boat beach seashell

We spent hours boating from Fort Myers Beach to the outer islands of Sanibel this weekend. I felt like we were on vacation! The first island we pulled up to I found this nice sized WENTLETRAP…

north cap wentletrap

It was resting in a nest of sea weeds and SARGASSUM.

wentle weeds

Okay, I’ll fess up. Clark and I weren’t really looking for WENTLETRAPS but it was a nice surprise. We were actually looking for a LION”S PAW. “Why”, you ask? Because we wanted to find this LIONS PAW’s brother or sister…. or better yet, the granddaddy!

brian lions paw

It’s a beauty, right? Did you see that all of the knuckles are in tact? Saweeeet! Captain Brian found this awesome LION’S PAW on Cayo Costa on Friday. Is this a happy face or what! Congrats Brian!

captain brian lions paw

So we looked high and low for even a piece of one…

island clark shelling

While on Cayo Costa, we met Anna (Indiana) shelling the beach with a bag full of shells tied to her walking stick…

island sheller Anna

She had a beautiful collection of shells ranging from SAND DOLLARS to that excellent yellow HORSE CONCH.

anna shell collection

Now who wouldn’t be happy with this collection? She found ANGEL WINGS, TRUE TULIPS, TURBANS, a NUTMEG, SHARK’S EYE, LIGHTNING WHELK and a cute twisted WORMIE.

anna seashell arrangement

Clark found one of these live ARROWHEAD SAND DOLLARS floating in the current then saw the other one close by. We have found dead ARROWHEADS before but neither of us has ever seen live ones like this. They are beautiful! Clark put them back in the water right after I snapped this photo to keep them nice and healthy.

live arrowhead sand dollars

Well, we didn’t find  LION”S PAW and the water clarity was a little cloudy but after seeing so many SAND DOLLARS, I put on my mask and snorkel to see what else I could find in the water. Take a few good breaths and get used to the water so you can go on my snorkeling vacation with me. Here we go!

PS- Next post I’ll show you lots of MANATEES that we saw this weekend! I love those SEA COWS!