In my first 2 posts about our weekend trip to Honeymoon Island State Park, I showed you some cool treasures we found like TURBANS, MERMAID MONEY, AGATIZED CORAL GEODES, rock art and a variety of shells… but wait! I still have a few more things I want to show you. Like the biggest KING’S CROWN we’ve ever seen! Clark found this live mollusk on the bay side of the northern tip of the island.
Of course we put him back where Clark found him after peaking at this awesome creature…
We saw a MANATEE! It’s always a bonus to see them so close to the shore and this guy wasn’t shy at all so came up to say “hi”…
On our walk back we found 2 SAND DOLLARS along with some of the other shells…and remember, it’s a 5 mile round trip- whew! I even wish we had taken more than the 100 fluid oz. we packed for the “hike”.
On Sunday, we decided to take the scenic drive back through Clearwater Beach down to Pass-A-Grille since we heard the shelling was good against the jetty rocks. All I found was my butt busting on a rock after I slipped on an unsteady chunk of the jetty. Ouch! Just like anywhere else, we could have caught it on the wrong tide or the current took all the shells out just before we got there. Ya never know.
Pass-A-Grille jetty rocks
I met a nice couple a few years ago in my shop Kirby Rambo Collections (Clark sold it for me in 2004… 4 weeks before Hurricane Charley. Talk about timing!) who showed me a bag of WORM SHELLS they collected on Fort De Soto beach. I’ve been wanting to check it out ever since so we stopped there too while passing through St Pete. We didn’t find much there either but that’s okay. It was fun to just walk the beach and see the lay of the land. Just like I tell people that visit our beaches….. the shelling changes every day on each beach. There could have been hundreds of WORM SHELLS there the day after or before we walked it. It’s the hunt that makes it fun!
Fort De Soto beach
When I was sorting through our shells when we got home, I found a few bivalves that we had collected on Honeymoon Island that were a little unusual. It might not be so pretty but this ATLANTIC FAT TELLIN which should be called the bent tellin because it has an obvious bend in the middle of it.
I think you can see the bend a little better at this angle…
Shelling Sistah Moira showed me a facebook photo last week of this same LUCINE shell in the next photo. The closest thing I found at Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum is the THICK LUCINE….. but it looks more like a worn PENNSYLVANIA LUCINE to me. I found the same shell on Honeymoon too….
Here’s the inside… some people wouldn’t think this is too pretty but for identification purposes, I have found that the interior of the shell is just as important to identify it correctly as the exterior.
I also found a very worn WHITE CRESTED TELLIN. It’s the first one I’ve ever found.
So now that I’ve shown you all of our treasures from our weekend getaway, I thought I’d throw in a few places we enjoyed other than the beaches. Unfortunately, I don’t have many pictures but we both loved the little town of Dunedin (pronounced dun-E-din). It’s one of those quant little village-y areas with funky art studios, sweet gift shops and really good restaurants and bars- most with live entertainment so you can just wander around before and after dinner to enjoy the town. Our fave restaurant was a place called Kelly’s Chicaboom- awesome! We also loved this tiny restaurant/fish market called Olde Bay Cafe at the marina.
We had a wonderful time exploring another gulf coast town of Florida that offers some beautiful and different gifts of the sea but it was time to head back over the Sunshine Skyway…
…to get home to our little island paradise. Home Sweet Home!
What a great trip! It looks like you two had a blast!
I love Thick Lucines! They are one of my favorite shells ;)
WooHoo!! We found the same shell! I still don’t know why it was in the Gulf waters, but that’s okay – it’s a great find.
And that Kings Crown!! ohmygosh – I think I would have had a heart attack if I saw that! It’s huuuuuuge! Hopefully it will make babies that grow up big and strong so we can find the shells when they are empty!
It sure sounds like you had a great celebration weekend! Thanks for sharing – I always look forward to your posts!!
The Kings Crown is my favorite shell! Awesome…
Nice King Crowns :) Will Irene have any affect on shelling at Sanibel?
Pam – I also lovelovelove the rainbow pic!
What a great trip, Pam… and very nice pics!! Love the Sunshine Skyway Bridge foto… it’s our “stairway to heaven” on the way from Tampa Airport to AMI ;-) The rainbow pic is just awesome!!
