Shells in the water of Sanibel Island Florida

Gulfside City Park beach has still been my fave beach this week to find shells. And I found my other type of fave treasures… fun shelling peeps like Snugharbor Kim!

Kim digging for shells at low tide Sanibel

She was sifting through the water at low tide uncovering beautiful shells like this…

kim shells found at Gulf side city park beach on Sanibel Island

She was on a girls shelling adventure for the week with our friends Moira and Traci. All three of these girls met each other because of their passion for shelling and they decided to take a trip together- wow! How fun! It was so much fun for me to see them together because I’ve met each of them on different occasions shelling on Sanibel. Yep, if Traci looks familiar its because she was part of our very first  Shellabaloo– so much fun! I’ve known Moira for years after meeting on a sand bar at Blind Pass when I first started blogging and I met Kim years ago shelling at Lighthouse Beach where I learned about phooning and geocaching– hahaha. OMG I love that shelling brought these fun gals together for a fun week in Sanibel! “Hinkle!”

Moira Traci Kim shelling Sanibel

I also saw Chris, Belle, Olivia and Lynn from Maryland with big smiles after finding sunshine and seashells.

Chris Belle Olivia Lynn MD visit Sanibel for sea shells

Even though Clark and I don’t want to pick up many shells these days, we can’t stay away from the beach. I’m obsessed by it. It calls me and I can’t stay away. It’s just that I really don’t need any more shells … although I always find another shell that has a different color variation that I’ve never seen before or there is something that I can’t identify so I bring it home to research it. But seriously, I don’t NEED any more shells. I haven’t even organized (or cleaned) a few bins I have sitting and waiting in the Shellaboratory. There are some awesome shells in this mess I need to sort!

unorganized shells in containers

We try to only take what we can learn from or what we use to decorate with so when we bring them home we try to sort but as you see in the last photo, it doesn’t always happen. Life happens. But before you ask….  no, we don’t sell any of our shells. We collect lots of different shells so that we can learn from them… then share this fascinating world that washes up on our Lee County beaches so that you can identify your treasures and know the differences and color variations when you come to visit. If we don’t need them any more for the learning process, we give them away to our causes like in my post Feeling Good About Seashells.

storing sea shells collected in Sanibel

So I have been trying to sort shells and BEACH BLING so I can easily find things to take photographs when I do identification posts like seashell EGG CASINGS I did back in March- CLICK HERE.

classifying egg cases

I’ve been saving all sizes of glass jars to sort and organize all the different shells, bling and even special jars for things like “Shells with holes“. So when it’s too hot in the middle of the afternoon like this last week, I’ve been sorting and organizing in my “Shellaboratory“.

sorting beach bling in containers

I’m not sure how anybody can resist the call of the sea when there are so many discoveries to made in any beautiful afternoon on the beaches of Sanibel.
Marissa scooping sea shells on Sanibel