Build a Sandcastle

Plenty of people find a day at the beach to be an enjoyable event, and some consider it to be nearly spiritual. But instead of just sitting around on a towel prematurely aging your skin or collecting sand inside your speedos, why not build a sandcastle? We're not talking just any old sandcastle. We're talking about actually knowing what you are doing. Not only will your date be impressed, but he or she will feel good about going to the beach with someone who knows how to transform a useless mound of sand into a cool casa.

COST and PREPARATION

Log on to www.amazon.com and consider ordering the video Sandcastle Secrets: How to Build A Great Temporary Piece of Art by American Production Services. This is the kind of predate preparation that separates the winners from the weenies, and it will only set you back twenty clams or so.

You can also order a booklet on how to build a sandcastle. The Take Me To The Beach Sandcastle Book by Lucinda Wierenga offers twenty pages of advice on the finer techniques of building with sand. Order online at www.sonsofthebeach.com. How can you resist a site with a name like that? You'll only need to shell out ten clams including shipping and handling.

Holy melon ballers! Check out www.sandcastlecentral.com for tips on castle building and information on tools. That's right, tools. No self-respecting sandcastle builder would use a plastic bucket and shovel like we show in the illustration above. To join the pros for a true castle-building experience, you can purchase stainless steel tools or you can raid your toolbox and kitchen drawers. Here are a few suggestions: a plastic ruler for smoothing, a trowel, various sizes of paintbrushes, a hand shovel, cheese slicer, melon baller, large cake decorating knife and anything else that looks helpful.

HANDS-ON CASTLE COACHING

Itching for more? Many beaches have their own sandcastle building instructors. Lessons last about an hour and will cost around fifty sand dollars for the two of you. However, you do get hands-on sandcastle building instruction, and if your lovelife has been out to sea, at least it's someone else's hands besides your own that are making your turret rise.

CAUTION

Don't even think of going to the beach without grabbing gobs of sunscreen and your favorite sunglasses or clip-ons. (Some people wear sunglasses to the beach to help keep the UV rays out, but the rest of us wear them so we can look where we want to look without getting busted.) Also take plenty of water and plenty of snacks, and try to take public transit or make sure there's parking available. You don't want to ruin a fine day at the beach with a towed vehicle in addition to a nasty case of sunburn.

ALTERNATIVE

If you don't want to build your own sandcastle but would enjoy watching someone else do it, surf over to www.sandcastlecentral.com for a list of sandcastle-building contests.