Friday night Auction

Thursday night, Jonathan and I were talking about our plans for the weekend. We were frustrated because there were no new movies in the theater that we were interested in seeing....Usually on friday nights, we do dinner and a movie.

Well, Thursday night I got an e mail from my dad that said that there is a surfer (pete smith) from virginia beach who was retiring and they were auctioning off some of his stuff that he has collected through the years. Now, you might wonder why we would be interested in going to this since neither Jonathan or I surf. Well, one of the items being auctioned off was a turtle shell from Costa Rica.

Let me back up just a bit. When Jonathan and I got married in 2007 in the Cayman Islands, we ate at a restaurant there. In this restaurant they had a HUGE turtle shell hanging up on the wall. Jonathan was fascinated by it right away (these turtle shells are beautiful!). He said that he wanted one, and was going to offer to buy the one right off the wall of the restaurant. When he talked to the waiter about the shell, he informed us that it is illegal for them to preserve the shells now. They are afraid that if people start demanding the turtle shells, then more and more people will be poaching the turtles to get them. They even have a turtle farm in the cayman islands where they just breed the turtles for food purposes....however, the shells all have to be grinded. After we heard this, we realized that it was unlikely that we would ever have an authentic turtle shell hanging on our wall.

Now, back to the auction. This guy had purchased his shell back in 1968, when it was still legal. Now he was auctioning it off....this will probably be Jonathan's only shot at ever owning one. When we got to the auction, the starting bid on the turtle shell was $1200 (silent auction). The shell was beautiful, however it had been cracked and you could see where it was replaced with some tape before it was polished up. Jonathan was a little upset at that, but figured he could probably get it fixed for a couple hundred dollars. We got to the auction at 7 and the auctions did not close until 10:30. So, after we ate dinner there we walked down to 31st street and had some coffee and desert at Starbucks. We decided to head back to the auction about 9:30. The bidding had gone up a little bit, and we had it narrowed down to the guy who was going to fighting for this turtle shell with jonathan. During the last couple minutes of the auction, Jonathan and his competition were just guarding this turtle shell. Jonathan, would write down a bit and right away the other guy would write down a higher bid. When the shell got up to $1750, Jonathan decided to stop. So needless to say, we came home without a turtle shell.....but Jonathan still had $1750 in his pocket :)

It ended up being a really fun night. I enjoyed the time that we had at starbucks to just sit and talk to each other in a quiet environment. I love my husband so much, and I always look forward to the time we get to spend together on the weekends!!

So, to end this blog...if you know of anyone trying to get rid of a turtle shell, let us know!! :)