Oh, how I love to hang out with so many cool shellers on our shelling trips with Captiva Cruises boating to the island of Cayo Costa!
Then to be welcomed by our favorite treasures… sea shells!
Or maybe I should say “Whelkcomed” by sea shells. Andy from England found an absolutely gorgeous WHELK at the waters edge just as he rounded the south tip of the island … probably only 10 minutes after we landed the boat. Shellzam! His wife Gill was more interested in finding the minis…
She was thrilled to find two WHITE CRESTED TELLINS, a FALSE ANGEL WING and filled her mini bag with other sweet miniature shells. After I took this picture, she told me she found another WHITE CRESTED TELLIN as well.
Besides seeing everybody get excited about finding really fun shells on the iLoveShelling cruises to Cayo Costa, the treasures that I take home with me are the memories of the people I get to meet. If you’ve ever read any of the comments on my posts here on my blog, you will probably recognize the name Pat Bradley. She was on this trip with us with her husband Arthur. Thank you Shelling Sistah Pat for joining us- it was such a treat to meet you in person…and thank you so much for so many wonderful comments!
AND…. Two other gals you might recognize from the comment section. Shelling Sistahs Diane From Tucson and Charlotte From Tucson joined us. Doesn’t “Shellotte” ring a bell? LOL They are both showing off their Olive Shell String Bracelets they made from my video…but actually Shellotte decided to use a SLIPPER SHELL instead since it had the perfect holes in it. I love these girls! Thank you for coming and being such a part of iLoveShelling.
Carrie from Wisconsin told me that she really wanted to find a SAND DOLLAR so I told her the area they have been found before. An hour later she had a smile from ear to ear when she came up to me to show me that she found one perfect SAND DOLLAR. After she told me that her grandparents used to love to collect SAND DOLLARS and show them to her when she was young, I understood completely why it made her so happy to find just one. Glad you found the perfect SAND DOLLAR Carrie!
Another lucky sheller, found this one…
I think most shellers have some connection to the beach and collecting shells through our memories. For each of us there is a different shell that has deep meaning or fills a special place in our hearts. Suzi from England showed me that she found a broken ANGEL WING but really wished that she had found a whole one. I started walking back to the boat with her and Brendan (from Ireland) as we both looked down and… you guessed it… a perfect ANGEL WING was laying right in our path. Seriously, there was nobody in front of us that could have placed it there. We both looked at each other in amazement then broke out laughing.
I know Krisitin (Kansas) was just as amazed when she scooped up this ALPHABET CONE that rolled up in the surf. Nice!
It was a BABY’S EAR kind of day too. I spotted a few BABYS EARS along one of the shell lines so I showed some folks what to look for…
They started to find them on their own. Mary (Wisconsin) found this nice sized one.
Donna (Oklahoma) found a nice one…
Sue from Fort Myers found one too and was very prepared to keep it safe.
She brought a nice little container with a lid to keep her breakables safe. She said she found them 10 for a dollar at the local dollar store. Aha! Pretty cheap investment to keep your shells from breaking and organized.
Margaret from Indiana found a variety of shells but the double SUNRAY VENUS clams were her favorite along with a FIGHTING CONCH with a gorgeous coloration.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Nancy (CA) again. We spent 4 awesome days shelling and hanging out together at Shellabaloo 3 last August  so I was excited to see her back again while she was visiting her friend Terry from Fort Myers. Thank you for joining us Nancy and Terry- it was so much fun!
Super Sheller Clark joined us too! It’s always so much fun to have Clark with us since he gives a whole different view point of shelling in the water. He gave tips for using the shelling net and “backhoe” and kept us entertained with his stories.
The morning fog quickly burned off after the sun appeared but it made for a beautiful boat ride on the way to the island.
We were lucky to have passed by dozens of DOLPHINS ….
As always, our shelling adventure turned into a beautiful day with beautiful friends.
With lots of shells to comb through…
and lots of sweet sea shells to treasure forever.
Since most people that were looking for BABYS EARS on this trip found them, I thought you might like to look for one too. I always tell everybody to be patient and look through some of the seaweed lines for treasure too. It may not be the prettiest area on the beach but to me its one of the most interesting areas. You just never know what you might find. So get your CYBERSHELLING eyes on and click on the next photo to find a little treasure among the “weeds”. Enjoy!
Join us on another upcoming Shelling Adventure … CLICK HERE for dates and information.
