If Utopia is an island of clear aqua blue water with strings of seashells lining the shore, then we found Utopia on Cayo Costa Island during our iLoveShelling cruise on Captiva Cruises this week.
My day started out with such joy and fun meeting Shelling Sistahs Cheryl (Venice) and Alice (Ohio via Venice, FL). Love them!
Our morning had a slight chill in the air around 62 degrees then quickly warmed to 80 in no time at all by the time we got to the island to start our search for shells.
Cheryl found the first BABY’S EAR! It’s sort of hidden by the JINGLES on the right but she is a JINGLE SHELL lover like I am so she started picking up as many JINGLES as she could.
You might recognize Shelling Sistah Katherine Haskins since I met her last year at Lighthouse Beach and so much enjoy her comments here on the blog.
She found a gorgeous SPECKLED TELLIN and either a very big BUTTERCUP LUCINE or a very yellow CHALKY BUTTERCUP LUCINE (I should have inspected the hinge more closely o see if it was the def CHALKY but either way its a very beautiful BUTTERCUP), and lots of other sweet bivalves.
We also had the HOTS join our cruise! Yes, they are HOT chicks but they call themselves the HOTS because they say they move slow as a Heard Of Turtles. LOL Nannie, J.E., Becky and Ginny from Georgia have a great time every where they go. Thank y’all so much for joining us and making me laugh!
Karen had no problem walking as far as she could as she looked at this gorgeous calm aqua water to find a hand full of SAND DOLLARS and OLIVES.
Karen couldnt wait to sort through the loot they found when she and her husband Scott got back on the boat.
I was very impressed with the treasures Jan from Chicago was going for.
She loves the bivalves or any shells she hasn’t found before so she was thrilled to have found a WHITE CRESTED TELLIN along with CANCELLATE SEMELES, a PURPLE SEMELE, COMB BITTERSWEETS, an ALTERNATE TELLIN and a STRIATE PIDDOCK. The orange ROUGH SCALLOP wasn’t a new find for her but it was one of her fave finds, she had to have it in her hand. Love that! Y’all know how excited I get to find a new shell, so its always fun to experience someone else who gets excited about finding new shells…. even if it isn’t a JUNONIA. heeehee
As soon as she showed me her WHITE CRESTED TELLIN, I looked down to find one too. Its funny how that happens, right? If we are reminded to look for a shell and get that color and pattern in your brain, it’s a tad easier to find one. Okay brain… remember – white shell with brown spots.
Every month when we have this iLS cruise, it’s such a pleasure to meet cool shellers like Lee and Renie from Houston…
And it’s especially great to see shellers again from previous years like Louie and Dee from Illinois.
Nancy from Indiana found a baby bear SUNRAY VENUS, mamma bear SUNRAY VENUS and papa bear SUNRAY VENUS…
Linda was thrilled to find her first POINTED VENUS (on the right), FALSE ANGEL WINGS and COMB BITTERSWEETS.
YAY! I was so excited that Annette and Jim from Shellabaloo 3 joined us as well! It is so much fun to catch up with them after we spent so much time together on our Shelling Adventure last year.
It was a gorgeous day on the water with a boat full of awesome shellers! Thank you all for making this an absolutely fabulous day!
Join us on our next iLoveShelling cruise April 2! For more details CLICK HERE
Such great finds <3
I tend to focus on a set thing when I’m searching too. Sometimes I have to look up and re focus my mind so I can find other stuff. It’s really bad the first day or so. Looks like a great trip! Slightly more than 100 days until my trip down there!
had such a fun day and now that you have shared my picture and my shells I feel like quite a celebrity, thanks
CAN I HAVE THE WOOD? BACK TO DOING MACRAME AND HAVE SHELLS TO INSERT, BUT CAN’T FIND ANY DECENT PIECES. AS ALWAYS I WISH I WAS THERE WITH YOU.
JANET/AZ
It was awesome but need to correct you that Alice and I were from Venice not Naples. She from Ohio and myself from Minnesota. It was just an awesome day and great meeting you.
OMG Cheryl, I knew that! And for some reason, Naples came out off my finger tips. Ack! It was so much fun to meet both of you and now I can see your beautiful smiling face when I read your comments. :)
Loved all the shells everyone found-esp. Katherine and Jan. I like the small shells, but wouldn’t minded some sand dollars or sunray venuses. Glad you had good weather. It’s been cold here-just starting to get up to freezing. There’s talk of more snow Saturday! Good hunting. Pat
Thank you Pat. I was hoping for sand dollare too but Karen beat me off the boat – hee hee. I feel your pain with the cold. I spent Tuesday morning walking in the Gulf of Mexico and Tuesday night in the cold and snow. ugh!!
Hey Katherine! Congratulations on the very nice speckled tellin!
Pam thank you for all the fab photos. I am always impressed how you manage to snap a nice image of a rare shell before you grab it! I don’t think I would have the self-control to do that! :)
I’d like to send thanks to Jan for sharing her pics from trip and to Katherine for show n tell with her apple snails. We went that afternoon and found over a dozen. It was like an Easter egg hunt.
Lots of friendly people on trip. Thanks to all.
Hi Renie! thats so cool she brought them to show and you went that same day to find them. It was an awesome group of people on the trip that shared so many wonderful stories, tips and fun. There were 2 couples that met on the cruise that live 20 minutes from each other in Illinois. Shellers Rock!
Renie, I’m so glad you were able to go and find the snail shells. Tom and I were wondering about it all afternoon. We’re home now and as soon as I am settled, I will send you the pictures. It was really nice to meet you and Lee. Hopefully we will “cruise” together next year.
Looks like everyone had so much fun!!
Yes it’s really nice to enjoy it vicariously — we all love that!
Yesterday I found a nice half-grown maculated baby’s ear here on Nevis and I thought of you Pam. I also found two nice dark pieces of lion’s paw and two different species of wentletraps (I mean different from the Sanibel ones).
I also had to tell myself: you don’t actually need to pick up more egg cockle valves to give to Jose, because you are not on Sanibel now Susan! :)
Have a great time!
What a great day or shelling and such nice weather. We sure to look orward to joining you very soon!!
Pam, thank you for a great day. We had such a wonderful time and finding a Speckled Tellin was a first for me – and I almost missed it. It was so nice to meet everyone and put faces with the names. It was such a great way to end our trip to Sanibel. We spent the afternoon visiting several of the beaches then watched the sunset on the beach in front of Island Inn and went to Traditions for dinner. I agree with it feeling like I was in Utopia. Thank you again for all you do for all of us.
Katherine,
Yes, I agree… Pam’s the finest of WORDSMITHS !! UTOPIAN is just the best way to describe CAYO COSTA ISLAND:
“…a perfect place of bliss and harmony.”
Pam sure provides a wonderful opportunity to experience a real island utopia and the shellers’ smiles always reflect the bliss :)
Shellotte… 2~1~14 SHELL CRUISE Alumni
CONGRATS on your red ribbon at the show!!!! Great to see you. I think your mirror should have won too!
Great seeing you again, Pam. Jim and I loved your mirror — I think it was the winner too.
Congrats on the ribbon for your artwork. Have to leave paradise tomorrow. CU next year or maybe this summer.