Too Much Excitement/Not Good

I had to do an early post today, just to make a point that too much excitement isn't always good. You know from my previous post that I was getting pretty excited about the possibility of good shelling the next 3 days, due to a very low tide. And of course a high surf advisory always gets my curiosity peaked. It makes me want to see how high it is and what it looks like. When I'm excited, I can't sleep. Yes, I know what you're thinking....the High Surf Advisory wasn't until after 10 AM today and the really low tides aren't until FR, SA, & SU. But that didn't calm me down any; you never know, things could get rolling a little sooner. Right? So, at 3:30 this AM there was a drive made to Lighthouse Beach just to check out the situation.

The temperature was still warm, so the cooler air hadn't moved in yet. The wind was blowing, but not very strong. But, wow!! The tide was out really far. Woo~Hoo!!! Now, about here, I should probably point out that I figured it would just be a quick look see and after realizing everything was normal at the beach, it would be right back home to bed. I think that's why I didn't bother to put my beach shoes on, wearing instead a pair of good flip flops.

OK, just had to walk out to the water to check the shell situation. At first glance there didn't appear to be many, but started walking anyway. Then...a paper fig! Walked a little further; started seeing lots of Channeled Duck Clams (Sailors Ears) and tons of sea squirts. So, if those are here, maybe there will be more of something I want.

I think it was about this point that I did notice something nice. There were Christmas lights on the houses by the Lighthouse. Pretty neat looking in the dark, from the beach. I took a picture that, of course it's all black except for some of the Christmas lights, the beacon on the Lighthouse and the moon in the clouds.



I don't think I've mentioned yet, about how bad the sand smells when the tide is out further than usual. And, it was sort of like walking on an inch of wet cement mix. With it still being wet and little puddles of water in it, my leather flip flops were now covered with the cement mix too and my feet were slipping from side to side in them. I thought it was time to give it up.

But, NO there are a couple more Paper Figs! And there are Dosinia shells scattered here and there, maybe there will be more around the corner. Wrong! Just more, even nastier, wet cement mix. After getting to the Fishing Pier, I was done! Back to the parking lot, via paths instead of the beach.

Now, back on the road again and being a little disappointed, I thought hmmm, if the tide is out that far, maybe I should check the beach at the end of Baily Rd on the Bay side. Maybe I could find lots of Pink Telons there. So, another stop, just to check. Wow, the tide was out further here than I had seen it before, there were sure to be telons all over the beach! NO none!! Just one teeny, tiny piece. :-( OK, I'm walking back to the car and bright car lights were coming up the street. I hurried a little more to get back, just as I jumped in the car, I noticed it was a Sanibel Police car, I was relieved but not! Ooh crap, am I going to jail? He just turned around and went back the other way again. SHEW! It is time for bed!

Alrighty then, that's my story! Now I want to show you how my booty looked when I got it inside and in good light.



I guess we won't need to do a survey to find out if you think the efforts were wasted or not. If you know how thin Paper Figs are, then you probably know they'll most likely break when trying to get all those barnacles off and the smallest one is all broken on the edge too. There was one good shell. I was so lucky, I have a wonderful, perfect Paper Fig.