I bet you didn’t see this post coming!  I have loved beach combing since I was a child but now I’m getting more into researching what I find, especially unique pieces.  While my focus has primarily been on shell hunting, I have also gained an interest in finding fossils and other oddities even if I’m not sure what they are. I’ve learned from years of shopping for antiques that I have a good instinct when it comes to finding interesting things.  That same skill seems to apply to beach combing as well.  Some of the odd things I collected ended up being ancient fossils and some excellent specimens of bryozoan-encrusted shells.  It started with one find that I assumed was a fossilized shell, but the more I studied it, the more baffling it became. I’m not quite sure why I picked up what looked like an odd rock, but there

My mom and I started talking about the IOP shell collection contest of 2022 before we even found our first shell this year.  Once the competition was mentioned, though, my mom became unreasonably competitive.  “I found the first olive shell!!  I think that should earn me bonus points!  I found the first lady’s ear so I get another bonus point!” “Mom, people vote on their favorite shell collection.  Bonus points are worthless.” She has made it clear that she doesn’t need bonus points anyway because she’s going to wipe the floor with me.  While she’s being a little intense about the contest, she did earn bragging rights by beating me with over 85% of the votes.  She’s been insufferable ever since, so thanks for that. The 2022 shell collection contest was spur of the moment, but this year the contest was going to be a bit more organized.  We collected