PS- We just added June 6, 2014 (yay!) to our iLS cruises and I’ll try to add more soon.
Thanks for a great trip out to Cayo Costa. We had the best time and the shells were just part of the fun. Having you and Clark know so much was so helpful. If I make it back I will be sure to join you again, but until then I’ll keep cyber shelling.
Thanks!
Thank you, Carrie for taking my picture as I held the seastar. It was the perfect ending to the cruise.
Spotted: baby’s ear nearly dead-centre and cat’s paw top left corner! Love these cybershelling pics!!!!
Yippee Laura! isn’t it so satisfying to look through that not-so-pretty dried seaweed and find such a beautiful treasure camouflaged in sand and broken shells?
Oh yes! And the bonus is that so many ‘surface shellers’ bypass those areas, so if you get to the beach late you still stand a chance at finding gems!
I attached a link to my (non-current) site where I used to post things I found on the beach – not necessarily shells, but sometimes the randomness just cracked me up!
Thank you so much for such a great time. We enjoyed meeting you and Clark. It may not have looked like I found much, but a lot were small and I found about 30 different shells including my handfull. I went out yesterday to Blind Pass and didn’t find any shell piles at Captiva (found 2 cat’s eyes). Then I walked over to the Sanibel side and there were more shells-found a bittersweet in the water and a small piece of a junonia (first one). Thank you for such a great post and maybe we’ll see you on the beach. Pat
I know you did find some other sweet shells too- I think everybody found nice shells and I wish I could post everybody’s finds but its merely impossible in such a short time. Ive learned that I can’t worry so much about photographing all the shells everybody finds but to enjoy meeting and talking with everybody on the cruise. Its such an amazing world of shellers- you and the rest of the folks that are on the cruises make me realize that more and more every day.
You do a great job with your web site. It must be hard selecting which photos to use. When my camera breaks down I’m getting one like yours. You had a babys ear Saturday, I had a purplish tagelus day. I was looking at the high tides areas (for wentletraps-no luck). It’s amazing the different shells that show up each day. Pat
Nice images Pam! Love the misty view!
BTW, the “mauve” juvenile conch I found in December on West Gulf Dive has turned to a regular brown now. Did your mauve ones do the same?
Susan H, yes. they lost that wonderful purplish color to them. dang it! and I made sure I kept them out of the sun. :( grrrrr
Yup, me too, but that’s the way it goes I guess… I wish I understood how that happens….
Does anyone have any other suggestions for keeping the conchs purple? The two that I found in January are still purple, and I would love to keep them that way. At least I have photos… Pam, I’m really sorry that I missed you while I was there. I am pleased to tell you how many people of all ages on the beach I have sent to your website. Several told me that they were joining the Shellowship of the String!
Gina! sorry I missed you too! Thank you for spreading the shelling love- xo
My two sisters and I are planning our 3rd “Sister Trip” to Sanibel on April 22 -27th. We are in love with the island and shelling and i have a shell ‘shrine’ in my office at work. All three of us love this site! We are planning to get shell tattoos with “S.I.S” (Sanibel Island Sisters)!!
Thank you for keeping Shelling accessible to us via this site, even when we are not on our favorite island!
We would Love to run into you during our stay!!
It looks like everyone had such a great time! Gorgeous shells!
Pam, I have to tell you a cute story. I teach preschool, and last week, I played “shell bingo” with my students. I had just as much fun as they did- showing and naming of all my mini shells. Today, a little boy grabbed something off the floor and brought it to me. He said, “Miss Holly, you lost one of your kitten’s paws.” I was so proud! I think he’s a super-sheller in training! Look out!
Oh HollyP, I looooove this story! Isn’t it so gratifying and satisfying to know that stuck with him- it obviously made a big impression. YAY Holly for making little Super Shellers. Although- you know what this might mean…. you might have to make a Super Sheller Cape for the Shell Bingo game champ next time- LOL
My Lucky Shell from the LUCKY SHELL CRUISE BOX continued to bring me luck:
At sunset, on Tween Waters beach….. I finally saw the GREEN FLASH !!
And, luck was with me as I clicked away with my camera…..
I captured the GREEN FLASH…. will post on FACEBOOK :) :)
Shellotte
Proud of my Lucky Shell … Thanks Pam and Clark !!
