"I wiped away the weeds and foam, I fetched my sea-born treasures home; But the poor, unsightly, noisome things Had left their beauty on the shore, With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar." —Ralph Waldo Emerson

One summer we found ourselves unaccountably tired of tanning, napping, snacking on gritty sandwiches, and supervising the kids' bucket sculpture. But we had also outgrown sand mermaids, and soupy, drip-constructed castles, and burying each other's legs. Our solution to summer boredom soon became a mania and never failed to draw curious crowds as we gained skill, confidence, and ingenuity in bringing vanished civilizations back to life.


Connie Sim, Kappy & Malcolm Wells, authors of Santiquity, are of course talking about the phenomenon of sandcastling. The opportunity to build the great monuments of the past is inviting and downright contagious. It's somewhat of a performance art, where for a brief moment the beach is at your command, the very earth is subject to your tools, until the waves of high tide come crashing back in.


See the stark contrast to building a house on sand in the movie, Life as a House, with Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott Thomas.


Pick up your copy of an idea/how-to book by a group of beach friends.