When Norton residents Rachael and Ronnie Cool and their three children arrived in the Tampa area on Sunday, Tropical Storm Debby was there to greet them.
It wasn’t until the next day that the clan of five could get outside to experience the beach near Treasure Island on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
They were on a hunt for sea shells, Rachael Cool said in a phone interview this week.
They found shells — and a starfish, octopus, and a baby turtle they helped back into the ocean.
But they also found a message in a bottle.
The keen eye of Ella Cool spotted bottle at Tampa-area beach
In a modern twist to the story, it was tucked inside a Propel water bottle.
“My daughter noticed a bottle … and I noticed there was a letter and my husband ran and grabbed it,” she said.
While the Cools collected shells and helped a baby turtle back into the Gulf waters, they held on to the bottle, spotted by 8-year-old Ella.
“We waited to get back to the condo to open it,” Rachael Cool said.
Once there, the family, including Ella and her 5-year-old twin siblings Ryleigh and Greyson, gathered round to find out just what they had discovered in a plastic water bottle.