We had a great time down in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. It took us three days to build this Sandcastle. Not that we intended for that to happen when I started it, but almost everyone in the family saw how much fun I was having and they all just joined in.

Just in case you've never seen one of these before, I call them "drip" castles. I get a nice big bucket full of water and dump some sand in it. The I just take out handfulls of wet sand and let it dribble down my finger to form all sorts of really cool towers and stuff. It's very organic and surrealistic looking. It's also quite addictive.

You would think that my little girls would've had a blast with this. Well, when I first started it, yeah, they had fun. I'd build something up - they'd knock it down. I didn't mind much. But once the other relatives got into building their creations... Well, it quickly became off limits to the poor little girls. Atleast until after it rained, that is. THEN I let them go completely nuts stomping it all flat! Took them all of fifteen minutes.

So, obviously, this thing got out of hand. It turned out pretty incredible though. There's drawbridges, forests, caves, watchtowers, and all sorts of stuff in there. People would walk up to us while were working on it and tell us we should come back again for the competition they have down there. I said no thanks. Wouldn't have been as much fun if I had a deadline hanging over me and a bunch of other people trying to make one even better than mine.

It was nice having people say that, though. And some folks even took some photos of their own. Heck, I even gave out a few business cards. Ya never know. I think I'd just about flip out if someone actually wanted to pay me to make a sandcastle!

As you may have noticed, I fell in love with this sandcastle. I must have shot at least two whole rolls of film just taking snapshots of it. I even went so far as to buy a box of birthday candles, tuck them into a few of the caves and watchtowers, light them, and tried to take some photos at night. I only wish I'd had a better camera with me. As it is these were the only night shots that came out halfway decent.

So take a break. Peek at few of my photos. Enjoy the sun and the surf. And be sure to let me know what you thought of my Sandcastle.