3 inch cone shell

We didn’t see huge shell piles on the beaches of Sanibel this Labor Day weekend but the few shells we found off West Gulf Drive beach access #6  were pretty spectacular… like this gigantaur ALPHABET CONE! It’s a whopping 3 inches long and completely in tact without lots of pitting (we usually find the cones “pitted” if they are this big). It’s the biggest CONE we’ve ever found.

3 inch cone aperture

A bright orange HORSE CONCH looked like he was burying his head in the shells…

horse conch in shell pile

Nobody was home! So he’s a keeper…

horse conch w gulf

I  spotted Miss Aqua way down the beach and knew I had to talk to her. Love her choice of color!

aqua from west Palm beach

As I got closer she picked up something on the beach and got very excited. It was a beautiful double JEWELBOX…

double jewelbox West Gulf

We wanted to check out Blind Pass again so we checked the Sanibel side first. I thought this was the cutest couple holding hands while shelling…

holding hands shelling

I got a little closer and saw she had on an iLoveShelling lighted cap! She introduced herself as Barbara, the one that won the cap in the iLoveShelling GiveAway in June. So nice to meet you Barbara and Ted. So cool to meet a winner!

Barbara with shelling hat

we walked the bridge to the Captiva side. As we looked in the water at our bird’s eye view from the bridge, we saw what looked like some good shells mixed in with PEN SHELLS. We called down to the two shellers in the water.

shellers under bp bridge

We directed William to a shell… “Go straight. Now look about one o’clock. Okay bend down. Right there!” LOL It was a nice size WHELK but there was somebody home so he had to go back but it was so much fun- I felt like we were playing “Mother May I” or “You’re Geting Warmer” haha

willim with whelk

 …a lovely weekend

Small shell pile