Sand Fest 2013

Living in the sleepy resort town of Port Aransas, Texas has it's perks.  There is almost always something going on here in the Spring and Summer months and with Dos Libras in the Municipal Marina, we are always right in the middle of things.  The whole town can be seen via bicycle in an easy ride, although I will admit, the traffic gets a little rambunctious when there is an event in town.

Bruce and I found ourselves with time on our hands and the annual Port Aransas Sand Fest in full swing this Saturday morning. We took off on our bikes by way of the Jetties where I spent a few minutes watching this heron eat the perch tossed his way by a kindly fisherman.  I sat on the jetty and scooted closer and closer to him as he eyed me warily.

Before long, he relaxed and turned his attention back to his prey.

I watched as he tossed it around to proper position...

for disappearing down his throat...

We continued on our way down the beach towards the Sand Fest venue.  We were glad of being on bicycles as the line of cars was stretching longer by the minute and we glided easily past them all.

There were campers and tents and cars of all kinds lined up and stacked deep.  It was a perfect day for beach camping with light winds and balmy temperatures.

We arrived finally at our destination.  The crowds were thick.  I followed Bruce around single file as we dodged man and beast with our bikes.  We checked out the lay of the land, careful not to get too close to any of the vendor's booths so as not to find something I couldn't live without.

The sculptures were fenced off this year and an entrance fee was required to enter.  We decided to wait until Sunday when Brittney joined us to go in.  Bruce wanted to see the finished sculptures and it looked like the artists were still at work, so we returned to the marina to get some chores done.

We had an overnight rainstorm that had us concerned about the health and wellbeing of the sculptures.  Surely they have had rain before and take some sort of precautions...  Brittney arrived mid morning and we set out on our folding bikes again.

We found that not all of the sculptures were inside of the fenced area.  There were plenty of sights to see that had been created for different judging categories by different local amateurs.

I wanted to hop in bed and try it out!

Very clever... Seal with a kiss.

We cruised through these and found many of them had been irreparably damaged by the storm but more than a few were really very good.












It took us a while to find the entrance to the professional Sculptor's area.  Maybe the entrance fee kept the crowds to a minimum so it wasn't obvious.

This one was my favorite...

We made our way around easily with perfect front row access.  People were very respectful and moved on so that others could get a good look.

Several of the Sculptors were still at work, probably repairing the damage from the overnight rains.

I'm sure that the sculptures all had some message... I'm not sure what this was supposed to represent, but it was very striking.

This one was another of our favorites.  The details in the hands and face were amazing...

Of course, there are more of the obligatory sand castles...

This was one of the smaller Sand Fest events that our area has to offer, but we were impressed all the same.  We enjoyed our bike ride back to the marina and said our goodbyes to our daughter after a fun time, and yes, I did manage to avoid the lure of shopping completely!