Saturday 15 October 2005

Day 4

 

Arose at around 7:30 a.m. and once more made the breakfast pilgrimage while the coffee was brewing.  I’d decided I wanted a lazy Saturday morning in, and that I wasn’t going to work on my paper at all, so there.  Still, I was a busy girl all morning, uploading photos to my web site, surfing around and posting on various forums, answering personal emails.  Eventually, I showered and emerged from the room, probably to the great relief of the housekeeping staff, as I’d been in there the entire morning, preventing them from cleaning the room.

 

1.     8:06 am

2.     8:38 am

3.     9:00 am

4.     9:18 am

5.     9:50 am

6.     10:21 am

7.     10:44 am

8.     11:19 am

9.     12:24 pm

 

When I finally emerged, I made tracks for the Liz Claiborne store at the Tanger Outlets, and had myself a nice little shopping spree.  I have been so obsessed with saving, I haven't bought new clothes in a while, and there were some excellent clearance sales going on.  Once my hunger for clothing was sated, I crossed the causeway and stopped at Hexter’s to pick up a sandwich on my way to Gulfside City Park. 

 

10.  1:30 pm

 

The water was noticeably colder than it had been the previous days, and I wondered if there was a storm approaching.  Shelling was not favorable on this day at Gulfside, but I was treated to the company of a pair of small British girls, perhaps age 10 at most, who were most eager to assist in the search and chatter up a storm in the process.  Everything we found was complete crap, but I made much of their treasures anyway, and was quite honored to be offered a few of them – graciously made a fuss and put them in my mesh bag.  Yes, I am a child-magnet - I am Auntie to the world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday's Shelling Haul

 

The group above the open cockles came from Gulfside City Park. All else came from the Lighthouse Beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gulfside City Park shells

A closer look at the haul from Gulfside City Park. Two lovely little British girls helped with the hunt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

11.  3:17 pm

 

Backtracked to the lighthouse beach (of course, practicing Periwinkle Avoidance), where I was very happy to see my red tulip buddy for the third day in a row.  This time, she was under water, clinging to a different pylon.  We chatted a while, and then I went on to search the beach, always coming back to that spot in the shadow of the pier, to see what had been revealed.  Found three more whole cockles, as well as lots of single cockle halves, and a large but VERY beat up alphabet cone.  Some nice whelks, of both the lightening and pear variety, appeared poking up from the sandy shallows, and a handful of fine apple murex were tumbling about in the surf line, just waiting for me to pick them up.  Oh, and a very nice little mac-n-cheese appeared in the surf line too, smack dab in front of the lighthouse.

 

 

 

The Lighthouse Beach...

...never fails to deliver! With VERY few exceptions, these were all revealed in the shadow of the fishing pier, starting about 3 hours before low tide. The water was exceptionally clear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORE Whelks!

 

It really is amazing that all I could find on my first day were live ones - now look!  Love that "denim" looking pear whelk.  The larger macaroni & cheese shell was found directly in front of the lighthouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12.  5:53 pm

13.  6:43 pm

 

I left the lighthouse beach well before the actual low tide, and as I motored across the causeway, made note of the fact that the brown pelicans seem to have staked out the construction platforms as their new home.  I was not really sad as I drove in the “sad lane” back across the causeway to the mainland.  Peeking back over my shoulder to look at the lighthouse one more time, instead of hearing, “Goodbye, Sanibel – goodbye!” in my head, I heard a much stronger voice, proclaiming, “I’ll be back, Sanibel – I’ll be back!”

 

Stopped off at Mickey D’s again for a salad, and then headed back to the hotel to perform bathing rituals for both myself and my shells.  Played around with taking and uploading some more photos, then started to pack.

 

14.  7:14 pm

15.  8:12 pm

16.  9:12 pm

 

Somehow, packing to leave Fort Myers/Sanibel isn’t so bad, when you know that you’re going to Disney World in the morning!  I rolled up the shells in my beach towel, and put it in a bag with other plastic bags full of dirty laundry stuffed around it for protection.  Finally, everything was stacked by the door for evacuation in the morning.  A little school reading followed.

 

17.  9:54 pm

18.  10:48 pm

19.  11:22 pm

 

Drat, I can’t fall asleep AGAIN!  What is it with me these past few days?  With a sigh, I turned on the television, and it was another hour before my eyes began to close of their own volition.

 

20.  12:02 am

21.  12:20 am

22.  1:13 am

 

(The Disney portion of this trip can be found under PlunderFest 3: Better Watch Yer Candy!).