs

We worked around the house again today and then to Sanibel Fish House for an early dinner with plans to head to the beach for the end of the day.  The Fish House did not disappoint, I had the shrimp basket and Hubby had the oysters, of course you have to end the meal with a piece of shared key lime pie!

We headed over to Gulfside City Park and noticed the Gulf was once again very clear with a few small waves....unfortunately the shells once again were pretty scarce.  However the temperature was amazing, and I love to watch the birds along the shore and flying overhead and just take everything in around me! Beach therapy is the best therapy I know of!

Someone had gotten very creative down towards Casa Ybel...

A place to sit and watch TV!

A dinosaur! (I think)

As the sun began to set, Hubby and I noticed some small shells rolling along in the surf and we managed to pick up a few...the water was clear, you just had to be patient and wait for the wave to clear to see. We ended up doing okay..

Hubby's finds

My finds

Hubby found a small golden olive!! That is a fairly rare find!!

...and he found a PINK juvenile fighting conch!

 Of course, I can always find some pretty scallops!!

As we were getting ready to leave, we were passing a group of fishermen, we heard one of the reels begin to spin....turned around and saw this young guy had quite a fish at the end of his line!

We stood there for several minutes watching, and he drew quite a crowd before it was over! After 10-15 minutes we began to see the result of his fight.

A ~5 foot shark...someone mentioned a lemon shark, I know it was really beautiful!
Here are a couple of videos I took of him catching it, then releasing it!

During this time, I turned around and managed to catch my AWWWW of the day with some beautiful color behind the palms of Gulfside City Park.

Today is our last day, :(  ...not sure of our plans, but maybe one more shelling journey to share?!

::Hugs::

Cheri

Finally....relaxation!

Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer ~William S. Burroughs

We have finally learned to relax and take it easy, it seems funny to me that it took nearly a week for all of us to do so, and we all hit that mode at the same time!!

Brad chose to read while in the pool

We teased him because he would walk around while reading, I just floated around the pool! :)

Hubby and I also love to sit on the beach

ahhhhhh just slow methodical waves

...Watching Ibis feed

.....and pelicans fish

...and Frigates soar!! 

 Hubby did it!! No, he didn't find a Junonia but he decided to take a seat anyway in the tidal pool to do some digging! He says he has done it before, but I don't remember it at all! I was very excited that he chose to 'get with the program' and be comfortable while doing the extreme shelling (notice the glove)! Unfortunately it didn't pay off as well today.  The 'honey hole' we found yesterday ran out. 

Jess picked up this pen shell that had an inhabitant with the shells

She decided to get creative with my waterproof camera...how about this for a cool shot?! See the crab?

Here he is from another view!

Jess also found this cool looking Brittle Star while digging

 Hubby and Jess left the area because the shelling was not so good, but Brad and I were persistent and continued digging in the same area, and finally found another spot that seemed promising when we got chased in by a thunderstorm! Brad went back out after the storm, but it was soon dark and he couldn't find the exact same spot again.  We are going to have to investigate this further tomorrow night, we have another couple of nights of really low tides, although they are getting into the night now! But we are determined!

We ended up doing pretty well! Hubby found a BEAUTIFUL King's crown in a pen shell on his way back up the beach!! It's one of the prettiest I've seen and it's HUGE!!

Hubby and My finds

BEAUTIFUL King's crown

I got another Alphabet Cone!

Brad and Jess did well too!!

Pear Whelks, King's Crowns, and even a sand dollar and Sea Urchin!!

Brad also got more of his favorite nutmegs, tulips and an Alphabet cone!

...and lots of minis!

We had another great day in paradise! Thanks for coming along with us!

::Hugs::

Cheri