Being artistic at the beach...

I did two of my favorite vacation activities today while on the Maine coast - playing in the sand (you're never too old), and mucking about in tidepools!

The sand creation started out to be a lizard eating a dragonfly, but somewhere along the way the lizard was given bumps on its back and decidedly alligator-like eyeballs. So I suppose I should have changed the dragonfly into a severed limb of some poor victim...

After it was complete, two tiny little girls arrived, picked up my shovel, and went to work altering my critter - they made it a dish filled with 'food' in case it was hungry, removed its nose, and were still at it when we left. Their parents were very worried I'd be upset, so I had to assure them I was fine with the kids' alterations, since in a few hours the tide would wash it all away anyhow.

On another note, for those of you who read my blog earlier this spring/summer when I nervously mentioned my 21 yr. old son heading off to South Africa, we've been worried about him this week because he had left the security of a college campus and was traveling independently on a backpacker's bus. So yesterday he did the one thing I begged him not to do (how dumb of me) - he jumped off a bridge - the Bloukran's bridge, at 216m supposedly the world's highest commercial bungee jump . And survived. Today, he's safely with relatives near Johannesburg so we are awash with relief. Saturday they get on a helicopter to go to a game reserve for a 5-day safari.