Puget Sound Sand Castles With David, Theo & Ruby

Incoming email from sister Michele, with several photos and the following explanatory text...

"We had a beach day recently, which always means an attempt to thwart the tide. Sadly, the tide won, again."

I assume the beach day was at Harstine Island, located at the south end of Puget Sound, and not Birch Bay, located way to the north, almost to Canada.

David, Theo and Ruby have become adept at sand castling, having received professional training on a Pacific Ocean beach in San Diego.

Above we are seeing the result of the sand castling, awaiting the incoming tide.

 And now the tide has arrived, with David, Theo and Ruby waiting to see if their sand walls can keep out the tide.

And now we see photo documentation documenting the fact that the tide won, washing into oblivion the Tacoma Trio's construction.

I have not seen a saltwater beach since summer of 2017. I have seen seagulls since then, though...

On Harstine Island Sand Castle Building With David, Theo & Ruby

Incoming via phone last night from the David, Theo and Ruby's mama Kristin, with the text message accompanying three photos saying...

"Wish you were here."

I wish I was there too.

I have not been on a beach since the last time I was on a beach with the Tacoma Trio and mama Kristin, back in August of 2017, with the beach being the one one finds at Birch Bay, in Whatcom County, a few miles south of the border with Canada.

At that point in time I had myself a mighty fine time building a sand castle with Theo, Ruby and mama Kristin. The David part of the Tacoma Trio was engrossed in a solo project, so was not part of building the massive Birch Bay sand castle.

Since that time at Birch Bay, David, Theo and Ruby have had professional sand castle building training whilst in San Diego.

Currently the Tacoma Trio and their parental units are riding out this period of social isolation at their cabin on Harstine Island, which would make these three photo Harstine Island beach photos.

That is Theo standing inside the sand castle fortification he and David and Ruby built to try and keep out the incoming tide. As you can clearly see, at the above tide level the sand wall fortification is successfully keeping the castle dry.

That white snow cone you see in the distance is a volcano which goes by the name Mount Rainier. The original locals called this volcano Tahoma, which is the source for the name of the town David, Theo and Ruby live in when they are not on lockdown. I do not know why the 'h' in the name was switched out with a 'c'.

Eventually the incoming tide became too much for the sand castle's fortifications to hold back. Above Theo and David are no longer able to keep dry behind their castle's wall.

For months now I have been looking forward to this summer and returning to Birch Bay with David, Theo and Ruby and their parental units, and all but one of my other siblings.

However, heading northwest in July is starting to seem like an increasingly bleak prospect...

Theo Hires Sand Castle Building Consultant With Ruby & David

After a couple days of amateur sand castle building, Theo hired the services of a professional sand castle builder to instruct himself, and Ruby and David, in the art of fancy sand castle building.

Mama Michele photo documented the results.

In the first photo we see Theo, Ruby and David, along with Mama Kristin, at the start of their intensive sand castle building instructions.

That would be the sand castle construction instructor on the left, next to Ruby.

Prepare to be impressed when you see what resulted from Theo, Ruby and David learning how to build a complex sand castle.

This appears to be a classic Gothic Sand Castle, rising taller than the tallest of the trio.

I know you are wondering if Theo, Ruby and David guarded their latest sand castle til the tide rolled and gradually obliterated it. I do not have the  answer to that probing question.

My information source may be faulty, but it is thought by some that today the sand castle building trio are flying their parental units back to Washington, which is extremely disappointing, because this morning Miss Daisy decided it would be fun to drive to San Diego to surprise the grandkids...

Theo's Pacific Sand Castle Building With Help From Ruby & David

Photo evidence has arrived documenting the fact my Favorite Nephew Theo has raised his sand castle building skills to a new level of complexity.

Prior to receiving those photos, whilst driving Miss Daisy in the extreme Arizona heat, Theo's grandma verbalized concern regarding wondering how David, Theo, Ruby and their parental units could possibly spend so many days outdoors in extreme heat.

