Shell trip! Clark and I took a beach combing road trip from Sanibel Island to Pass-A-Grille over the weekend … and had blast finding lots of shells. We found all of the shells in this next photo as we walked from our hotel Inn On The Beach, down to the south tip of the island at jetty rocks to the Pass-a-Grill North Channel.
It was like an OLIVE garden just at the water’s edge but we even found some of my faves…. WORMIES.
There were lots of shells to pick through on the gorgeous beach as well…
I was tickled to find a teeny tiny BROWN-BANDED WENTLETRAP hiding in the mix.
There is an island right across the channel from the jetty rocks called “Shell Island”. What? Shell Island? Of course we had to explore it! There are ferries to take people over to the island but since we wanted to spend all day on the water, we rented a boat. Look at the color of the fabshellous LIGHTNING WHELKS we found. Gorgeous!
We actually had more luck on the back flats of Shell Island instead of the beach on the Gulf Of Mexico side. There were lots of those empty LIGHTNING WHELKS, oodles of double SUNRAY VENUS shells and some really funny live KINGS CROWNS scooting all along shallow waters so I did a little time lapse video of one of them to show you. Ha! Groovy KING CROWN dance moves coming up….
So in between the KINGS CROWN congo, Clark found one of the prettiest orange colored LIGHTNING WHELKS we’ve ever seen. It is really the color of a carrot!
Ok- I took another video too of all of those empty LIGHTNING WHELKS. I couldn’t believe my eyes!
We also boated over to Egmont Key to find a beautiful sandy beach island.
We didn’t find as many shells on Egmont Key but we found a couple of ROSEATE SPOONBILL FEATHERS. Ohhhhh such treat to find these pink feathers!
At the end of the day, we sat our on our lovely porch to admire all of the beautiful colors and patterns of so many different shells we ended up finding.
We had a lovely time shelling and then relaxing in our beautiful room at Inn On The Beach.
Not a bad way to celebrate our 19 year wedding anniversary, huh?
Happy Anniversary! My first Gulf of Mexico experience was at St. Pete Beach and I instantly fell in love. We took a charter to Egmont Key. There was tons of shells there then, but my favorite was the sting rays everywhere! I did the shuffle and was amazed at how the glided over my feet & I didn’t even know they were there. This was in October of 2012, it was mating season.
Thanks Gina- We saw the rays too! I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough to photograph them though… but they were so beautiful
Happy Anniversary!
Happy Shellanniversary Pam and Clark!! Lovely shells and get-away! xo
Fun thing to do on Egmont Key: see all the gopher tortoises wandering around on the big “lawn” by the lighthouse.
That island is known by locals as “Shell Key”, you can take a shuttle boat there for about $25.
Happy Anniversary.
Such beautiful shells for you and Clark on your anniversary! Thanks for taking us “up north” :)
Happy anniversary! What beautiful shells! Where is this beach located,I’ve never heard of it?
Thanks for the videos! We’ve been to Shell Key a couple of times on our vacations in SW Florida. The first trip was the day after Tropical Storm Isaac swept through and left us a lot of great shells! Our second trip was early July of this year–not much to find since there had not been any storms for quite a while. We did see some manta rays. Next time we’ll head for the backside of the key–so calm and inviting! Happy Anniversary to you and Clark!
Pretty pretty!
Fun fun!
Ed and I are in Southern California for two and a half weeks, back to NYC on Thursday.
Managed to find a few species I never found here before, as well as about 50 I have found here before. :)
I shared your article on: I Love Pass a Grille fb group page. Love shelling for over 40 years. Free therapy!
Happy Anniversary to you and Clark. What great shell gifts the sea gave you! I have never heard of these places nor have I seen them on a map. Please let us know how to get there. The videos were great, too. Thanks.
Beautiful shells for a beautiful couple! Happy Anniversary. Love the videos.
What a wonderful Anniversary trip! Loved the pic of you both with all of your fantastic shells! Thanks for sharing.
Karen
Happy anniversary Pam and Clark. What a fantastic place to go to celebrate with an added bous of finding some great shells! still can’t watch the videos. pat
Oh no pat. I can’t figure it out yet. Grrrrr so please visit my YouTube channel as the all my videos are in one spot there so at least u can see the latest. I’m so bummed about this. I’m not giving up though so hang in with me?
