We had another exshellent shelling adventure on our Captiva Cruises boat trip to Cayo Costa yesterday with brilliant blue skies and turquoise water as a perfect backdrop for beach combing and snorkeling.
And of course we found a few beautiful shells for souvenirs to remember the day forever.
I was thrilled to meet shellers like Hannah and her mom Bonnie (from Kentucky) to start our day…
Mother Nature is a funny lady sometimes, you know? We normally find the mini shells and BABYS EARS on the bay side where the boat pulls up but came up a little empty handed. Then we turned the corner of the point of the island and finally found a line of shells to comb through…
We finally started to find the spot where the BABYS EARS were hiding. Sharon And Bob from San Antonio Mike were lucky enough to have spotted a perfect specimen.
JoAnne from SC found the right spot to collect a bucket of shells to take home for “camp” projects for their grandkids this summer. Fun!
I was very excited to see Amy (with her husband Rodney) spot one of the biggest BABYS EARS Ive ever seen.
Shelling Sistah Lisa Feds was on the cruise with us too and she showed me her best find of the day…
She struck OLIVE gold. It has the golden color form of a GOLDEN OLIVE with some beautiful flecks of chocolate. Gorgeous!
Joyce from Pennsylvania showed me shell to identify…
I had to break out laughing… It’s an IMPERIAL VENUS! I just wrote about this shell on my last post since it was the first time I had found one. This one is either very beach weathered or its a fossil but either way- I love this find!
Meet the Shellmans! I am very jealous (shellous) of Mark and Sue of North Carolina since their last name is Shellman! LOL I think you have to be a sheller if you are lucky enough to have that last name.
Diana and Mike from Kansas City found a few treasures but as nice as Mike’s KINGS CROWN was, he placed it back in the water since a HERMIT CRAB had taken up residence in that beautiful shell. Those CRABS always pick the nicest shells to call home, don’t they? I guess I don’t blame them.
Rachelle and Justin from Missouri have lots of shelling stories and do lots of crafts with the shells they find. Rachelle embellished her visor with shells on the bill and even made her collapsable mesh shell bag. I wish I had gotten a closeup photo- they both are so cool.
Shaun and Kevin from Colorado Springs had some pretty good luck finding some nice shells to take home.
These are a few of their favorite shells…
Emma and Candy from New York are avid shellers and both have different styles of shelling. Emma worked the wrack line on the beach and her mom Candy snorkeled the entire time at Cayo Costa. She said she had a blast.
We had a bunch of really fun shellers on this iLoveShelling cruise that it was a pleasure to meet.. especially Timothy, Sue, Karen and Diana. They were decked out in their iLS JUNONIA shirts to celebrate the shelling day.
I can’t tell you how fun it is to get this many shellers together that all love shelling as much as I do to talk about shells. It’s not just all about finding gobs of shells (although thats nice too), its about the whole experience of getting together. We all tell fun stories about what we are finding… and in these stories… we found out that Timothy found a JUNONIA at Blind Pass Captiva the day before. Emma found two (2!) JUNONIAS as the same place 2 days in a row. And Emily found a JUNONIA at the same place at the same time… and was there when Timothy found his! They all brought their JUNONIAS on the cruise with them! I love the shellowship and I love to share the shelling love.
Some fun shelling! And look at all those Junonias!
Go, Timothy, that is a HUGE junonia!!
Looks like you had a great trip! Love the water right now – even here on Sanibel -Bob and I went snorkeling just off Seagrape – and there were 14 manatees that spent quite some time there – hours – resting, mating, resting, mating – what a joy to be in the water near them (no touching, of course) – THIS is one of the reasons we love living on Sanibel….btw, there were hundreds of sand dollars (live) in the water everywhere – nice, healthy ones, which we of course left there. But it was neat to see them. Maybe a “few” will get blown up during a storm or something after their life cycle has completed and we will get to enjoy them. There was a neat couple from Switzerland there out in the water with us, and they were so excited about the manatees. Fun.
How cool Johnnie to be surrounded by manatees! And thanks for the shelling update with the sand dollars.
What a lucky family to find all those junonias. Nice shells everyone was finding-the golden olive, babys ear, etc. Looking forward to going on a cruise next year. I’ve already made reservations for the end of January and early February(3 weeks). Can’t wait. Your posts will keep me going. Pat
We had so much fun. Thanks again Pam. We even decided to book another cruise and go back out before we have to leave. And guess what, I didn’t have to do much convincing, Justin is just as excited as I am! Woohoo!
Hey Pam,
Can’t wait to go another shelling cruise with you on June 6th!!
Kali
It looks like everyone had a great time! How do you know when iloveshelling crises are offered?
Hi Kathy, I have a tab on the left side of this blog that says Shelling Adventures. When I have dates, I post it there. I haven’t been able to secure summer dates yet but I will post them soon hopefully. I hope some of the future dates work out for you so you can join us. Here’s the link… http://www.iloveshelling.com/blog/iloveshelling-events/
We are here at Tween waters and the wrack lines are exciting!
I love hearing all the shelling stories and what great treasures people find. So excited when I see new updates,Hope to get there in September when we fly down. Thanks Pam,just love your shelling site!!!
I love ALL your blogs here but the ones with pictures from your shelling trips are my favorites!!
ONE DAY I plan to get to go on one so please please don’t stop having them!
We just purchased our retirement place on Saint James City; we will be coming down more often now and then one day FULL TIME!!
I met some ladies at Blind Pass last week sitting in the shells going thru them; they told me that you had blogged the day before that the shells were back, so they came running! We talked about our desire to go on one of your shelling trips!!
Keep it up!!
Janice from GA
Hello Pam my name is Andrew I’m 18 and I’ve been checking out your website for like four years. I’m also a sheller from Louisiana. And this year I told my parents after I graduate from high school I wanted to come here well I’m here on blind pass for eight days it would be cool if there was a way to meet u. Thanks andrew
Oh Andrew, Darn you missed the iLoveShelling cruise to Cayo Costa! next time… come when we have an iLoveShelling event so I can meet you and you can meet other shellers too. We just had a cruise last week and will have one next week too June 6. But maybe I’ll run into you on the beach this week by chance. Congrats on graduation! I hope you are finding some treasures
Hey Pam!
These are great! I had so much fun! Such a great pleasure getting to meet you!
I am so envious. Just look at the color of the water and the sand. It’s beautiful. Lovely shells too. Love your posts.
HI Pam….we find imperial venus shells a lot….but we call them Pawleys Island shells. The tale (by an enterprising jeweler who sells them coated in silver) is that these rare shells are found only on Pawleys Island and a small Caribbean island. This isn’t true but it sells a lot of jewelry!
My two friends and I had a wonderful time on the cruise! Gayle enjoyed snorkeling for shells while Deb & I spent our time on the beach. Even though we didn’t find some of the shells we were looking for, we still found decent shells! And I got some nice photos on the island. It was great meeting you again, Pam! It definitely won’t be the last time! Happy shelling to all you Sanibel hunters!