Our shelling adventure this week was absolutely SHELLTABULOUS! It may have been unseasonably chilly but we found lots of shells, shells, shells conveniently right in front of our hotel Island Inn Resort… our exshellent hosts for Shellabaloo 4.
We had great times getting to know each other during our yummy meals together by taking turns telling our other Shellabalooers about ourselves, our shelling stories and what shells are on our bucket list. Shellers are such interesting people!! We had an Olympic athlete, a winery owner, a nurse, an engineer and a bakery owner just to name a few of these amazing folks.
Then we shelled, shelled, shelled together while this cold weather brought piles of shells to the shore for us.
We had the pleasure of getting a behind the scenes tour of the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum by none other than the museum’s curator Dr. Jose Leal.
Not one person in our group wanted to miss this event. His talk was so impressive!
Then we shelled, shelled, shelled again. Nancy found a nice shell pile to finally do that awesome sit ‘n sift.
Here is Nancy (on the right) with our beautiful hostess who organized this wonderful event at the Island Inn… Blanaid. Thank you so much, Shelling Sistah!
Thank you so much, Shelling Sistah Blanaid for putting together delicious overstuffed sandwiches, fruit, chips, salad and desert for our lunches. We worked up such an appetite each morning finding shells! Here are Rick, Bette, Angela and Conne enjoying good food and good company…
Then we hit the beach again for more shelling, shelling, shelling…
This had to be the biggest 5 minutes of the whole week for Sarah The Shellanimal. Yes, this chick is an animal at shelling! She has such a keen eye for shells, she found all 3 of these shells within 5 minutes at Blind Pass Sanibel. She knew immediately that the shell on the left was unusual. Yes it is! That’s a beautifully perfect Rock Shell! We’ve only found a few over the years so I would call that a rare find. Congratshellations, Sarah The Shellanimal! LOL
This is Sarah and her husband Will (Kentucky) all cleaned up for dinner one night. Such fun peeps.
Will found a little honey hole with MUREXES, WHELKS and even a CARRIER SHELL at Lighthouse Beach digging around those concrete blocks.
He made all of our other shellers VERY happy since he isn’t much of a collector in the miniature shells “department” so he scooped up buckets of shells over and over to let everybody sift through to find WENTLETRAPS, BUTTONS, DRILLS and so many other little cuties. How about this… his new nick name is Good Will Shelling. :)
The shelling, shelling, shelling continued for Linda (Land O Lakes, Florida) on top of shell mountain. A fresh new pile!
This is Linda with her sweetie Jerry… who by the way has a very keen shelling eye too. (I’ve got his shell photos coming soon!)
There were quite a few STARFISH like the MILLEPEDE SEA STAR that washed up on the beach with the shells. Ron found this one and realized it was still alive so he gently returned it to the Gulf Of Mexico. Cool!
Here is Ron and his lovely bride Cheryl who traveled from Maryland to be with us on the shelling hunt.
Sweet Suzanne loooooves the mini shells so she was happy to find several nice “mini” shell lines on our trip to Cayo Costa (more pics soon from our Captiva Cruise boat trip!)
This is Suzanne and her husband Bill who traveled from Iowa to shell with us…
I introduced Kris, Kristin and Cheryl in my last post but you will see more photos of our cruise to Cayo Costa and of course …. our Shell ‘n Tell!
But… before then, I’d like for you to join us just for a few minutes. I took a short video of those shells washing up on the beach while we were sifting. Enjoy!
Truly looks like a great time is being had by all!
can’t wait till able to be on Sanibel again.
Omgosh!! That looks like the concrete footing where I found my ginormous lightening whelk last October!! The shells like to get caught there!
Sweet. Definitely on my bucket list to attend a Shellabaloo someday. ;-)
who was the olympic athlete and what sport? that would be interesting to hear more about.
Also i just noticed, but you have a “left handed” queen conch (photo reversed?) in your logo/banner for the I Love Shelling Pages.
Steve, sorry it took me so long to respond… Ron was our GOLD MEDAL Olympic athlete. I asked him how many medals he has won and Cheryl said “too many to count”. His sport is senior volleyball!!!
After over 4 years, u r the first to ask me that about my banner… Lol… Yes, I reversed the image to make it fit. That’s when I first started doing graphics and had just learned what a “blog” even was. We’ve come a long way baby! I’ve thought of changing it but it’s like an old friend to me now. :)
In the tray of shells at the top, I see that Betty from North Carolina (as well as all her other loot) found an Atlantic false jingle: it’s above the olives and the chestnut turban, and right between the egg cockle and the small lightning whelk. I only find one or two of those on each trip, so it’s pretty uncommon. It looks like a very “thick and crusty” jingle shell.
Here is a link to the BMSM image; usually the shells look prettier than this one:
http://shellmuseum.org/shells/shelldetails.cfm?id=198
Yes! I told her thats what she found! cool, huh? I only have one or two too but it doesn’t look much like a “pretty” shell but it looks better than the one in the link for sure.
Ha ha, yes! I think they are cool. They all look sorta like a potato chip, but they are smoother on the inside and with nicer colors, like greenish or purplish. One day maybe if we find enough perhaps we can donate some of the prettier ones to the museum! Although I have never yet found a pair of attached valves of this false jingle; that would be cool… :)
Right! When I find thy double. They need a replacement hahah
What beautiful pictures. The joy on everyone’s faces is contagious. It is so awesome that you, Pam, and the Island Inn Resort host the Shellabaloos! The behind the scenes tour of the Bailey Matthews Shell Museum looks fantastic!
Happy Shelling!!
Looks like a fabulous week. Hope to join sometime going forward.
Wow, must have been a great week. Love all the pictures!
Another shellin’ Engineer – good deal, join the crowd ;) Looks like you all had a good time at ‘Boo 4.