Summer Road Trip! Clark and I wanted to take a quick weekend getaway to celebrate our 15th year wedding anniversary (!) so we hopped in the car on Friday night and headed north on I-75 with no reservations and no time restraints. We first heard about Honeymoon Island a few years ago so we set our radar for somewhere in that vicinity. After a 2 1/2 hour drive, we ended up at the Best Western Yacht Harbor Inn in Dunedin, Florida just in time for sunset.
After a big breakfast Saturday morning and a 10 minute drive, we were ready to seek and explore Anniversary Island…. whoops…. I mean, Honeymoon Island.
Unfortunately, there’s only parking on the south side of the island but we wanted to get to the north tip…. so we started our beach combing journey 2.5 miles to the north tip and right away found CHESTNUT TURBANS in between the rocks.
And more Turbans…..
This is only a pittance of what we found and we could have brought home a gazillion…
Since we were seeing oodles and oodles of these TURBANS, I started looking for their operculums called SHIVA SHELLS or CAT’S EYES or even called MERMAID MONEY. This is what they look like…
Once we got the eye (no pun intended- ha!) for them, they were everywhere. Can you find them in this next picture? Click on the photo if you want to enlarge it for virtual SHIVA SHELLING…
They look like albino split peas to me and just about the same size averaging about 3/8 of an inch.
Here’s a photo with a TURBAN so you can see the size a bit better…
Pretty cool, huh? I have so much more to show you so this is just Part One of our weekend trip because I can’t wait another second to tell you who won the Susick Sea Shell Sifter ! …….Drum roll Please!
The random winner of the Susick Sea Shell Sifter GiveAway is Kelli G.! Congratulations Kelli G and thanks to all of yall for your comments to enter!
Coming Soon- Road Trip To Honeymoon Island Florida – Part 2
Oh, so glad you made it here! Hope you went to Bon Appetit for Dinner and enjoyed downtown Dunedin. Don’t forget to go to Captiva but I have always found my
best shells on North Honeymoon Island!
Wendy
Happy Anniversary to you both!!!
Where is Honeymoon Island?
My favorite island – tranquil, secret beach. I frequently have it to myself when I go, so I’m not sure I should tell you :-) It’s the local’s beach, or at least those who can’t stand the crowds at Clearwater Beach. Seriously, though, it is between Dunedin and Palm Harbor on the west coast of Florida.
Happy Anniversary Pam and Clark.
Beautiful pics as always…I love all of the Turbans and operculums (those look really cool). Virtual shelling is always fun. Can’t wait to see part 2 of your trip!
I am so ready for a trip to Florida!
Congratulations on 15 years together! Can’t wait to see more on your trip to Honeymoon Island.
And congratulations to Kelli G. on winning the shell sifter! (I promise I won’t pout too long)
I’m inspired by your writing and hope to plan a trip to “Honeymoon Island” in the future. Love the photos! Thanks Pam!
Pam and Clark – Happy 15th Anniversary!! Love the virtual shelling!! And, congrats to Kelli G. – you will love the shell sifter! Ask Clark to put his magic touch on it!!
Happy anniversary! I discovered honeymoon island and Caladesi 4 years ago. I was just there on Friday. A long walk to the north end and some digging around the rocks delivered some goodies. I’ll post a picture of my hall. I’ll be heading to Sanibel tomorrow. I would love to buy some of your I love shelling merchandise. How do I go about doing a pick up when I’ll be on the island?
I’ll email you!
You are still practically newlyweds!
Happy anniversary!
Happy Anniversary Pam & Clark !!! Wishing you many more years of love & happiness !!!!
Thanks again for the all the info on Honeymoon Island , so going to do a little web surfing about it . Can we say road trip for next July ? Never to early to start my itinerary for next year … LOL !
Congratulations Kelli G. !!!!!!
You and Clark came north to our neck of the woods while we were down in your neck of the woods. Funny. Isn’t Honeymoon Island nice? One of my faves. :) I’m always finding the operculums around here… I have cute little medicine bottles filling up with them and the other teeny weeny shells my eyes prefer to fixate upon. If I had known you would have been in this area I would have tried to find you to give you all the wormys I’ve found around here. Oh well… next time!
Happy Anniversary to you and Clark. Thanks for sharing your pix with us!
Isn’t it wonderful…..we love the Black Pearl !!!!! Duneden….We make a trip there every year…..for the shelling AND the Pearl !!!!!!
Happy Anniversary…..we are headed to Sanibel…soon….will watch your site for good shelling spots…:) marcy
Congratulations on 15 years together. I love to hear of other people’s anniversaries., especially the long ones. Gives one hope.
Love virtual shelling…..love….counting down to actual shelling….Oct here I come!!
