East Matunuck, RI

Sunday, 3 July 2005

Our annual Fourth of July trek to Rhode Island,
to relax and catch up with lifelong friends, do the Snug Harbor Parade*,
watch the more-amazing-every-year fireworks in Wakefield,
and, with any luck, find some time at the beach to play in the sand.
To my initial horror, high tide was 5 a.m. on my only possible sculpting day.

Was I really going to get up at five in the morning on a vacation day?
Just to do a sand sculpture??

Yup.

I must finally confess, however, I cheated.
Broke my long standing, self-imposed rule about "no tools"
by using a shovel to make the initial sand pile.
I say "finally" because this was actually the second year in a row I did it.
But I've never gotten around to posting last year's photos
from Dewey Beach, Delaware, so now you know.
Still didn't use anything more than my hands for the actual sculpting,
but using a shovel at the beginning saves about two hours of back-breaking labor.
So, kind of like the year Bob Dylan decided to go electric,
I think the shovel is here to stay.

*click here to visit
the 20th annual Snug Harbor 4th of July Parade
(also featured in the "On the Road" section of this website).

Made it to the beach by 6am. Deserted, but for the occasional early morning jogger. It was beautiful.
Erosion from winter storms had uncovered a rock I've never seen in all my years at East Matunuck.
It seemed an ideal location for a reclining siren.

 

Thanks to my handy shovel, a mermaid began to emerge from the local sand
after only a couple of hours.

 

Shameless self-promotion. So many nice people expressed disappointment
at not having brought their cameras to the beach,
I scratched my web address in the sand as an invitation to visit.

 

Toward the end of day, one last photo before she returned to the sea from whence she came.

 

 

 

 

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