Right before my mom and sister left town, we were able to squeeze in a little outing to the U.S. Sand Sculpting Challenge. I have seen competitions like this on TV, so I was excited to check it out in person. I had envisioned it would be on the beach, but once I got to thinking about the tides and how that probably wouldn’t mix well with the sand sculpting, I decided they were pretty smart and had it on a pier overlooking the ocean. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t plan these things.

Moving on, we were greeted at the front entrance with a few military and San Diego inspired sculptures before getting to the good stuff…

These next few sculptures were all done by professionals, or master sculptures as they called them.  Many of the master sculptures came from outside the United States. Apparently this was a big deal. The winner takes home $60,000!

They were pretty jaw dropping…

This one had a different view of a woman from each opening in the triangle. It was titled, “Triquetra” and won second place.

I think this may have been my favorite. It was titled, “Beauty and the Beast”, and won sculptors choice.

This one placed third and was titled, “Peace of Mind”.

First place winner titled, “The Seed”.

Taking a break from the sand sculptures to check out some boats.

Next it was time for the Cool California Carvers to create a masterpiece of their own. They worked in teams of three and created some pretty cool sculptures of their own. While they weren’t professionals, it was still pretty cool to see them work (and way better than anything I could have done).

After looking at all the sand sculptures, we walked around and enjoyed the booths and games they had set up and of course, took some more pictures. I’m just now realizing that we didn’t get one with my sister in it from the day. Sorry, Kylene! I was glad to have a break from being the photographer for the day though. 🙂

And as always, there was time to look at some trucks…

…and let Easton try his first snow cone!

They even had a sand pit set up for the kids to create their own masterpieces! It was a fun day and I’m glad we were able to go while my family was in town.

They left the day before Labor Day and I have been trying to catch up on blogging since they left. I recently got a new computer since my 7 year old MAC was starting to show it’s age. Switching everything over to another computer is such a pain! Thankfully, my sister and Logan helped me set up all my photo programs and things are moving along a bit faster now- thank you both!