barbara junonia captiva

Barbara from West Virginia brought home the gold in a seashell battle with the Tropical Storm Debby aftermath on Wednesday. She had to put up a fight for it but alas, she found her JUNONIA!

junonia found sw florida

And it is a beautiful one at that! Barbara found this baby in the water on the Captiva side of Blind Pass near the jetty rocks. She said there were no shells on the beach but there were gobs of them in the surf which was much calmer than the days when TS Debby was upon us.

junonia found captiva

She and her husband stood in the surf scooping up loads of shells with their nets while other shells tossed and turned then bashed into their ankles leaving cuts and scrapes. Even though it was painful, she said there was no way they were quitting until she had a victory. A fight to the end! LOL She’s got the battle scars to prove it…

shelling scars

The sweetest victories are best appreciated when you work the hardest to achieve your success. She earned that JUNONIA! Congratulations Barbara! I wish I could have been there but Barbara found this when I was sifting through the shells at the Sanibel Lighthouse (see that post HERE)…and a thank you to Tracie for Facebooking me about your sweet and awesome mom Barbara.

crab traps after storm

Back at Sanibel Lighthouse Beach, yesterday at sunrise (can you believe it?) I didn’t see the piles and piles of shells that I saw on Wednesday. The sand is filling in again and covering the shells….or they are getting taken back out in the gulf…not sure which but the sea grasses are washing up now.

sea grasses storm debby

sea weed after storm

But like Barbara, I didn’t give up either. I may not have had the victory she had but I was pretty darn happy to find another big HORSE CONCH!

collect conch shell lighthouse

horse conch sunrise