May 31, 2012

Castle Idol 2012 …

Let’s be honest – we haven’t actually built a ‘castle’ for years.  This is more of a sand sculpting contest, and it is a highlight of our beach trip every year.

The competition comes in the form of four Knolls, one of whom is a terrific artist and docent at the Library of Congress, two of whom are adorable and creative daughters, and one who happens to be a Harvard educated lawyer {but we won’t hold that against him}.

On our team: a semi-artistic part-time blogger, a bike obsessed photographer and a hormonal teenager with a bad sunburn.

The rules are pretty loose.  Power tools are the only tools off limits.  You will be judged by complete strangers pulled off the beach.  If you lose, you will be harassed by the winners for the next year until you try to win again.

This year the Knoll family created a very large fairy tale book complete with bookmark, the words “Once upon a time there was a tower…’ and a lovely mountain with a tower rising up out of the book’s pages.

Those Knolls are clever.  They come up with an idea that is out of the box each year. I’ll admit, it certainly played to the emotions of the feminine beach going crowd. Every single judge who voted for this entry was a woman!

The Chrises and I decided to stick with what has proven successful in the past – going with an ocean/beach related sculpture.  We spent about two and a half hours creating this not-so-little Marlin fish.  It played to the emotions of the male beach going crowd.

And apparently the kids and women too, because for the third year running, we were crowned winners! I have the skinned knees and sunburn to prove we earned it.  And we’ve already got our plans for next year!

PS. A very HUGE thank you to The Queen, who spent time with Owlie building this castle.  She saved our fish from almost certain destruction at the hands of a two year old.

PSS.  See past Castle Idol contests here, here and here.

4 comments:

christy said...

Amazing, as always.

The Queen Vee said...

Wimp castle on the part of Owlet and I. Cool Marlin, yep it's a winner.....you need to be looking down on it to really appreciate it's greatness. I loved the Once Upon A Time book, very creative idea from Carl and Angela.

Aiketa said...

Wow, they are both so great... but if I would have been an anonymous judge, I would have voted for Marlin too!
It's so great! The idea of that magic book was so great though!

Apis Melliflora said...

Next year, we need a how to. As in how to make the sand stick together that long. Nicely done!