large whelk in Cayo Costa

It was a shelltabulous day on our iLoveShelling Captiva Cruises cruise to Cayo Costa today. Especially for Carol and Amy who found this perfectly gorgeous and empty LIGHTNING WHELK. Shellzam! Happy Birthday Amy!

Carol and Amy find large Whelk

We had so many very cool shellers on our boat trip today…

i Love Shelling group tour to Cayo Costa

Everybody found awesome shells.

Annette's Florida shells

Some of my fave peeps were on the cruise today… Jim and Annette from Shellabaloo 2. So good to see y’all!

Jim and Annette find shells

Jennifer from Colorado found a beautiful SEA URCHIN but realized it was still alive so she put it back on the water. Loree found several completely dried SEA URCHINS in the high tide wrack line so she shared one with Jennifer so she would have one to take home with her. You are so sweet L-O-R-E-E!

Loree and jennifer sharing shells

Florida purple sea urchin

Bill (Mr. Adorable) and Debbie found lots of shells but were also very happy to have received a $25 gift certificate from Sealife By Congress. Everybody on the cruise got the same $25 certificate! Sealife By Congress loves shellers!

Debbie and Bill with shelling group

These were Mr Adorable’s shells he arranged in his hand to show me. See how adorable?

Finding Florida shells

Talk about adorable… Sara and Travis from Nebraska snorkeled the whole time on our adventure…

Sara and Travis snorkeling for shells

This is only a smidgen of the shells they found. It was crazy how loaded the water was with shells.

sara's shells

Amy from Ft Lauderdale didn’t need a mask or snorkel. The water was so clear, she walked along the waters edge to find her mermaid loot.

Amy ft Lauderdale olives

She found these within 10 minutes of getting off the boat.

snorkeling for shells

Ruth and George came all the way from London, England to enjoy our weather and to find shells with us on the cruise.

Ruth and George from London visit Sanibel for shells

It was the perfect day! SAND DOLLARS, URCHINS, SUNRAYS VENUS, OLIVES, CONCHS and so much more.

Finding Seashells on group tour

Clifton from Alabama found SAND DOLLARS too.

Kliftin alabama find shells

They found plenty more but were the only ones to find a whole true ANGEL WING. Lucky!

bucket of shells

Vicki from Ontario, Canada found one too.

Vicki Ontario finds sand dollar

There were so many cool shellers and cool finds…

chris phil houston shell on cayo costa

IMG_5229

This is especially a cool piece of COQUINA LIMESTONE, don’t you think?

coquina limestone

We all were lucky to have had such a calm, beautiful day to anchor on the Gulf side of the island… right in the middle of the best patch of shells on the whole beach. Great job, Captains Keith and Kevin of Captiva Cruises.

playtime boat finds shells

Oh… and even after shelling all morning and finding so many treasures, Jennifer got off the boat, walked down the dock, looked in the water at McCarthy’s Marina then pulled this perfect LIGHTNING WHELK out of the water. hahaha We all were so impressed! We started seeing other shells in the water so we started pointing out other things we could see from the dock. The whole day was a blast meeting such fun shellers and sharing stories.

McCarthy's Marina shelling

You can join the fun too… Reserve your spot on an iLoveShelling shelling adventure too- CLICK HERE  for dates.

shelling adventures trips by pam

PS- still working on the iLoveShelling 5 year Shellaversary details… I promise, its coming soon!