shell find Sanibel shellabaloo

Total coup at the Shellabaloo 2! Woo Woo!

We are all so happy for Cindy from Missouri after she found this shellacious empty HORSE CONCH on the beach at the Island Inn yesterday during Shellabaloo 2. She is still two clouds above nine since she found it in the water in the midst of a pile of PEN SHELLS. How awesome! Congratshellations!

cindy horse conch shellabaloo

But wait… let me back up for those of you who aren’t quite sure what SHELLABALOO 2 is exactly. Island Inn Sanibel put together a 4 day, 3 night shelling package including 7 meals, a beautiful goodie bag, a trip to the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum and asked me to gather and guide this group of shellers to the best possible places to find seashells and treasures from the sea. What? Hang out with a bunch of folks that love shelling as much as I do? Shell Yaya! So I had to give it a fun “shell” name (of course- it’s the iLoveShelling thang!) … so “SHELLABALOO” was born.We had the first Shellabaloo in January… and it was a Baaa-laaaast! So we had to do it again with this unbelievably fun gang…

shellabaloo 2 sanibel island inn iloveshelling.com pam rambo

Before I show you more a-mazing shells that were found by these shell hunter extraordinaires, let me introduce a few more of my new friends to you that I didn’t get to show you on the last post. We started off at a cocktail party at the Island Inn where I met Becca (Ft Myers), Margie (Alabama) and Paula (Alabama)…

becka margie paula shellabaloo

Helen and Cathy both came from Arkansas to join the shellastravaganza…

Helen cathy shellabaloo

Although this is a little blurry because of a “long arm” self portrait …Clark was there to meet everybody to share a few of his “Super Sheller” secrets as well.

pam clark rambo shellabaloo

It was a fab party thanks to cuties Blanaid and Jessica! They worked out all the details on behalf of the Island Inn…

blanaid jessica hillgate communications sanibel

I promise to get to everybody else too but let me get you to the beach pictures. I showed you our day at Gulfside City Park and the gigantshellous mound we hit at Blind Pass Captiva on Tuesday on my last post

sharene pile shells bp

Yesterday we did a full shelling day on the secluded island of Cayo Costa by way of a boat cruise by Captiva Cruises. How fun!

captiva cruise cayo costa shelling shellabaloo

Terri (NY) and her mom Darlene (CA) got to enjoy a perfect day on the water…

terri darlene cruise cayo costa

On the way, we saw DOLPHINS as we passed the private island of Useppa and several other pods in different areas but you know how that goes with wildlife… out of prob 20 shots, this is the only semi-good one. LOL

dolphin useppa island

Once we got to the boat dock at the Cayo Costa State Park Ranger Station, we took an island style “shuttle” to get to the beach side.

cayo costa state park florida shuttle

We hit the beach to find clear aqua blue water and a wide stretch of beautiful beach all to ourselves…

rusty sharks tooth hunting shellabaloo

I was so surprised to find an area with oodles of SHARK’S TEETH and other FOSSILS like this STING RAY BARB on the far right of my hand!

fossil shark teeth sting ray barb

I showed Terri what I found and within minutes she found a handful of her own…

pam rambo guide cayo costa shelling

Donna and Rusty (Apopka, FL) found some too!

donna rusty shell cayo costa

They were filling up a smaller tub inside their buckets to catch all of their SHARKS TEETH…

bucket fossil sharks teeth

Susan (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) was thrilled to find SHARK’S TEETH too!

susan pam rambo shelling cayo costa shellabaloo

She showed me her SHARKS TEETH, then asked me about another piece she found… Oh Yaya! It’s a FOSSIL PUFFER FISH MOUTHPLATE!

fossil puffer fish mouth plate

 

Cindy and her husband Roger (MO) said they spent a whole day in Venice, Florida last year but didn’t find one SHARKS TOOTH. They were both thrilled to find their first ones!

roger cindy collecting sharks teeth shellabaloo

Lee (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) had the eye for bigger shells..

lee shelling cayo costa shellabaloo

He found a bag full of double SUNRAY VENUS CLAMS and some LIGHTNING WHELKS…

sunray venus whelk shells cayo shellabaloo

Kendra (Indiana) was coming back with a full shell bag too…

Kendra seashells cayo shellabaloo

After a picnic lunch and a full gorgeous day on Cayo Costa, we boarded the boat to head back to Captiva…

santiva cruise boat cayo costa

But do you think we stopped shelling once we got back??? No!!! These are my kind of shellers. Half of the group headed to Lighthouse Beach to find out how to find WENTLETRAPS…

Shellabaloo finding wentletraps sanibel

Yep. We found them and lots of other minis…

miniature seashell collection shellabaloo

The evening’s perfect low tide left a wrack line of tiny treasures…

miniature seashell collecting shellabaloo

Lee, Tom and Sharene (Ontario, Canada), Lisa (NJ) and Kendra (and me!) all had quite a spectsheller day…

i Love Shelling group sanibel lighthouse

I have more to show you but… ACK!  I’ve run out of time! I have a few more introductions and some VERY amazing finds (just as amazing as Cindy’s HORSE CONCH!) that I will show you at our “Shell And Tell”. We had our own Sanibel Shellabaloo Shell Show- so stay tuned! Here’s a sneak preview…

shellabaloo 2 seashells sanibel