It was nice meeting you the other day. I was out today at sunset, but no green flash-you were very lucky. Pat
Envious!! I’ve never seen it…… does it stay for a few seconds? Is it like a lightning flash?? Any way your photo can be posted here for us to see?? :) :)
Lasts only a milisecond, to learn atmospheric conditions required for this rare phenom, just GOOGLE it… and be cautious not to look into even the sliver of sun… just focus cam on horizon line then take a series of pics as fast as you can… it’s so fun to go back and see if there was a GREEN FLASH captured on any of your frames :)
Good Luck,
Shellotte
Very cool! I don’t know if this takes any fun out of the challenge, but….. If you have an Android phone, there’s a free app called Lightning Camera I think, which might help capture the GREEN FLASH. For lightning: when you first open the app (which is basically just a camera), while it loads it’s starting to take pictures for a few seconds. So as long as you’re aiming the phone camera in the general direction of the lightning, you can press the button to take the picture as soon as you see lightning. It then brings up all the pictures it took before you clicked the button (since none of us really know when it’s going to lightning!!) It works really well and if you don’t mind it being a phone camera picture it might help take pictures of the GREEN FLASH as well!! Just a thought….. I’ll have to try it too!!
Shelling Sistah Laura,
Just posted GREEN FLASH pic on ILS FaceBook…..
Shellotte
Thank you for posting it!! It is gorgeous!! You actually helped me realize there was a ILS Facebook page too haha and I was the 8,000th fan apparently, yay! I love shelling!!!!
Laura, Are you Arpy O????
Haha no….. Laura M**** ….. but I saw the count was 7,999 before I clicked Like, and 8,000 after! Haha maybe the count I saw was off?
O gosh Laura- So cool! I didn’t see when you clicked like. Before I knew it we were at 8007 I think so I counted backwards to see the 8000. I goofed. Lol anyway, welcome to the world of iLoveShelling! Thanks for joining us!
Thanks! Glad to be here! I invited a few family members as well. We love shelling and wish we could move down south!!
a green flash! fantastic! thats rare and special
Thank you Pam and Clark for the wonderful shelling experience. It was a pleasure to finally meet you. Thank you, Clark for finding the lovely whelk then handing it to me. I was also lucky enough to find a double Venus Sunday. So gorgeous! For those of you who have not gone on one of Pam’s shelling trips, be sure to put it on your “Shelling Bucket List.”
Oh Sweet Diane! It was my pleasure finally meeting you too. And soooo sweet and thoughtful to refer others to the iLS shelling trip- it really is special to me and its always fun to hear others have such a great time too. xoxo Clark enjoyed meeting you too!
Oops! SUNRAY turned into Sunday by mistake.
Thanks for a wonderful shelling adventure. Baby’s ears were elusive but with your kind assistance I ultimately found six!
Mary! I didn’t realize that you ended up finding SIX babys ears- hahahah Isn’t it amazing! So nice to meet you
Hello Pam
Just wanted to thank you and Clark for such a lovely shelling trip. It was great to walk the beach with lots of like minded ‘shellers’ I love to follow your blog on the grey days back in England. It will be so cool to look back and see the pictures of our trip together. Andy is so proud of the huge shell he found and I love my micro minis. I have found a few other things I am having trouble identifying and you said you might be able to help. How can I send you a picture if I’m not on face book?
Gill
Yesterday….. GULFSIDE BEACH at lowtide:
Remembered Pam’s encouragement to seek treasures in the seaweed line.
It took a little patience, but I found 4 Mermaid’s Purses ( egg cases of skates) !!
I will fill/overflow each with my Mermaid’s Money (jingle shells) :)
Shellotte
Very cool Shellotte! You found treasure…. and a treasure chest. There’s always something cool to find when you explore new areas.
Please let Clark know that after seeing him shelling in the water wearing dive booties, on Cayo, Diane and I just had to have a pair!!
So, off we went to SCUBAVICE DIVING CENTER in Ft. Myers.
Mark, salesman extraordinare, fitted us with the most comfortable booties that not only protect our feet from any sharpies on the shore, but kept out every grain of sand…. you see, the AQUA LUNG ECHO ZIP brand has a velcro lock that seals out sand :) And my dermotologist back in ARIZONA will be pleased that my feet aren’t sunburned !!
Shellotte
Those seem fantastic!! I might just have to check those out – I hope Ontario scuba stores would carry them!! ;)
Good luck !!
PS Shellers: The booties are very soft inside….
Not rubbery like in years past, yet the tread is very tough and durable :)
Shellotte