Day 12.212: Beach trip

With the girls safely off to their workplaces, the three of us remaining packed up some lunch and went to the beach. There was sandcastle building and swimming - although it was very cold in the water:

and - after lunch - a short walk down the beach to see Exile #3 and to sample some of her frozen wares (raspberry sorbet in mine and E5N1's case):

Day 9.032: Throwback Thursday - inland sand

Look at these three playing in the sand in the woods:

This was back on Day 1.198. We were on a short road trip to Rhode Island and stopped into the Ecotarium in Worcester Massachusetts on the way home (to New York). We did also visit a sandy beach on that trip, but certainly had no idea we'd be living so close to one a few years later.

Day 8.255: Another castle falls

Our walk on Saturday took us to the beach at Stage Neck in York Harbor. Since we were walking, we didn't have all our beach gear with us but the tide was coming in, so we had to improvise.

And improvise we did:

The girls were suggesting that we had built it too far from the sea, but very soon the moat was full:

Not long after that, the walls were falling:

It was soon completely surrounded:

and then...

Day 8.213: Built on the sand

It was another work day for me and an impressively rainy afternoon and evening for us all, so here are some pictures from Sunday's beach activities:

Our finished castle:

Since that one was way up the beach, we built another one much later and much closer to the now-advancing tide:

which then advanced:

Careful where you sit:

Day 8.184: Empty, fish, castle, far

Our visit to the beach on Saturday morning:

1) Empty - how this first picture of the kids in the sea makes the beach (or at least the water) seem - it was actually fairly busy even when we arrived.

2) Fish - I spotted a large gull drop suddenly into the water, it then seemed to struggle for a long time such that we thought it might be caught on something, but it was just struggling with the weight of a huge fish that it then landed and proceeded to peck at on-and-off for the rest of the time we were there.

3) Castle - the finished work.

4) Far - where the kids ended up towards the end of our visit - the water still wasn't getting any deeper even all the way out there (it was low tide).

Day 7.232: Another day in Vacationland

More lovely friends from our former home in upstate NY came to spend a day of their vacation with us today. There was tea, lunch, Minecraft, jumping off beds, running around and a lovely dinner at The Run of the Mill overlooking the river in Saco.

But most of all, there were a few hours spent at the beach:

Exile #3, Exile #4 and I all swam - there's a chance we've become acclimatised to the water temperature here, but it felt fine to us!

Day 7.229: Beach Boba

We had quite a few people admiring our castle on Sunday - especially Exile #3's road paving. The most surprising moment was when a young couple walked up, asked if the castle was ours, said something nice about it and then asked if they could put their mini-Boba Fett in it.

Uh, sure...

So they did:

Then they took a photograph or two, reclaimed Boba and went on their way.

Not something that happens every day.

Day 7.226: Exile #2's Sunday Column #19

Exile #2 writes...

One of the pleasures of living at the coast, is that not only do you get to enjoy your own vacations but you also get to join in with those of friends and relatives. This weekend, we were pleased to have the company of Albaniana and family. The weather was just about perfect and today we headed to the beach for some sun and surf. Although we didn't resort to knotted handkerchiefs, there was something particularly British about the way many of the party got on with swimming undeterred by the chilly waters, building dams and sandcastles on a grand scale, then heading home for a nice cup of tea (after a stop off for the closest thing to a pub lunch we could find nearby).

It has been great to see them and to have a way of holding back the end of the school vacation. The young Exiles have little more than a week left before the old routine resumes. School supplies are lurking in a corner and, thanks to E5N1 having pocket money to spare when we went to buy the supplies, the house is full of Post-it notes bearing strange messages: "scavenger hunt - look for sticky notes" (not too difficult, they are everywhere), "ten million bottles of beer on the wall" (glad he didn't decide to try and perform that song during our recent road trip) and, mysteriously, "great minds think alike" (but whose?).

There are many unknowns ahead as we face our first full school year in Maine but we can't delay it much longer...well, perhaps one more week...

Day 7.192: Rather wet at the beach

After dinner, we went to enjoy a perfect evening at the beach. The kids were keen to show me their Chinese jump-rope skills at first, then we made a sandcastle (without any tools) but, before too long, first E5N1 and then the girls turned to wetter activities.

Day 7.180: Mission accomplished

At some point over the last week or two I decided that I really should swim in the ocean at some point this summer. Sunday turned out to be the day - although the water was really quite cold and I didn't stay in for long, I did actually swim a few strokes just after the moment my Dad caught below.

We also made a rather good castle - Exile #3 and Exile #4 can be seen above making the now mandatory graveyard, forest and amusement parks. The bottom right picture shows it surviving until it was time for us to leave the beach - it had done rather better than any of us had expected.

Day 7.159: The Father's Day sandcastle

It was a good one - and it stood up to the waves well...for a time.

And - since I'm finally posting about Father's Day - a belated, "Happy Father's Day!" to my Dad. See you in a couple of weeks!

Day 7.143: A valiant stand (and a crazy pose)

I already posted some pictures from Saturday's visit to the beach, but as Exile #2 mentioned yesterday, it was a two-part beach day.

Part one, at Fortune Rocks Beach in Biddeford started with some traditional sandcastle building, but rather than watching it be destroyed by the waves of the rising tide, the girls and I fought valiantly to rebuild the defences for quite some time and with some success, but in the end there was no saving it of course.

It does make for an interesting challenge for next time.

Meanwhile, E5N1 was collecting rocks.  He cleaned the sand off them and then invited us to visit his "museum" where he managed to make looking at a pile of stones quite a dramatic event:

Day 7.132: A 'castle or two

Sunday's beach visit was a chance to use our Maine State Park season pass. We visited Crescent Beach State park where we had previously been as visiting New Yorkers.

We arrived when the tide was starting to come in and immediately set to work:

Exile #3 was in creative mood and built a hospital (with cross) and graveyard for the doomed inhabitants, just outside the castle walls:

Appropriately (or not), the graveyard was the first to succumb to the waves.

She also made those rather excellent trees.

Exile #4 rose to the challenge, building this water park, with an impressive slide and a pretty (if unappealing splash-down pool.

Of course, the inevitable happened...

and then, one more big wave and it was all over:

Until we decided to build another one.  A simple castle with a spiral roadway, double moat and pretty entrance-way.

That didn't last long either - much to our delight!

First the outer defences:

Then nearly everything else:

And finally...