I then tried to remind Miss Daisy the Pacific Coast is way cooler (in more ways than one) than the Arizona desert.

I suggested to Miss Daisy if we took off early in the morning we could reach San Diego easily by mid-afternoon, which would make for a fun (shocking) surprise for David, Theo, Ruby, their parental units, and Aunt Jackie and Uncle Jack.

Miss Daisy was not receptive regarding this adventurous concept.

Which is probably for the best, because tomorrow morning David, Theo and Ruby's Uncle Jake is planning to show up for Miss Daisy's morning swim.

However, Miss Daisy has been refusing to participate in the morning swim due to excess heat concerns. I have not informed Uncle Jake regarding Miss Daisy's current no swimming status.

Let's take a look at last yesterday's sand castle building...

Above Theo celebrates castle construction completion. Now the wait for the incoming tide begins, and the eventual defense of the castle as the Pacific floods in.

Here it appears Ruby joined in with the castle defense as the tide began to breech the outer defenses.

Theo looks forlorn as the tide begins to win.

Theo, Ruby and David stand on top of the sand castle ruins.

Around the time the above photo arrived Mama Michele texted "OMG. I am freezing. Sitting waiting for the ocean to destroy Theo's sand castle. I blame you for this fixation. LOL."

It's true. Theo and I had ourselves a mighty fine time fighting the incoming tide way back in August of 2017 up north at Birch Bay in the state called Washington.

Theo's Birch Bay Sand Castle Building

This morning I found the flash drive upon which I placed a lot of photos during my recent visits to Washington and Arizona.

This recent trip was the first time this century I have traveled without bringing a computer along with me, which rendered me only able to do the blogging, emailing, youtubing, internet thing when I had access to my sisters' computers.

The sister computer in Arizona was easy to get into use mode. The sister computer in Washington was a bit more challenging.

Among the many things I anticipated having fun doing at Birch Bay was anything beach related. The bay at Birch Bay is extremely shallow. When the tide goes low and the sun shines bright the tidal flats get HOT, which heats the water when the tide decides to roll back in.

This particular Birch Bay phenomenon occurred only on the day we arrived, August 11, with Mother Nature delivering the best birthday gift of the day.

A warm saltwater swim.

David, Theo and I ventured far off shore, to the horror of the parental figures, back on land, who did not realize how shallow the water was. The deep water illusion may have been exacerbated by an uncle suggesting his nephews create the illusion they were up to their necks in deep water. After a few minutes of hearing screaming from shore the nephews stood to their full height with the water depth instantly dropping to waist deep. Calm eventually was restored on shore.

Two days later, on Sunday, the tide was once again out, but not too far. We decided to do some sand castle building. A wall was built, with a moat around the wall, and a mountain of sand constructed inside the wall.

Only three sand castle builders stayed with the project til its final flood.

Myself, Theo and Mama Kristin.

Ruby helped for awhile, digging a ditch to connect the moat to the nearest body of water, figuring this would help drain the moat when the tide came in. But, the sand castle building engineers miscalculated from whence the main flood threat would come. As in, Ruby's ditch turned into a back door flood as the tide reached the previously isolated body of water.

When Spencer Jack showed up he helped for a little while. And then Ruby talked Spencer into going swimming with her in the heated pool.

David also helped, but no one could figure out the method to his sand castle building madness.

Eventually the tide filled the moat and began to attack the wall. Theo directed a heroic effort to shore up the crumbing wall, but soon the effort proved fruitless.

The next day Theo's Uncle Jake went on an early morning walk during which he text messaged informing me the tide was heading out and the remains of Theo's sand castle wall were visible, surviving, somewhat.

After getting that message from Uncle Jake I located Theo. He and I then ventured via the elevator to the fifth floor clubhouse sunset viewing venue to check out the remains of Theo's Sand Castle. Theo then posed for the photo you see above, with the remains of Theo's Sand Castle in the center of the photo.

Theo is the funnest, best Sand Castle builder with whom I have ever built a Sand Castle....