pam rambo queen helmet shell

Why such a crazy face? This is the face of pure unadulterated joy and excitement of finding a seashell….but not just any ordinary seashell. I found a QUEEN HELMET!!!

queen helmet shell captiva sanibel florida

It’s perfect! I can’t believe it! This is a rare find in our area. I have never found a QUEEN HELMET before on Sanibel or Captiva and I can’t remember ever finding another one before, for that matter. But I did this morning at Blind Pass Captiva’s low tide level -0.3.

blind pass captiva low tide

Notice the beach is built up again on the pass side of the jetty rocks. I think Blind Pass changes more often than Justin Bieber changes his Twitter stats. LOL Okay, yes, I’m still punchy! Let’s get back to the QUEEN HELMET… I took this photo before I picked it up to show you how it was laying in the pile of shells.

queen helmet shell pile of seashells

Would you have noticed it? Here’s a closer view of how it was nested amongst so many sweet KITTEN’S PAWS.

queen helmet sea shell florida

I have to tell you, this took great restraint to leave it sitting there to take a photo AND video before picking it up to see if it was whole. I still can’t believe I was able to do it but I was like that little QUEEN HELMET hanging with her KITTEN PAW friends. I was amongst friends as well. Our friends Eileen and Rob just arrived in Sanibel yesterday and were at Blind Pass with me this morning so I didn’t feel like I had to snatch it up before anybody else would get it. Okay, not that we aren’t ALL friends out there on the beach… LOL… but I think you know what I mean about those days when the waves of shells are crashing on the beach and whoever snags the shell off the pile first is the rightful owner (shelling 101 ;)). So here’s the video I shot so you can see exactly where we were when I found my QUEEN HELMET!

I know my vid was a little blurry (like my mind after I found it) so here are some still shots so you will know what to look for too…

queen helmet

queen helmet ap

queen helmet aperture

queen helmet side view

This is the photo I took right before I found my shell so I’m sure it is sitting in this pile somewhere.

seashells captiva sanibel florida

Okay, so after I wrote that last sentence, I had to know… Could I find that shell in this pile? It’s like playing Where’s Waldo. LOL Can you find it? OMG I think I did but it’s not clear… but it’s got to be it! What do you think?

seashells captiva sanibel florida - Version 2

Yes, we found other goodies as well (as you saw, Rob found an ALPHABET CONE right before our video eyes!) but I’ve run out of time and I want to take advantage of being “Queen for the Day” so I’ll show you more pics tomorrow.  Have a shell of a day!

sea shell beach captiva island