Have a wonderful weeeeeekend!!!
Pam, your trip sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing the information and beautiful pictures about a place where Alice and I have never been. I have never found agate on the beach. As for the “unknown Lucine”, your impression of a worn Pennsylvania Lucine, http://z14.invisionfree.com/Conchologist_Forum/index.php?showtopic=1625 seems good to me. The concentric ridges on the “fresh” shell are quite fragile and can easily wear off when the shell is knocking around in the surf. We find many of them in the Florida Keys, but not around Sanibel Island. The Chalky Lucine does not have the strong radial groove that your shell has.
Yes, that was a Pennsylvania Lucine, they are very common where I shell, down in the Leewards Islands. Those concentric ridges that Ken mentions are made of periostracum that is stiffened with calcium carbonate. The ridges are super fragile and crumble easily, so you rarely see them on a beached shell.
Best wishes to you
Oh, thank you MK and Susan H! I figured it couldn’t be anything else but it’s nice to have verification on new shells I find. It makes beach combing so much more interesting when new bivalves come into the picture. I have found new respect for them. Thanks!
PS- Susan, oh yes, shelling is normally pretty safe but we’ve sure had our share of injuries with this “sport”. LOL My bruises are almost gone from that spill. haha
I just came across your blog and am in love! I love everything about the beach and have been collecting shells since I was a little girl. I was looking over several posts and saw all of the wonderful different types you have found which is so neat to me because a lot of these, I’ve only seen in a gift shop! The one thing I have always wanted to find and never have been able to is a shark’s tooth (which I know isn’t technically a shell, but who doesn’t want to find one?) I love your loot of shark teeth! I absolutely adore your blog (and the i love shelling tote in your shop is adorable) and will keep checking back!
Manasota Beach for sharks teeth Venice area. For details check out the blog The essential beachcomber she has maps and collects sharks teeth also
Thanks for sharing…it looks like another beautiful place to visit.
You two are just so darn cute together. Love that bridge picture. I love going over that almost as much as I love going over the causeway. Ok Ok maybe not as much but still love it. One of these days I’ll get up there to do the walk and check out that park just for the “money”.
Janet in Arizona asks: we are starting our plans for trip late March/early April to make rservations. Is there a particular area that is better for shelling? This will decide where we get our hotel.
I’ll brmg a few of my “precious” ones from Mexico, Puerto Penasco, southwest of Phoenix to show off to you people down South.
Love your site and blog.alread getting excited about our trip.
JP
Welcome back! Thank you for sharing your journey with us. Amazing — as always! Hope you are good ‘n safe from the hurricane!
Dunedin is one of my favorite “little towns”. If you are in to fabric, a visit to Rainbow’s End is a must! They bill themselves as the largest quilt shop in FL and are located at 941 Broadway Street. You’ll be able to find fabric with shells on it! I’m trying to talk hubby into spending a night in Dunedin on our way down to Sanibel in Oct. I think I hooked him when I showed him the pictures of the agatized geodes – he loves rocks and fossils. Thanks for posting about this amazing area of the west FL coast. One day we plan to spend a few weeks just visiting all the little towns up and down the west coast. What a vacation that will be!
Hi Pam, I see you were in my neck of the woods. I was born and raised in Dunedin and live here too.My friend and I found 13 and 10 inch horse conchs on Honeymoon IIsland (see your 2010 Aug blog) Ya have to have strong legs and a strong bladder to go to end and back. The best is after a tropical storm. I love living so close to the beach. I will never move away!
Hey Kelly! the only reason we went all the way down to the end was because I reminded Clark of you huge horse conchs you and your friend found. LOL!.. which I thought you had said yall found them at the end. :) I love your town of Dunedin! It’s soooooo cute!
Very nice post Pam, great pictures, interesting to see what you found.
Sorry you slipped on a rock, your bruise is a shelling injury that I guess we all get from time to time when clambering over rocks, although generally speaking shelling is a pretty safe pursuit!
Wow- look at that Kings Crown. That was huge! Looks like you 2 had a nice, relaxing trip.