We just got home from our Snowbird trip to Florida and South Carolina. Our last weekend in Charleston — or at the beach outside of Charleston — the town held its annual Sand and Sea Festival, which includes a street fair, live music, a sidewalk sale, lots of eating and drinking . . . and among the younger set, more drinking.

     The highlight of the weekend is the sand castle building contest, which started on Sunday surprisingly early in the morning. We sauntered out to the beach a little before noon, thinking we had plenty of time to watch the festivities, only to find that the show was almost over.

     Nevertheless, we got to see a few of the highlights. A several-foot-tall sandcastle.

     A mermaid lying on the beach.

     A hippo and an alligator.

     A sea creature. . . . maybe a giant squid?

     And this one crafted by a person with a macabre sense of humor . . . a man being chased by a shark.

     Then we saw the finale of the show, signaled by an invitation to the kids to jump all over the sand sculptures and kick them apart . . . thus restoring the beach to its natural state.

     Speaking of the macabre . . . well, shiver me timbers, a pirate washed ashore with his wench.

     And then, a couple of days later, as the landlubbers we are, we were forced to lower our Jolly Roger, abandon ship, and walk the plank right back to our regular boring life in the Pennsylvania suburbs, where . . . hey, that’s not sand!

Tom Lashnits Writer, Blogger