Oh what a night is an understatement.

I wasn’t much up for Thursday Thunder last night, I will admit. I don’t do cold weather and neither does the Queen. When we saw it would be 82, our spirits were lifted. But March Madness is in full swing and Thursday is game night (RIP to our Indiana Hoosiers). So I was torn. Glad I tore on the side of the beach.

I suggested Lighthouse Beach or Gulfside City Park, since I knew that the Spring Breakers would probably have over-shelled the place and there’d be nothing left for us. I should have known better, as with the dredging going on, the water levels, speed and direction constantly changes the landscape – literally before your eyes.

I don’t think it was 82 when we got to Blind Pass. But it was very sunny and good shelling weather. The water felt a little warmer than usual and a decent wind was blowing, so it got a bit nippy. The Queen grabbed her bucket and 99 cent scooper and started picking through the shells while I raked and scooped in the flowing water.

I was in the water really finding nothing but Fighting Conchs, which I was passing along to a couple of little girls who were watching intently from the shore. They gave us a good chuckle. We’d scoop some shells and dump them on the shore. If there were intact Fighting Conchs, we’d toss them up in the sand, as we have way too many! It was cute to watch as the piles kept disappearing. Making those little girls happy made us smile.

So the Queen kept digging and finding, digging and finding. I was only finding Rough Scallops (which I ain’t complaining about) as she was finding Banded Tulips and Lightning Whelks by the handful.

I heard her squealing on the shore line as she uncovered a few real nice keepers. She found a few minis – some thick lipped drills and bubbles, a near perfect Shark’s Eye and an absolutely beautiful Gaudy Nautica.  I mean, she’s killin it. As she continued to dig, she was able to unearth a fantastic Lightning Whelk and an Alphabet Cone!

Cutest sheller I’ve seen in these parts.

So she says, “Now find me a Junonia.”

HA! Like it’s that easy! Come on Queenie. Let’s get real.

I say, “Well, if you’re gonna find one, it’s gonna be right here.”

So the light bulb went off and we began pulling back sections at the shore where she found her Alphabet Cone. We kept digging and pulling up some really nice Lightning Whelks. Big, dark colored ones.

And then, as luck would have it. it happened.

And my response was this, verbatim – “Oh, you gotta be kiddin me.”

But yep, there it was, buried under a good 4 or 5 inches of sand. No way anyone would have found it. It was buried and was gonna stay there for a while.

Another shot of the Gaudy Nautica, a really cool looking Rough Scallop, one of the many Lightning Whelks we found and what appears to be a spine bone.

So an uber-successful Thursday Thunder! Wow!