Finding Sea Urchins in Sw Florida

Look at all of the stunning purple SEA URCHINS shellers were finding on Cayo Costa yesterday on our iLoveShelling cruises to Cayo costa with Captiva Cruises! I’ve never seen so many people finding these fragile treasures like I did yesterday. Wow! Amy and her daughter Rachel (IL) started snorkeling in the calm clear water as soon as they go to the island then hit a honey hole to fill up their shelling bag with these beauties.

Snorkeling for shells in southwest Florida

Lynda and her Aunt Rhonda were having the same luck while snorkeling. These SEA URCHINS are so cool!

Lyndy with her Aunt Rhonda snorkeling in SW Florida

The SEA URCHINS were such a treasure but then I was really amazed when I saw Rhonda pull up this huge double ANGEL WING. Yes! Both sides were still together! Shellzam!

double angel wing found snorkeling

Lauren, John, Valerie and Jessica from Maryland found lots of beautiful empty FIGHTING CONCHS as soon as we got off the boat.

Lauren John Valerie Jessica from Maryland find seashells in SW Florida

They are such a shelling family, I don’t think they were going to miss a thing… They found all of these SEA URCHINS too.

Sea Urchins found on island off Sanibel

Holly (OH) and her mom Karen (FL) not only looked like rock stars in their cutie petutie cover-ups on (heehee)…

Holly (OH) and Karen (FL) find shells on island off Sanibel

They found oodles of double SUNRAY VENUS clams, COCKLES and found a SEA URCHIN too.

Sea Urchin with Cockles and Sunray Venus shells

Lisa from Atlanta joined us again on another shelling cruise! I met her on last years cruise when she found an Arrowhead Sand Dollar.

Lisa collects shells on island off Sanibel

This year she found lots of different shells… and showed me her picture perfect display of her fave treasures. Love it!

shells found on island off Sanibel

Judy B was on the cruise too!  I can’t tell you how fun it is for me to see people I feel like I know from conversations on my blog. She is always so helpful with comments in my posts and has such a happy attitude all the time. It warms my heart.

Judy B with shells from Cayo Costa

She was excited to find a SPECKLED TELLIN (they are fairly uncommon to find on Sanibel and Captiva), EGG COCKLE and ALTERNATE TELLIN.

Judy fave shell finds

So this is how amazing this world is… Judy is the person who gave me my SAND DOLLAR charm from Sealife By Congress that I wear on my DOSINIA shell. She gave this to me last year on an iLoveShelling cruise- I’m not sure why she gave it to me but I loved it, still love it and am grateful she thought of me.

seashell necklace with silver charm

When we met last year we both had the same silver Queen Conch shell from Sealife By Congress (that she wore yesterday) so maybe she knew I had lost mine (in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba– since queen conchs aren’t a local shell maybe it wanted to go back to the Caribbean- heehee).

Judy B with shells from Cayo Costa

So this is kinda one of those “Pay it Forward” stories.

Fast forward to this year…. Yep! These are the same charms that you will receive on every featured iLoveShelling cruise in the form of a $25 gift certificate from Sealife By Congress . You can choose your fave shell!

SLBC iLSPromo

Isn’t that awesome? So Judy received one of these certificates yesterday on the cruise to get another charm or pendant for the one she gave me. And everybody else got one too! Yay! Thank you Sealife By Congress!

$25 gift certificate from Sealife By Congress

So not only did we have a blast shelling on one of the most beautiful islands in the world…

Abbie and Cooper from Colorado find shells in Florida

We all found different shells…Andy from Colorado finds a white crested Tellin shell in Florida

Greg PA finds cockle shells on shelling cruise

Coby and Mady find shells in southwest florida

Donna from Gainsville FL finds worm shell on Cayo Costa

We found fabulous BEACH BLING like this COQUINA LIMESTONE.

coquina limestone Drusilla and Linda Canada

We made wishes on the shell tree for more perfect days like this.

Nancy from Ohio makes a wish on the seashell tree

We saw lots of healthy creatures…live fighting conch sw florida

…living their lives in such a beautiful habitat.
Live periwinkle shells in Florida

baby starfish from iLoveShelling cruise

live starfish on the beach

As we watched DOLPHINS and MANATEES playing around us…

McCarthys marina manatees on Captiva

In calm clear waterMcCarthys marina manatees on Captiva

I hope you get to join us for one of these special events with Captiva Cruises…

Captiva Cruises Playtime shelling boat

Check out our new upcoming dates and call 239-472-5300 to reserve your spot.

captiva cruises dates -02-2015

And check out all of the iLoveShelling Shelling Adventures…

shelling adventures trips by pam