Today we made the trip to Sanibel Island, one of the greatest shell-collecting beaches in the world. The tides coming from the depths of the Gulf drag up the shells of dead hermit crabs and other organisms. Eventually, these shells find their way to the beaches of Sanibel and into the bags of shell collectors.
Before we headed to the beach however, we stopped by a shell museum. It had all sorts of shells from all over the world. And just for visiting, kids get a free shell from the beach. We also watched an informative movie on mollusks, which provide all of the shells. We learned about their methods of locomotion, shell-building, and reproduction. Their reproduction methods are especially interesting. Once the eggs are fertilized, the female starts secreting an egg chain which can grow to be 48 inches long. Several of these can be found on the Sanibel beaches. They are long chains of 1/8 inch disks. Inside of these disks are the eggs. There can be up to 60,000 eggs in one chain!
After beach-combing and a bit of souvenir shopping in Sanibel, we drove to Naples to look in some of the shops in the areas called The Boardwalk and Tin City. We asked around for some recommendations of good places to eat and ended up at Kelly’s Fish House. I had about 10 Stone Crab claws, so I added yet another to my “tasted” list. I haven’t been disappointed yet!
Before we headed to the beach however, we stopped by a shell museum. It had all sorts of shells from all over the world. And just for visiting, kids get a free shell from the beach. We also watched an informative movie on mollusks, which provide all of the shells. We learned about their methods of locomotion, shell-building, and reproduction. Their reproduction methods are especially interesting. Once the eggs are fertilized, the female starts secreting an egg chain which can grow to be 48 inches long. Several of these can be found on the Sanibel beaches. They are long chains of 1/8 inch disks. Inside of these disks are the eggs. There can be up to 60,000 eggs in one chain!
After beach-combing and a bit of souvenir shopping in Sanibel, we drove to Naples to look in some of the shops in the areas called The Boardwalk and Tin City. We asked around for some recommendations of good places to eat and ended up at Kelly’s Fish House. I had about 10 Stone Crab claws, so I added yet another to my “tasted” list. I haven’t been disappointed yet!
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