Castles in the Sand

castleformail
Originally uploaded by super rachel zana.

The last time I genuinely built a sandcastle on a beach may have been when I was eleven. This past weekend we visited the beach while vacationing. It was a semi warm day. I say semi warm because we weren't freezing to death, but I was wearing two shirts and a sweatshirt, so I wouldn't say it was your typical balmy beach experience. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time. Ms. Crazy Preschooler would have stayed all day and probably the next day too. She amused herself by attempting to throw the beach into the Lake Superior, handful of sand by handful. We looked for driftwood, painted in the sand with sticks from the forest, collected rocks and of course built a couple sandcastles. I've always been fascinated by the act of building castles with moats. A sand castle is weak and dull without a good moat to protect it, and I love watching the waves lap against the shore, whapping the sand and sending swells of water inland toward the castle. While not overly elegant, my castle was strong, and we left it standing proud to face a tumultous sea.