Pancakes and Sand-Castles

We're such procrastinators. Joy, of our "Joy and Light" production, had her birthday last week but it took us over a week before we all went out to celebrate. Party animals that we are, we settled on a girl's breakfast at Cinnamon's of Kailua. We just love their yummy eggs benedict. And I have vague recollection of Krystal saying "we should stop by the beach afterward and build a sand castle." Wow, that sounds like such a cute idea. I thought of tossing on some swim clothes but I figured it would be a brief and carefree jaunt to the beach.

The girls (Tricia, Krystal and "birthday girl" Joy) and I headed over to Cinnamon's. I had the veggie eggs benedict with a poached egg perched on a chair of spinach leaves and tomatoes. Yum Yum. The ordering process was slightly complicated by Tricia who seems to have inherited a little "Sally" from "When Harry Met Sally." We stuffed ourselves full of Portuguese sweet bread french toast covered with drizzled maple syrups and benedicts.

The real adventure started on the sandy shores of Kailua Beach. I think the critical turning point was when someone started digging a hole in the sand and Tricia and I kind of stalled with the infamous question "Do you think that's high enough above the waterline?" Remember that question, it became critical. Thus ensued what was about 75 minutes of hauling endless buckets of sand under the hot sun...75 minutes that felt like 5 hours. It was so much fun...I just don't remember sandcastles being such a workout. I think I'm going to have to fill my plastic blue bucket with wet sand and see how much it weighs.

Krystal was the castle foreman and I focused on the protective moat and property wall. Very quickly we realized the tide was rising and waves were battering across our moat and washing up against our castle walls. Then it became a frantic rescue mission and all four of us had to abandon the castle and dig fervently to keep the water away. It was a total losing battle. We decided our castle would be a duplex so we just extended it up the beach. Despite our red faces, we must have made it look like fun because we had a sibling pair on vacation here from Hawaii join in on the fun. It was perfect timing because I think we were all about to pass out on the sand and they were little balls of energy. They actually were born and raised in New Zealand.

(You can't see me but I'm wearing a bright neon blue T-shirt. I somehow missed the memo to wear a black shirt.)

(Krystal, it's supposed to be fun, remember? There, that's better...there's a laugh)

(Tricia and her minions, she worked those two little New Zealand kiddies)

(Can you believe that Tricia actually thought she was going to go straight to work from the beach?)

(Our sand castle taking shape...it was a mansion)

(I can't tell who is having more fun)

(towers and castle doors)

(she was getting a little worked up over the battle between the wall and the waves)

(her brother was building a pond nearby for the castle royalty)

(then he took a little surf break)



(the stellar castle company)