Awesome photos and shelling! Happy anniversary to you both. And congrats to Kelli G on winning the Susick Sifter! T.
Happy Anniversary to you & Clark!! Looks like you chose the perfect place for your time away.
Hope you’re having a lovely week :O)
Hugs,
Marie
How awesome is that=I never seen the round shells before. Glad you had a great time.
Pam! I can’t believe you were here at Honeymoon while I was in Sanibel…so crazy. My boss Kelly was telling me, ‘look for Pam while you’re in Sanibel’ which I did of course but I guess I will have to stalk you again next time im there ;)
Looks like Honeymoon was nice for you. I remember the first time I went and found all of those turbans I was so pumped! And my husband picks up all those operculums, they are pretty neat. Anyway I’m glad you had a good time in my neck of the woods. Have a great week!
Oh my God …I want to go to honeymoon Island now…I could make the best jewelry box with those shells…Congratulations on your Anniversary..I just love this website makes my da!!!!!
Happy anniversary, Pam and Clark! Here’s to 15 more years of bliss. And the shells are way cool. I see another seashell mirror project in your future… :)
Pam & Clark, Happy Anniversary. Sounds like you had a nice trip with finding lots of goodies.
Lee & Bill
Congratulations to you and Clark. It’s much more challenging at times to make marriage work then it is to throw in the towel. I LOVE your site and can’t wait to go back to Santiva to shell.
How low was the tide when you were at Honemoon Island? Do you find a new moon better than a full moon for shelling? Depending on the weather and the tides I will be back there on August 28th or September 12th.
Wishing you many more incredible years together and shelling.
P.S. Would you consider selling some of your photos? You have an amazing eye.
Hi Cindy, Thank you! And Heck yeah I’d like think about selling some of my photos. I haven’t done it in the past but this economy is sure getting to us. I’ll email you.
I’m also interested in purchasing photo’s – especially sand pipers! Maybe even just a jpeg to print on canvas. I know you mentioned it before – but what is a good camera for using at the beach with high humidity and sand?
Thanks! Marilyn
What a beautiful place! And to think all I got for my 15th anniversary was a card! : )
Love Honeymoon Island and Caladesi,too.Hope you made it to Ft.DeSoto,too.Great place for the huge SunRay Venus,Sand Dollars,and in the winter you can find the Golden Olives there.I’ve heard they’re rarer than Junonias.Found mine there.
Happy Anniversary Pam & Clark. Nice operculum images!
Happy Anniversary! Believe a lot of your friends well be checking out the island.
Congrats on 15 years and here is to many, many more!!!
Congrats, Pam & Clark! Isn’t Duneden a neat town? Did you see any men in kilts? Their piper bands rock!
Loved the virtrual shelling pix and, as always, sunsets over the gulf can’t be beat.
One of these days…
Congratulations. My husband and I just had our 45th on the 11th. We’ve lived on Sand Key, just south of Clearwater Beach for 40yrs and would you believe, have never been to Honeymoon or Caladesi. Your operculums make me want to go. Dunedin is great. I’m teaching a class this fall on Sailor Valentines, paperweights and pocket watches using the teeny shells, at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. Class begins Sept. 13th. If you know of anyone who might like to take my class, please give them my email address. Read your blog every day and love it. Regards, Caryl
What a way to celebrate your special day, congrats Pam & Super Clark. Love those chestnut turbans. Checked the website for the park and would love to go there but it looks like a lot of walking. Just finished my last knee injections today, just hoping I can get the rest of my leg to work. Hope your mom is OK after the earthquake and next will be Irene.
Happy Anniversary to you both!!!
Happy anniversary, Pam & Clark!!!! I LOVE Honeymoon Island… x-mas 2007 was our last visit. It was really peaceful… great place for a loooong beach walk… finding big Sanddollars… watching dolphins. love the swing at the beach entrance :-)
Have a great time!! Jutta
Happy Anniversary Pam and Clark! Thanks for identifying the operculums. I have been to Honeymoon Island a few times and collected those but thought they were some sort of worn down snail. Hope you enjoyed your anniversary at that beautiful place and have many more.
Pam, Have you taken the trip out to Caladesi Island yet? It’s worth the boat trip!
Pam
can you be more specific about where you parked and where you went. Thanks and Happy Anniversary. We reached our 42nd – not sure we could walk 5 miles round trip on the beach.
sure wish I could see your pictures slightly larger>>> they are great!
Nice shivas!
My daughter in law and I walked from the Regatta on Clearwater past Caladese island to the very tip facing Honeymoon island and around the far side till we ran out of beach 51/2 hrs later we couldn’t carry the buckets of turbons back. 2 days later we took the ferry from Honeymoon Island to Caladese, 1/2 hour round trip lol