Building castles in the sand

Their fleeting nature makes both sandcastles and the season they represent infinitely more special.

And, that’s just one lesson sandcastles can teach.

They teach industry and teamwork, precision and design.

Stroll any beach and you’ll find tiny engineers digging with a universal concentration, carting water, and gathering shells and twigs.

In that timeless scene, neither the builders nor their tools have changed in all the years. Watch a group of kids build a sandcastle today, blink, and see the exact same seen from 1940. Only the length of the swim trunks has changed.

Best of all, they all know, have always known, that those magical structures will not withstand the ordinary onslaught of waves and wind and rain. Still, they build them every time, on every beach, in every country around the world.

Sandcastles represent both art and childhood in their purest form.

We stopped by a sandcastle building demonstration Saturday afternoon, enjoyed a lesson in technique, admired the professional displays and then, naturally, watched as our smaller people dug in.

An unexpected downpour shortened our visit, but we’d accomplished our goal anyway.

We came, we saw, we admired, we dug, we carted, we shaped, we built and then, soggy, sandy and satisfied, we left it behind.

We came to take a look at the sandcastles as part of Art Street.
And those pieces, crafted by The Sand Lovers, a professional sand sculptors based in Florida, were very impressive.
My favorite was this piece of sand art, featuring art supplies with Wisconsin-themed artwork.
The Wisconsin-themed art.
When they are finished, this will be the masks of comedy and tragedy.
While Mariane Knight worked on the sand sculptures, her husband Bill Knight gave us all a lesson in how to create sand sculptures.
Then, our little people went to work.
“Don’t get your clothes wet!” we urged them, an impossible ask as the lure of an empty lake drew them in. No matter. The other great thing about sandcastle building is that sand washes clean, and what’s a summer day without a little sand between your toes anyway?

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