Searching for the perfect shells

I think I could move here.

Beautiful weather, sugary sand, and that wonderful sound of waves lapping the shore.

What else could you want??

Except maybe the elusive sand dollar. The beaches here are strewn with PIECES of sand dollars. Diane and I felt like we were being teased in our search for the whole sand dollar.

Diane got up at 6:30 our first morning and went out to the beach hoping she could find some before everyone hit the beach. She found footprints all over the sand and realized that 6:30 wasn't early enough!

While we were at the beach later in the day with the kids, an older man gave us some shells he had collected. They were gorgeous and that only increased our determination to find some. When we asked him how he had collected so many great shells, he told us he stayed on the beach all night. WHAT??!!!

So, the next night after Chris had arrived, Diane and I got up at 4 AM and went out with our flashlight. There was NO ONE out there - and all I can say is that the beach is a little scary in the middle of the night when you only have one little tiny flashlight for two people. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting - I thought the beach would just be covered with these awesome, perfect, unbroken shells just waiting for us to find.

Yeah, not so much. There was nothing. Only the fact that Diane's phone rang and we just about wet our pants it scared us so bad. Needless to say, we didn't stay out there very long! And we didn't find anything...

So, Diane and the kids headed home yesterday but I talked to her last night and she had another shell tip for me. Apparently, her hairdresser told Linda yesterday that you have to go out to the first sand bar if you want to get the sand dollars. I must be pretty desperate - taking sea shell advice from someone's hair dresser!

But I am hoping to sweet talk Chris into exploring the sand bar today...we'll see how that goes :)