I drove over to the old Bathhouse in the morning and was surprised by the number of folks already there. . .
Reported to the Mobile Exhibit truck and met with Morgan, Mailaika, Karla and Michelle there.
In our spare time, I had a nice time talking to Karla, someone who moved to California from NY also - tho more than a few years before my recent emigration. She was raised in the NY Metro area and went to college in Western New York - like me. A very nice gal!
We signed up folks for the EBRPD's 2015 "Trails Challenge" and must've registered several hundred. A great free program sponsored by EBRP and Kaiser-Permanente. Also, passed out "Fish Friends" cards (a program initiated by my son, the marine biologist). . . .
Went for a coffee break after awhile, and later had lunch in "the break-room". . . . the Bathhouse room that normally serves as the "isolation ward" for new fish on their way to the tanks in Crab Cove Visitors Center. This is a place very rarely seen by the public. . . . On rare occasions, a Bay Lab program is run there for late-elementary or middle-school aged kids and I was happy to take part in the most recent one, just a week or so ago, led by Michael Charnofsky. I've always liked the posters on the walls there, supplied I believe by James' associate Josh Porter. . . .
So, on some of my "time off" I stroll down the beach early-on and watched as some of the objets-d-art were being sculpted.
Low tide meant there was plenty of wet sand and mud available. . . .
Jessica brought the boys to watch it all for awhile, too. . . . Teddy was eager to get out of the stroller and. . . .
to help out if called upon:
They built their own small "sculpture" tho it was not an entry. . . . :-)
Jess had hoped to build a sculpture as part of the contest and even rehearsed last weekend by making a beautiful "pregnant mermaid" but in that I had gotten involved with the volunteering before knowing of her plans I couldn't take care of the boys while she'd have been involved in the construction of another one. Alas, we did find the remains of "Ariel's" hairdo from last weekend there, tho:
My "duty" was finished at 1:15pm, so I strolled down the shoreline to see what had been built. Dunno if the awards had already been made (simple 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Ribbons and - as someone told me "bragging rights"), but here's what I thought were some winners:
Simple stuff, in the "Kids" category. . .
Progressing to ziggurats and hanging-gardens. . .
Pyramids. . . .
Tower of Babel. . . .
A model of the original Presidio, perhaps? I thought this was very well done, with the sticks making it look like an authentic pueblo.
Some mountaintop fortresses:
My Castle In Spain!
Farther down the beach, as the tide was rising, there was a bit more "encroachment" on the works than near the area near the Bathhouse:
A great shipwreck site. . . .
Lizzard or alligator?
Someone's nest. . . .
Winnie-the-Pooh and a beehive. . . .
Octopus. . . .
Another Great Wall. . . .
Sea-turtle?
Some kinda monster from the deep. . . .
A battleship. . . . run aground.
Tide had come in, as you may have noticed in the above photos, and farther on down the shore there were a lot more "washouts."
Pikachu!
Another fortification. . . .
The washouts were more plentiful along the eastern end of the beach.
Finally, at the far end of the beach were some non-entries that had been build a bit "farther inland" and were therefore better preserved. These seemed to have been by families with small kids along, just for the fun of it. . . .
By here, more folks were interested in swimming than sculpting. . . .
Paddle-boarders on The Bay had fun, too, apparently.
This was scribbled in the sand near the bathhouse, an appropriate sign of hometown pride, and - I think - a good sign-off for this blog!
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