Doug shells Sanibel

Shells, shells and more shells rolled in the week after the storms hit SW Florida this week. Folks who didn’t mind getting their toes wet at the surf’s edge for a couple of hours were rewarded with some a-maaaazing gifts from the sea. Annie, Lucy, Heidi and Doug who were visiting Sanibel from Ohio all found some cool shells… and look at that huge empty HORSE CONCH Lucy (in the red sweatshirt) found- it was Shellectric!

Annie,Lucy, Heidi, Doug Ohio visit sanibel

It was like playing Duck, Duck, Goose… picking up shells and looking to see if they were occupied- Live, Live… Empty!

whelk shells after a storm on Sanibel

The shell game…

shellers at lighthouse beach Sanibel

It was almost too overwhelming to look at the beach with all the beautiful colors peeking out of the sand when the waves receded. Which way do I go?

shells in the surf-1

LIGHTNING WHELKS… it was like a people were tripping over them. haha (Ok- I’m sort of exaggerating… errrr.. sorta)

Large Lightning whelk grey color Sanibel

But Im not exaggerating about this…. Chris and his wife Karen from Vermont found a JUNONIA at Blind Pass- Shellzam!

Chris and Karen Vt visit Sanibel

Patti from NY was overjoyed to find her own big WHELK at lighthouse beach. Boom- Shellalaka!

Patti NY lightning whelk-1

Then I saw her one hour later and… she found another one. haha Ooo Shell-la-la!

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You can see Clark in the background scooping up shells I showed you earlier this week while families all around him found their own amazing treasures.

Sanibel shelling after a storm

Rudy from MN was finding WHELKS too- he was around the same spot as Clark and there were plenty to go around for everybody. Happiness.

Rudy MN lightning whelk sanibel-1

This says it all! The day was so spectacsheller, Kathy was doing the happy dance and shouting to the palm tree tops. Isn’t she the cutest thing?

Kathy happy dance finding seashells

But hold on… I never even got to show you the crazy FOSSIL SHELLS that local shellers Pam and Cheryl found near the Sanibel fishing pier…

Pam Cheryl Sanibel fossils

Seriously, isn’t this crazy?

fossil shells on Sanibel

Shelling sisters Andrean and Karen from OK had the same instincts I did throughout the week because I ran in to them at just about every stop- they hit the same beaches at the same time. We should have just car pooled together hahaha. They even found the “FOSSIL PIT”.

Andrean Karen OK visit FL sisters

The last time this road got washed away by a storm, the City Of Sanibel brought loads of dirt with shells mixed in from the FOSSIL pits in Florida so thats why these unbelievable shells rolled out. That OLIVE in Andrean’s hand was still shiny- Wow. And… the shell just to the right of it I believe is a Mitra lineolata which was a common shell 5 million years ago but is now extinct. Cheryl had one in her hand in the other photo too. Blows the mind, right?

fossil shells Sanibel island florida

I hope to do a whole post just on FOSSIL shells you can find around the islands (to see a previous post on FOSSILS CLICK HERE ) but I still have much to catch up on (it was a busy week…. my birthday week- heehee). We also had an awesome time on our iLoveShelling Adventure yesterday so I’ll show you what we found there on my next post.

I know lots of you up north are dealing with some terrible weather and preparing for scary storms this weekend so we are sending love and warm wishes to you. Please be safe!

Oh and PS- The BROWN PELICAN we took to CROW (on my last post CLICK HERE) is still being cared for at the clinic. He still has a splint on his fractured right leg but they say he is making a nice recovery. Yahoo!

Pam-rambo-sanibel-shell-trips