Vaca - Part V - Happy Endings

So, Friday morning dawned a little brighter, with a rainbow and all, so we decided to take that trip we had been planning all week. First we ate a delicious breakfast at the Seahorse Cafe, right across from the marina, complete with grits and all.

Then it was a short walk over to the marina for the 10:00 shuttle out to Shell Island. The brochure on this trip promised shells galore and it didn't disappoint. As soon as we got off the boat, picked up our umbrella and shelling bags we set off to find out spot and the shells were just laying all over, ripe for the picking.


We were a good distance from civilization and the only way to get to this beach was by boat. I guess you could swim if you were a really strong swimmer but I preferred the boat.


That's our little spot in the distance. Oh, wait a sec, no it isn't.

We decided that since we didn't get a little shovel to dig the hole for the post for the umbrella that we would just lay our umbrella down and that worked just fine.


Here's H shelling. He decided to walk back from our spot to where the boat dropped us off as most of the big shells were actually along that stretch of beach. When he got back to our umbrella with the bag we had to make some choices. He had so many shells I told him I didn't think we should take all the good ones and not leave them for other people that were coming that day!


It was just us and the birds. Oh, I did see a dolphin off shore too, actually two. Looked like a mom and her baby. Of course, they are so quick I didn't get the camera up in time to snap a pic.


We opted to only stay for the two hours. You could leave at 12:15, 2:15 or 4:15 but the sun was out and it was pretty hot so we decided we had enough shells and since the sun was out it would be nice to go back to the pool on our last day in Florida.



We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool, relaxing and reading.

Then went for one last walk on the beach



and saw our final sunset though it wasn't really much to write home about.


The sun went down and it was time to go back to the room and start packing. We wanted to be on the road and hit our favorite bakery in Ybor City to buy some cuban bread to take back home.


We were on the road by 7:00, hit the bakery for 8 loaves of bread which we brought home, cut up and froze, and had a relatively uneventful drive back home with a one night stop in London, Kentucky. Our 12 day vacation had finally come to an end and we were both so glad to sleep in our own bed again! Plus my pups were really happy to see us and haven't really left my side since I got home!