Wonders arise from the Sand

Sand in your swim trunks, Sand in your hair, 

When building a sandcastle, There's sand everywhere!

It's truly incredible to think that the devotion to and beauty of these amazing works of sculptural art is a vision so short lived.  So let's enjoy them while we can.

These sandcastles are being built on the shores of Virginia Beach and are part of the Solo and Team Masters Division of the Neptune Festival's North America Sand Sculpting Championship - an internationally known event and one of the largest competitions of its kind on the East Coast.

 

The contest draws more than 300 competitors in all divisions. This year there are sculptors from Canada, Italy, India, Japan, Russia, Latvia, Australia, Netherlands as well as the United States.

The weather has been summertime hot, but at least the sculptors are not fighting wind and rain!  The sand sculpting event will continue on through the weekend with a local school division on Saturday and a business division on Sunday.  A sight to behold, even if for a short period of time.

And where there's a crowd...

The funnel cake cart is there to make sure the hungry are well fed!

Not yet ready to call it quits...

 

Today marks the first calendar day of Autumn, but I'm not yet ready to say good-bye to the deliciously long, care-free days of summer!  In order to keep the season of summer warm in our hearts, my husband and I took a little time off and went for a long bike ride on the boardwalk this morning.  I was quite happy to see that there are plenty of other seasoned souls who are with us in spirit. 

In my town it's still

Summertime and Sandcastle Days.

Summertime...

 The boys of summer continue to set up beach chairs and shade tents ~

the ladies still gather for a girls morning out ~

beach babes, with their parents in tow, prolong their beach days as long as possible ~

while fishermen and women continue to cast their lines into the surf.

Sandcastle Days...

Yet, nothing says summer quite like a day at the beach building eye-popping sandcastles.

How lucky for us that the "Neptune Festival" brings these professional sculptures of sand

onto our beach with their talent and tools to create mind-boggling works of wonder.

That bring to mind sweet childhood memories of hours spent by the sea ~ timeless and carefree.

Ah ~ it warms my heart to see that within many of us lays an unshakable spirit of summer!

Look for more sandcastle images tomorrow as the builders will continue sculpting throughout the day today.