Florida seems to be a popular destination again with travelers here, and lately I have been doing some research for resorts both on the east and west coast. This has brought back some fond memories
A few years back, I was sitting on the beach at Marco Island, when I noticed people standing waist deep in the water, staring down at their feet. At first they seemed isolated from each other, but after a while they seemed to congregate and form groups, all staring down next to each other.
This went on for a while until one of them left the group to return to dry land, and that is when I noticed she was carrying a bag. I nonchalantly ambled over to peer into her bag. It was filled with sand dollars, those lovely round shells with a star design on the top. The lady kindly explained that all you had to do was to scratch the sand with your toes as they are usually not buried very deep. She also mentioned that they are often found in groups, so that if you found one your chances were good of finding others. Which explained the groups of people standing together.
I knew the area was renowned for shells but had never found a sand dollar myself. So I grabbed a plastic bag and went in the water.
This was my kind of sport: no need to get all wet, no exertion, you just stood there wiggling your toes. I was happy, soaking up the sun, when I felt something hard under my foot, I dipped and, sure enough, retrieved my first sand dollar! I was very excited and must have jumped up and down and screamed a bit, (after all, this was not an elevator), so people noticed, and when they saw me dipping down again a few minutes later, they started moving towards me. I soon had a nice little crowd around me. People were very nice, talking about their various experiences at shell collecting, and I kept dipping and putting more and more shells in my bag. I seemed to be the only one doing so, I was feeling very lucky. After a while I figured I had better leave some for the others and decided to head back to shore. I waved goodbye to everyone and sauntered away. When I got to my beach towel, I sat down to count my bounty. The bag felt light, even out of water. I opened it and peered in, expecting to find a pile of sand dollars. There was only one, and a big hole at the bottom of the bag…I had been picking up and dropping the same shell all this time…
