Building the Single Greatest Sand Castle Ever

This Labor Day weekend, we packed the whole family in the Odyssey and headed down to Point Pleasant Beach, NJ for a fun-in-the-sun getaway. Our friends have a beautiful beach house only a few blocks from the beach itself, and they were kind enough to let us stay with them. Free beach weekend with friends? Yes, please!

I spent half the time riding the waves in the ocean. I just love doing that. It’s fun and a seriously good cardio workout. I was actually out of breath when I came back to shore after about 15 or 20 minutes of jumping up and down. The kids loved jumping in and out of the waves, but since it was a yellow flag (caution: semi rough waves), they didn’t venture too far out.

The other half of the time on the beach was spent building only THE coolest sand castle ever! Rosario and his son Joe built most of the actual castle and basic castle wall. I took it upon myself to build a massive protection system in the vein of a double moat! We added bridges, flags and even a crab-leg laser gun!

The royal kingdom!
We dug a deep trench around the city to hopefully keep the ocean at bay.
Yes, here’s proof that I was getting in my exercise by digging, digging, and digging!
Jason and his best friend Joe actually did help, though I think the two dads had the most fun building.
We built a secondary trench outside the first to further deter the ocean. Yeah, we’re experts. Note the cute bridge!
Rosario came up with the brilliant idea of draining out the big pits at the end of each moat. So we dug a tunnel into each pit, and connected it to more tunnels draining away from the castle.

 

Yay! Proof that my wife joined us on the beach!
Taking time to sit and enjoy the waves with my boys.

 We ultimately finished the sand castle and waited for the high tide to give it a test run! Unfortunately, that never happened. The closest thing we saw was one powerful wave pushing the water all the way up the coast to the first moat, and that was it. So we left it as is and headed to Jenkinson’s Boardwalk for lunch at Joey Tomatoes. (Good pizza, btw!)

After lunch, we walked over to the rides and the kids had a blast swinging, spinning, and being raced through rollercoaster tracks.

Waiting on line for the first coaster!
John, Ryan, and Gabby get ready to roll!
Ryan was just a “little” excited to go on the rides.
All five kids ready to reach new heights!

 Can’t wait to go back and do it all again next summer!

6 thoughts on “Building the Single Greatest Sand Castle Ever”

  1. My son Sam says, “Whoa. That IS the best sandcastle ever.” But he was rather disappointed that the ocean never came! He recommends that next time, you build it closer to the water. He’s so helpful. 😉

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