i’m considering submitting this one to failblog.org…  this was our hotel room window.  we quickly became the talk of the hotel after a car smashed into our window at 10:30 p.m.

Not to brag, but my dad and i are killer sandcastle makers.  We have been honing our skills for about 5 (?) years now, and each year we seem to attract more and more spectators.

Nearly every person who stops asks us how long we have been working and what our technique is.  We can make a pretty impressive castle in about 2-3 hours, assuming that the pile of sand we made in the beginning of the week is still there.  My dad’s motto on our technique is: ‘pack sand, pack sand, pack sand’.  Once you have a really solid pile of packed sand, you can carve away anything.  Here’s how we make sandcastles step by step:

Above are all our castle making tools.  In the bag, and perhaps most essential, is my dad’s metal spatula used for carving away sand.  I sometimes use the plastic one, but the sharper metal edge makes a much cleaner cut.

We use scrap wood both as scaffolding (to displace our weight and allow us to stand higher up on the sand pile) and for evenly packing down the sand for the base of the castle.   You  can also simply pack the sand with your hands.

Here, my dad adds sand to our mixing bucket then carefully scoops the wet sand into piles to later carve away into a tower.

Working from the tallest portion out, we continually layer and carve down the wet sand until we are bored or tired.  Lastly, we take down the ’scaffolding’ and sweep away
a road around the castle base.

i have to specify that this was an outdoor picnic – we lazy Jenkins are known to picnic indoors…

it was the PERFECT evening for a picnic.  we rode our bikes down to Oranoco Park by water in Old Town.  I don’t have any new recipes to share in this post, but want to encourage everyone to get outside for dinner.  Food tastes better in fresh air.  We ate the same things as we did for our indoor picnic, but it was all much more enjoyable.  Pretty soon i hope to post a camping trip – complete with recipes!