Pensacola Beach Sand Sculpture Contest

The Beach Community Bank Sand Sculpture Contest took place at Casino Beach yesterday. It's one of my favorite events on Pensacola Beach. Below are some of the photos I took, heading east to west.


Skull and crossbones.


The contest had several divisions: Youth, Teen, Adult, and Open Pro.


So what do you think the gas mileage is on this sporty entry?


If only I had a wide angle lens..


A sea turtle!

I loved this sculpture with all its sea creatures.

The kids did an excellent job on their shark and other creatures. I especially loved the way they used sea shells for shading on their sculpture.

Looks like someone took a bite out of this Hershey bar...

A creepy-crawly - look at its tongue sticking out.

I would never be creative enough to add dimension and the appearance of movement.

Yikes! Dead man's chest.

Excellent job! A wonderful sand sculpture of Tristan de Luna, in celebration of our 450th anniversary!

Do you recognize this? Hint: it sailed into port last week! This recreation of the Juan Sebastian de Elcano was sculpted by Sarah and Hannah Stendebach, visiting nieces of Jim and Lila Cox

That's quite a castle!

Fiesta of Five Flags!

And of course we all recognize this famous beach icon!

Oooohhhh....it's the Loch Ness monster!

Ahhh...King Neptune and his sea creatures. Unless you're Greek, then it would be Poseidon.

This was one of my favorites, sculpted by Kevin Nail and Mark Flynn.

I loved the arches in the castle!

The Great Pyramid and the Sphinx!

I think I might be able to learn how to build castles this way, but don't bet the farm on it.

Ah ha! So they keep spraying it down with water to keep it from drying out and crumbling!

If I stick around long enough, I might learn the tricks of the trade.

The kids enjoyed having their own class and worked very hard on their sand sculptures.

What do we have here? It appears to be a sort of shark submarine hybrid. Would that be called a sharine or a subark?

Another one of my favorites is the sweet couch potato -- or should I say a couch sweet potato. [Note from a blog visitor, 'Barefootnikki': This is actually Patrick Starfish, a friend of SpongeBob SquarePants. Thanks, Nikki!)

The creative artist found a way to make the cup of coffee 'steaming' hot. Excellent!

I'm sorry I didn't stay around long enough to get the names of all the winners for you, but getting around on the sand was not easy in this cast, plus, I managed to get it wet while photographing one of the sculptures close to the water. Still, I wouldn't miss this event for anything!

A B.I.G. thanks to Beach Community Bank for sponsoring the contest.

Shore birds galore

About half an hour into my patrol this morning, shore birds were abundant. I even got to see an Osprey fairly close up, but didn't get my camera out quickly enough. I'm discovering how difficult it is to get good photos while on patrol. The (Kawasaki) Mule produces a lot of vibration...


so I have to work fast to stop the Mule, get the camera out, turned on, the lens cap off, and hold the camera as steady as possible...


But oh how sweet to see the shore birds, even if they are a bit blurry.

Life doesn't get much better than a perfect day which starts like this.

Sunrise in the park

A beautiful sunrise at Ft. Pickens this morning, shortly after I started my patrol.

DeLuna Landing Ceremony

Who knew so many boats and people would show up at the DeLuna Landing Ceremony this afternoon!


Parking was at a premium!


What a difference from just a couple of days ago when I dropped by Quietwater Beach early in the day!

The dock was very festive with all the flags posted. You can also see the big water slide in the distance and get a better appreciation for how tall it is.

Juan Sebastian de Elcano

The Elcano, with its beautiful lines, makes me wonder what it would have been like in the days where clipper ships ruled the seas.

Wouldn't it be fabulous to see those sails unfurled at sea? Hmmm...I wonder how many photos I'd have to sell in order to afford a cruise on a tall ship?

Quietwater Beach

Quietwater Beach, located behind the Boardwalk, is a lovely place to take a few photos or enjoy some quiet time early in the morning.


Before the shops open up you almost have the whole Boardwalk to yourself...


Quietwater Amphitheatre.

Did I mention...

I love living on Pensacola Beach!


Our iconic water tower at Casino Beach.


Around 9:00 a.m., the umbrellas and chairs are set out on beach near the pier.

Juan Sebastian de Elcano Tall Ship

The Juan Sebastian de Elcano, the world's third largest tall ship, sailed through Pensacola Pass into Pensacola Bay around 7:00 a.m. You can see the Pensacola lighthouse behind the tall ship.



The "Elcano" is the official training ship for the Royal Spanish Navy and will be in port through June 9, to help commemorate Pensacola's 450th anniversary. To learn more about the Juan Sebastian de Elcano's visit to Pensacola you may click HERE.


Many people drove to Ft. Pickens and watched from the top of the sea wall or the fishing pier as the Elcano sailed past.



To learn more about this 82 year old, four-masted schooner, click HERE.

Shorebirds

“To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.”

~~ Rachel Carson, (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964)

Just after sunrise

I wish this photograph was one-tenth as beautiful as the sight itself just after sunrise at Ft. Pickens this morning. The sky was a delicate rosy-mauve shade as the sun peeped over the horizon. The Gulf of Mexico was calm and clear with ribbons of color - turquoise, sapphire. Dolphin were playing; herons strolled along the shore; black skimmers flew by with their lower beak slicing through the water; and snowy plovers performed incredible dives as they caught breakfast for their tiny chicks.

This morning I was reminded of an Amelia Earhart's 1928 logbook comment, "I'm getting housemaid's knee kneeling here gulping beauty" -- except as a member of the Gulf Islands National Seashore Sea Turtle Patrol I'm driving along the shoreline in a Kawasaki Mule before sunrise.

To learn more about the Gulf Islands National Seashore volunteer sea turtle patrol, you may click HERE to read a 2005 article from the Gulf Breeze News.

Twilight drops her curtain down...

"Twilight drops her curtain down, and pins it with a star."

Lucy Maud Montgomery - (1874 - 1942)