Category Archives: Nature

A “Bubblicious” Thursday

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Pretty cool night for shelling, I must say. Gulfside City Park was our destination for last night’s Thursday Thunder and it did NOT disappoint. I personally wasn’t really “on the hunt” last night. I just felt like relaxing. If we found anything, cool. If we didn’t, still cool. It was 90 degrees outside and Summer is just about in full swing here. No better place to be in my opinion than a beach on Sanibel Island.

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I’m almost at the point where I can’t contain my excitement about the weather. Last night’s water temp was 79 degrees. It’s just cool enough (to me at least) to make me gasp when I fully immerse myself, but just warm enough to really get in there and feel around for shells. Another 2 or 3 degrees upwards and it’s time to snorkel. Heck, maybe even this weekend!

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There were a whole lot of your typical Sanibel shells along the shore line, and lots and lots of shell piles.

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But it was pretty windy, as you can see below as the wind kept blowing my shirt up every time I did the Sanibel Stoop. Good thing I’ve got rock hard abs and the body of an Adonis.  Otherwise, it could have made for a really sloppy and somewhat embarrassing photo.

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Queenie was having all kinds of good luck in the shell piles. She found a couple Thick Lipped Drills, a Flat Zig Zag scallop, a ton of mini Olives and NINE Bubble Shells.

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…and as she was sitting on a shell pile, this really pristine Banded Tulip just rolled into her pile.

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I wasn’t having the same kind of luck. Oh, I found the occasional Olive or Juvenile Fighting Conch, but nothing spectacular….

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…until I happened to look into a shell pile at my feet and found this:

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That is an Arrow Dwarf Triton. Wow, an awesome find to say the least. I’m not an expert or anything but from what I hear, they’re not a common find around these parts. I didn’t even know what it was until I hit the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum website and discovered its name. Then I got very excited. :D

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The Queen also found this killer Gold Jingle in another pile at her feet. I’ve never seen a gold one before….

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Next weekend we’ll be making the April stop on the Florida Beaches Royalty Tour. Looking forward to that one.

But we’re stoked for this weekend. See you at Blind Pass!

The Venice Shark Tooth Festival

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This weekend took us on a quick jaunt North to the City of Venice for the Annual Venice Shark Tooth Festival. The event takes place every year at the Venice Municipal Airport Fairgrounds with all proceeds going to the Special Olympics. What a great way to spend a Saturday morning and help kids in the process.

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Since Venice, Florida is known as the Shark Tooth Capitol of the World, what better way to show that off by having festival – All about Shark Teeth?

I was surprised to find that the festival is quite large with vendors running the gamut from woodworking and glass making to cell phone and storm shutter sales. The Queen and I have been to our share of festivals and many are more cozy than huge. This one is huge. They start off each festival with a 10K run and this year’s event featured 642 runners.

Of course, as soon as we entered the festival grounds, my Scooby Doo-like food-sensing nose sniffed out the food vendors. Anyone who knows me knows that these places tend to be my favorite stops when I attend festivals. Remember how Scooby would get a sniff of a Scooby Snack and float in the air towards it? Yeah, I do that exact same thing. I float too.

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I ended up getting a crispy grouper sandwich that was nearly nine inches long. It was $10, and worth it.

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Off to the right as you entered (just over my shoulder in the pic above), two very large tents were set up to accommodate the many fossil, teeth and geode vendors….and there were many, featuring fossils and teeth found not only in the local area, but all over the world.

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Off to the left of the entrance we found many exhibits featuring locally made arts and crafts. If you were in the market for some local beachy decor, it would have been the place to stock up for sure. In the market for a boat? Yep, they had some boat sellers there too. Got kids? Hey guess what? Kid booths too.

We had our eyes peeled for fellow shell and beach blogger The Essential Beachcomber, but unfortunately we missed her (next time, K!).

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I’m sorry to pause this blog-cast in mid-blog, but I just had to stop to show you all this guy’s Sweet Mullet.

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Our friends at Mote Marine Lab had their own booth where they taught about the various shells and marine life found in our local waters. Very informative.

She thought I didn’t notice, but I spotted Queenie eyein’ that Funnel Cake booth as soon as we walked in.

“You want a funnel cake, babe?”

“Nah, I’m ok.”

Suuuuure you are.

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So next year, make sure you put it on your calendar to visit the Shark Tooth Festival in the Shark Tooth Capitol of the World – beautiful Venice, Florida. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.