Happy annivershelly!!
Happy Aniversarry to You and Clak
Thank you so much for the Video and always sharring your wonderful adventures with us
We all so appreciateit so very much
Ingrid
Pam, thruout your blog, all I could think of was that you & Clark spent your Anniversary doing what you both love best !! How awesome is that?! More memories involved around love for each other and your love of shelling!!
CONGRATS to you both❤️
love to shell too, I am thinking of moving to florida just to shell and meet people like you guys- had a home in fort myers, live in n.j. tell me where I would find the best place to go shelling and go on your cruses. I sale alot of pictures. mirrors, like to go to captiva and sanible.
Happy Anniversary and thanks for sharing your shelling adventures! Always so glad to see them!!
Your happiness shines in the eyes of both of you. Happy Anniversary. What a lovely shellabration. Thanks so much for sharing with us out here in cyberland.
What a great way to spend your anniversary. One more place for my bucket list. The video’s make it so inviting. Congratulations!!
I think the dark brown lighting whelks are my favorites!
Pam! Loved the photos and video! Hearing the swishing of clearing out the sand from the lightning whelks, hearing them clack together in your hand brought back wonderful memories of our time on the island last dec/jan… Thanks for sharing your treasure finds with us.
Happy Anniversary by the way!
Looks like you hit the jackpot on your anniversary – good for you and glad you had such a wonderful time. Since it is my understanding that summer is less favorable for shelling due to calmer wind conditions, etc., I am suitably impressed with the great “haul” of shells you got. However, I suspect that the number and variety of shells is still weather-dependent. From what you say, it seems that the beach and Shell Island were both very good places to find a high quality, quantity, and variety of shells. Is Shell Island such a good place because this island is west-east oriented rather than north-south oriented, as is Sanibel? I will add this beach an island as one of my destinations for the next time I come down. Someone else mentioned Egmont Key – the map I found indicates that it is a north-south, however, so on the whole, I would expect Shell Key to be the more productive locale. Other than Sanibel and Captiva, Cayo Costa and Big Hickory, and this location, are there other places in the area which are particularly good destinations?
Happy Anniversary! It always intrigues me as to why there are, for instance, mainly only Kings Crowns and Whelks on a beach and another time there might be mainly lots of Olives and/or other kinds of shells. Hmmm. Anyway, I always say this but I love your photos and your videos and I do live vicariously through you. Shelling is such an addictive hobby–the fresh air, the cool/warm water, the heat of the sun, the thrill of the hunt etc. It’s all so wonderful!
Happy belated anniversary to both of you. You two never age, always looking good. Just maybe we might have to stop there on our way down to Sanibel. My daughter is coming down with her boyfriend,a new sheller. I told him to go to your blog to watch & learn about shelling.
I am not sure if you made some changes to the site or if I fiddled, but I opened today to fab colors and great sized pics…easy to read, etc. wonderful….spectshellular!
Happy Anniversary!!! Me and my hubby love shelling at Passagrille Beach in the pass. You found some great ones!!!! Kuddos!! Stay safe from the storm.
-Nicki
Just read your shelling experience. I just started shelling this year and have become hooked! We are northerners heading to St. Petersburg for the winter and cannot wait to experience the shelling phenomena at Passe-a-Grill. Please advise what time of day should I head over there?
Regards
Terry McDonald
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
as usual all your pictures were beautiful, the welks my favorites were outstanding and the worms and urchins just everything you show all of us are great thank you so much and happy anniversary to both of you. i’ll be there next week for about four or five months and I hope to get to see you then -keep up the great work I love it sincerely r.g.stein
I am thinking of moving to Pass a Grille. I used to live on the ocean at Indialantic Beach, in Brevard county. That was 45 years ago! My dad owned a mom and pop motel. I loved it there! If I’m ever going to move the time is now! I’m sure the people are nice. I guess it’s just scary moving all alone. Especially being a female. I’m not sure if I could take the hot weather in the summer though?
Kathy W.