Archive for Captiva
Cutest Golf Cart Parade Ever
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This is yet another reason why I love living in paradise. We dress up for the holidays in shorts and flip flops and decorate golf carts as our floats for the Christmas parade. It’s cute, quirky and very Captiva.
John (AKA Elvis) and Denice Beggs of Royal Shell Real Estate celebrated with a “Blue Christmas”…
These gals were the fan favorites in their Naughty and Nice Pink Flamingo golf cart…
Can you believe there is a golf cart inside Kingfisher Vacations‘ Mighty Reindeer?
Look how adorable!
VIP Real Estate turned their whole golf cart into Santa himself…
Did you know that Rudolph The Red Nose Flamingo lives in Captiva?
…or did you know that snow flakes could get this big on Captiva?
I’m sure its no surprise there are mermaids on Captiva…
And Elves!
Captiva Kayak Company was one of the big winners of the best float. Cute!
For me, one of the best parts of the parade was before it even started. As we pulled the Junonia Jalopy into the lineup, we met iLoveShelling buddies Diane and Steve from Connecticut. It was so nice to meet yall! Hope you find lots of treasure this week.
The oh-so-cute Raccoon Captiva Critter Christmas float was on the move…
Les Pendleton of American Realty Of Captiva (they made the Raccoon float above!) filmed the whole parade. So you get to see it too! Happy Holidays from the Captiva Holiday Village Golf Cart Parade, thanks to Les!
While we were having all this fun at the parade, Donnie Benton was busy shelling Blind Pass and this is what he found.
Nice, huh? But look at this SCOTCH BONNET!
And he found this freakish FIGHTING CONCH. Very cool.
Over on West Gulf Drive, Gail and Alicia found a MacDaddy 12 inch HORSE CONCH. And it was Gail’s birthday…that’s a great birthday gift from the sea! What a weekend.
Shelling For The Holidays
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The holiday season is in full swing on Sanibel and Captiva islands so I have been a busy little elf! First of all, I’d like to introduce the brand new i Love Shelling 2012 Calendar chock full of beautiful Sanibel photos and of course our beloved seashells. Now you can enjoy shelling 12 months of the year!
Here’s a sneak peak of January’s sunset photo and CLICK HERE to see all 12 months and get one for yourself or as a gift for your shelling buddy.
We also hit the beaches this week to find a few shells and lots of Beach Bling. We found big old WHELK and CONCH pieces I love for yard shells along with a few SEA WHIPS, LONG SPINED SEA URCHINS, PURPLE SEA URCHINS, PEN SHELLS, CRAB SHELLS and this little BRITTLE STAR too.
There were lots of DOSINIAS mixed in with hundreds of SAILORS EARS and TRANSVERSE ARKS…
I even saw a few bones scattered along the beach. These are from bait in the crab traps in the gulf that get tossed around in rough surf.
STONE CRABS are what lots of those traps are made to catch. When fishermen bring in the traps, they only take one claw from a STONE CRAB since the claws have the best meat. They throw the crab back without killing it because they know the crab can eat and defend itself with only one claw until another claw grows back. Here is a STONE CRAB claw lying on the beach that could have been a good appetizer if it had been freshly caught. Darn!
There were HORSESHOE CRABS too …
And a BLUE CRAB…
I also saw this MOON SHELL (SHARK’S EYE) EGG COLLAR…
I met a wonderful local man Frank, who moved here in 1964 and still loves to walk the beaches and pick up shells especially with his daughter Connie. He told me he was 87 but he looks like he is no older than 72! Thank you Frank for your service for our country in WW2.
Here are some of the mini shells Frank and Connie collected when I saw them along Middle Gulf Drive.
I also have photos of the yesterday’s oh-so-fun Captiva Holiday Village golf cart parade. Here’s one picture of our Junonia Jalopy but I’ll have to show you the rest tomorrow. It was a blast! All of the other cart were so darn cute!
Check out my new tee shirt! I wore my new “Oh CONE All Ye Faithful” Christmas design v-neck tee. I got so many compliments- so much fun ! And don’t forget to check out the 2012 i Love Shelling Calendar too….. and the new online i Love Shelling Shop….. Or the fun faves at Shelling Shop. You see? I’ve been a little Santa’s helper for the good seashell loving girls and boys. Ho Ho Ho!
Shelling Goes To Guppies And Gulls
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The full moon low tide yesterday made for a beautiful morning walk at Blind Pass Captiva. But there was so much sand filling in around the jetty on both sides that I wasn’t finding the seashell treasures that usually build up there.
As you can see the beach on the left hand side has filled in again like it did last year in December so I walked along the sand bar towards the bridge….. and finally found treasures.
I was tickled to find this beautiful LIGHTNING WHELK up on the beach…
The minute I finished taking this picture below, the big WHELK caught me eye because it seemed to change position. There was a crab in there! He was tucked in there so deeply I didn’t see anything in there when I picked the shell up. Woops! Back in the water he went to grow big enough to claim his home a little better. So I had to hunt for another WHELK to make my Sanibel Six complete.
Earlier in the week, I walked down the beach in Captiva with my friend Ellen at low tide to find hundreds and hundreds of GULLS and other birds hanging out.
