#Sanibel6

If you follow my Instagram then you'll remember several strange posts of Zach and I posing with colored cut-out boards with different seashells on them.  You probably thought, "What is this madness?!"  Here's the story...

One Saturday afternoon while I was at work, June 18th to be exact, I was sitting in the information booth (you know, the place at touristy places with all the maps and brochures about local "must-see" places) hoping no one would come up and ask me questions so I could enjoy not having to talk to people for once all day and just people watch.  I noticed a brochure that I hadn't seen before and began reading it.  It was from The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel promoting a scavenger hunt contest in honor of National Seashell Day.  The contest was explained simply: find the 6 seashells that have been scattered all over Fort Myers and Sanibel, take selfies with each and post the pictures on Twitter or Instagram with the #Sanibel6.  The prizes: post just one picture and your name is entered to win tickets for a sunset cruise, the first 50 people to post selfies of all 6 shells automatically win a gift bag from The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel, and the Grand Prize is 3 nights at a resort on Fort Myers Beach during the annual Songwriters Festival for someone who posts pictures with all 6 plus the bonus 7th shell.  

Sounded pretty cool!  What was even cooler was that off to my left about 10 feet away was one of the 6 shells :)

So I thought, "why not?"  I casually walked over when no one was looking, crouched down by the sign to take an awkward selfie, hoping none of my coworkers were watching me on the security camera and laughing at me :P

I went back to my station in the info booth and looked at Instagram to see what the competition looked like and to my surprise not a single person had pictures with all 6 let alone all 7 and the contest was only open for 2 more days!  The odds of winning that staycation started to look pretty favorable so I began thinking how fun it would be if Zach and I drove around taking pictures of seashells and could maybe win something for it. I talked to him on my drive home and he was all in for the adventure!

Our first stop was at the Alliance for the Arts which was closed and the sign was nowhere to be seen :/  I said to forget it and I'll stop there on my way to work Monday.  So downtown to The Barrel Room we went.  There wasn't anywhere to park nearby so I hopped out of the car, again crouched down and took an awkward selfie in the middle of a crowded downtown street. :)

After checking Instagram again, I noticed that someone else ran into the same problem at Alliance for the Arts and took a picture of the sign through the window.  The contest promoters commented that it counted as a selfie so we headed back to Alliance for the Arts to trespass and peer through the windows ;)

3 down!  About 15 minutes north of us was The Shell Factory, a zoo/family funland where one of the other shells was located.  Not knowing what time they closed we zipped up there only to find it was locked up and no shell was in sight :(  We were not thwarted and instead planned to head there first after church the next day.

We stopped at a delicious Chinese restaurant, Ginger Bistro, on our way to the last stop for the night.  Love Boat Ice Cream was a perfect final stop to wrap up our evening of shell hunting, or so we thought.  The line to buy ice cream was out the door and extending into the parking lot :(  So we snapped our picture, didn't buy ice ceam and called it a night.

Day 2, after church we headed home to change then booked it back up to the Shell Factory.  It's a creepy, run down place filled with post WWII era mannequins and Christmas paraphernalia...weird.  Got in, got the picture, and got out!

Yes, those Christmas trees are upside down...

Next stop, Fort Myers Beach!  To give some perspective, The Shell Factory is about 20-30 mins north of where we live and Fort Myers Beach is about 20-30 mins south of where we live.  So we did A LOT of driving!  This one was a little tricky because parking around the beach is insane and the shell was inside a store we had trouble finding but we persevered and came out with the picture!

"Zach! You have to get the shell in the picture!"

"There you go!"

We had all 6!!  Now on to Sanibel Island to the Bailey-Mathews Shell Museum for the 7th bonus shell!  You know we wanted that Grand Prize when we were willing to pay the $6 toll to cross into Sanibel ;)  We made it 15 minutes before closing and got the final pictures!!  The lady at the museum said not many people had taken their picture with it so our chances of winning were looking pretty good!  Sweet!

We took advantage of being on Sanibel and decided to sit on Lighthouse Beach for awhile and try a new restaurant on the Island to celebrate our victory of at least winning a gift bag!  I said if the gift bag is worth more than the $6 to get to the island then I'll be happy ;D

So that was our #Sanibel6 adventure!  Did we win??  I have no idea!!!  To this day, over a month later, they still have not announced winners nor have they contacted me about my gift bag! :(  Someone dropped the ball!  I sent an inquiring email yesterday to the Fort Myers VCB asking who won and how I claim my gift bag (because I know we won that!  Not even close to 50 people took pictures with all 6 and according to Instagram and Twitter only 3 others got all 7!)  Hopefully I'll hear back soon but even if I don't we had such a blast exploring the city together and feeding each other's competitive spirit.  Turns out we make a pretty good scavenger hunting team ;)