Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

It's hurricane season in SWF. We have been lucky so far, experiencing minimal effects from Fay and her friends. However, things have been rather tumultuous out in the Gulf of Mexico. Some days the seas are amazingly calm; and others, the surf is rough, and the umbrellas are blowing down the beach. The high tides are very high and the low tides are very low. Some or all of these factors leave some sea creatures in places they don't expect or want to be.
This big lightning whelk was stranded way up on the beach during high tide and had hunkered down in the sand with only his pointy end sticking up out of the sand a bit. I was hoping nobody was home.........

but alas! he's still in there, and I have to hike down to the water and place him back in his habitat. That deed should bring me good karma because shells this size fetch about $30-$40 in the local shell shops. Surprisingly, the lightning whelk is the state shell of Texas and illegal to capture live there, as well.

An angel wing, a cockle, some conchs, and a bottle of Evian..........a perfect day at the beach.

If you've never searched for shells, I cannot explain to you the pure joy of discovering one of these treasures on the sand or in the water. The people in the distance are doing the Sanibel Stoop as opposed to the Captiva Crawl. Trust me, everybody does it.

Look! I found a sea shell by the sea shore. Is life good or what?