They were having a feast on thousands of tiny fish caught in the tidal pool. It was fascinating being there to see half these birds enjoying an early Thanksgiving and watching the other half probably feeling a little overstuffed wanting just to take a nap. Ellen and I couldn’t figure out what kind of fish they were munching o so I’ll just call them Guppies… I know they aren’t guppies… but enjoy Guppies And Gulls with Ellen and me.
There’s A New Super Sheller In Town!
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Oh my gosh! Who found this beautiful seashell?
Move over Clark! There’s a new sheller in town that can find a JUNONIA too….mmmeeeeee! I found one!! Finally! I’m so giddy, I can’t even think straight!
Believe it or not, I was the first one on the beach in Captiva this morning. I know, this is very rare for me but after seeing the piles of shells along every stretch of Captiva beach yesterday I couldn’t sleep. At 6:30 a.m., I layered up my clothes since it was low 60s this morning (for most that’s not cold but for here…. brrr) grabbed my lighted iLoveShelling cap and headed for Blind Pass. I was meeting some of my girlfriends but poor Clark had to work so he couldn’t join us.
The pile had fresh new shells stacking up so I started to sift through. I found a small piece of JUNONIA so I started to get a little excited but had to keep focused. Digging…..sifting……digging….. sifting. Are my eyes deceiving me? What? No! It isn’t! YES! It is! It’s a JUUUNNNOOONNNIIIAAAA!
This is my very first JUNONIA. I’ve been shelling for a long time and this is the first whole one I’ve ever found. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like JUNONIAS are the rarest shell ever…..but they just have never been found by me…until now.
The weird thing is, right after I found it and celebrated, I dug right back in thinking I could uncover a whole famly of JUNONIAS. LOL Then the sun broke through and I celebrated some more. I know, I look like a shelling geek/nerd/dork/dweeb in this “get up” but who cares! I did a few happy dances!
While I was happily shelling with my buddies, as my good luck today would have it, Dr Jose Leal, Director of the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum walked up right beside me on the beach with his surf board ready to hit the waves. I got to show my prized shell to him! To me, he’s like the “Seashell Czar”, “The Mollusk Magnate ” (and Surfer Dude!)… oh I’m just being silly, but it really was fun to show him my find. My buddy Ellen took this photo of us.
See? I think he’s impressed by my find too… heehee
Just another view of this beauty…
To get a shot of my wonderful friends Diane, Becky and Ellen that helped me celebrate, I took this photo “long-armed” so that’s why I’m so close. Remember, it was really early in the morning.
My luck continued. When I got in my car, my all time favorite song on the planet was on the radio- Madonna’s “Holiday”. It was the perfect song and the perfect time.
If we took a holiday
Took some time to celebrate
Just one day out of life
It would be, it would be so nice
Everybody spread the word
We’re gonna have a celebration
Thanks Ellen for that funny video! I’m feeling so lucky, I’m buying a lotto ticket today.
When The Seashells Come Rolling In
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The islands get happy. The strong winds and rain that belted the islands the past few days are paying off with seashells! The shells are rolling in and piling up all along the beaches of Captiva. The first person I saw this morning was Michelle from Toronto with her 2 huge LIGHTNING WHELKS…
Look at this huge ALPHABET CONE and KING’S CROWN in her shell jug….
Then I heard a “Woohoo!” from somebody. It was Lois from PA …
with a perfectly beautiful SCOTCH BONNET in her hand…
Okay, this is really cool. Get this….She told me she has been shelling for 40 years and that she has kept a life list of shells she has found. She has 347 different types of shells on her life list. You hear that yall? You can start counting your shell finds to have a shell life list of your own if you want.
Charity from Ohio was finding lots of WHELKS…
Get a load of this big honkin chunk-a CORAL she found too…
Joyce from Long Island, NY shows us her FLORIDA CONE and big shell bag filled with goodies.
Look at Loretta from Texas with her great piece of WORM ROCK (and her cutie iLoveShelling hat!!!) …
photo by Diana Taylor
I saw great shells along every stretch of beach on Captiva today and heard that someone found a nice size LION’S PAW right in front of Captiva Island Yacht Club. I also heard the Sanibel was rocking too!
I haven’t even gone through all of my photos or much less taken photos of my own finds from today but I will hopefully get to that tomorrow….if I’m not too busy finding new treasures! Enjoy the shelling whether you are on the coast or doing a little fun cybershelling.
Cyber Shelling Bivalves
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How could anyone think KITTENS PAWS aren’t cute? It was like it had rained KITTEN’S PAWS yesterday since there were so many on the beach at Blind Pass Captiva. Here’s a cyber shelling photo so you can virtually pick through the piles and find some yourself. Enjoy!
Also mixed in were hundreds of TRANSVERSE ARKS…
Oodles of CROSS BARRED VENUS clams…
And a few LADY-IN-WAITING VENUS clams mixed in too…
I would say that the KITTEN’S PAWS, CROSS BARRED VENUS and the TRANSVERSE ARKS are the most common shells on Sanibel but I’m still not convinced what the top six commons shells are. I just loved seeing so many LADY-IN-WAITING VENUSes mixed in too, I wanted to show you those. They are so pretty and I normally never pay attention to them. When I don’t have a lot of time, I need to stay out of the sun for a bit or we are having lots of scattered showers, I just like to stop by the beach for a short time and enjoy all of the shells that I seem to neglect the rest of the year. Most of the shells in this next photo are all bivalves…. they did not let me neglect them this time.
PS- I have no idea how that board got there. I guess it washed up?
