castles made of sand

If you know our family well, you know that Point Reyes Station is our home away from home, our dream for the future and our escape from reality. For the last eight years we have been staying several times a year in a wonderful yurt overlooking Tomales Bay, owned by a gem of a guy named Tony. We like to act like we are locals when we are in the area, because that's how we feel.


We headed out this morning to the Point Reyes National Seashore Annual Sand Sculpture Contest on Drakes Beach. To be honest, I thought we'd only stay a little while. Northern California beaches aren't exactly warm and friendly, and I didn't know how well attended this event would be. We were pleasantly surprised by both the weather (warmish) and the turnout (a Northern California beach, crowded and lively, with hundreds of people milling about!). We ended up spending the day watching all the sculptors sculpting, and doing some digging and building of our own.

This was a "NO KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE" map of the United States with a big seaweed pipeline running right down the middle. If you haven't read or heard about this pipeline, which will pose a terrible threat to our water supply, not to mention have terribly detrimental effects on the global environment, please click HERE. This is a petition you can sign that will go to President Obama, as well as an informational site which will give you the lowdown. I'll admit, I hadn't paid attention to the protests this week, but this sand sculpture got my ear.

This father/daughter/daughter's friends team built a compelling dam structure, then covered it in mud-drizzle trees. I remember sitting on the shore growing up making millions of those things.

09.02.11