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SandFest

 Sunday afternoon.  All the sculptures are complete. There is an entry called “Horse Sitting”. A space cowgirl having rounded up some aliens.  Something about something.  A real dinosaur battling a robot dinosaur.  A Venus interpretation. And the winner of everything: the elephant.  It’s more than an elephant.  It’s called “Where Mermaids Come From”.  I took several pictures of it from several angles.  The mermaids come out the back.   The future professionals are still hard at work. And finally, SandFest beach camping in style. 
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Port Aransas

 Population 3,900. SandFest draws 100,000. The event covers maybe a half-mile of beach, but the crowds go way off into the distance just enjoying a beautiful day. It gets a little tighter packed along the vendor aisle. There is a chance for a chair massage at the Day Spa. A live-music tent. With live-musicians. And the main attraction:  the Master sand-sculptors in action.    …doing the detail:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb0Iaag8iE4    A very nice elephant.  …in action:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voT-W9l9qaA Careful work… …with a special touch. And every year, the training ground for future Master sand sculptors. 
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Color

 The color in front of our house at Sandpipers is getting good. The yard here at Gulf Waters is holding up just fine too.  
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Migrant trap

 A migrant trap is a place like Paradise Pond in Port Aransas.  It has food, water, and shelter for tired birds that have just flown across the Gulf.  They stop to rest in the trees and bushes, eat some bugs for energy, and have a drink.  It’s a quiet place to rest-up and recharge before they continue on their journey north. Today we found a different kind of migrant trap: our coach.  We left it with the front door open.  When we returned, there was a bird on the dashboard trying to get out the windshield.  I collected him and let him bite my finger a few times while Judy took a picture.  He flew away unharmed as soon as I set him down outside. Rose-breasted Grosbeak.   
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Judy has rocks in her head

 That’s what the doctor said.  She has been dizzy lately; dizzy enough we took her to the doctor today.  Here’s the deal: Part of our inner-ears are devoted to hearing, but the other part is devoted to balance.  In the balance part, we have little stones/crystals.  When our heads tilt, the crystals shift, telling us that we just had a change of attitude.  If some of those little rocks get dislodged from the pile they belong in, and wander out into the inner-ear canals, it short-circuits our balance.  Judy’s rocks got dislodged. There is an interesting treatment for inner-ear balance issues.  Remember those maze games where you tilt the entire board back and forth to rout the ball through to the end?  To re-boot our balance center, they figure out which ear has the problem then go through a sequence of timed head and torso tilts that will rout any wandering stones back to the chamber they belong in. After the doctor visit on Padre Island, we went to physical therapy in Corpus and got all of Judy’s parts back in place.  The complete treatment will probably require more trips to the physical therapist, but she feels much better already.