Shelling

A widely used term for one of the most prominent pastimes in Fort Myers is called "shelling." It refers to searching the beaches for neat shells. As boring as it may sound, it became one of Nate and my most fun activities. We were amazed at how many neat shells we could find on the beaches. We even found several sand dollars in the early morning hours on our morning runs. As we started studying each individual shell we just couldn't believe that little animals used to live in every single one of the clam shells and mini conk shells. In fact, there still were slug like animals in many of the mini conk shells that washed up on the shore. We found that when they get washed up on the shore, the little slug animals would slowly oooze out of their shell, slither in the sand a ways, leaving a fine trail behind them where they had slithered, and dive into the sand and work their way underground back into the water. It became a fascinating study watching the little animals do just this, and reinforced to both Nate and I how amazing Heavenly Father's creations are. Each and every shell was different. There were none that were the exact same. When we are taught that there are worlds in number more than the sands of the sea, it is overwhelming to understand God's creations. How blessed we are!!

Starfish

This is a crab shell. I think the crab is actually still inside, but all dried up since it got washed up. Sometimes we would see a crab shell, but the crab had left his shell and slithered back to the water. These things look like they could really hurt someone!

Here are some of the small conk shells, or swirly shells. If you look close, you can see the trails of the animals as they are working their way back to water.

Here is a very large conk shell. This animal is actively reaching out of its shell and working its way out. It was actually very eerie watching it reach its tentacles out. I actually had a nightmare about one of these that was so large it was getting us. Yikes!! Super weird animal, yet amazing.

A beautiful bird just hanging out right near us