I saw my first sea serpent today, as well as a disappearing island, surfers, a giant lobster, and a beautiful Miss Eastham (East-Ham) with white shell toenails. It was a brief two-hour appearance by each of them on First Encounter Beach. Now they are gone, but the making and inevitable destruction was glorious.

There is a children’s ditty about the wise man building his house upon a rock and foolish man building his on the sand. It’s a cute little song with lots of hand and arm motions. Hopefully, children get something from it besides exercise.

Sometimes a good visual aid like a Miss Eastham made of the tan sand of Cape Cod Bay, complete with seaweed hair, being dissolved away by the incoming tide brings the simple truth home. You can’t build a house or a life upon the sand. It will wash away and you can’t stop it.

The Sand Sculpture contest was part of the Eastham (remember East-Ham) Windmill Weekend. It was quite delightful to watch parents, children young and old, artists and helpers get down to the business of creating their creatures from sand. Only a few could have been considered “real artists,” but all of them were “really intent” on doing the best they could.

In the beginning we wandered across the beach fascinated by the creating; then later we equally fascinated by the gentle onslaught of waves which washed each sand canvas away: from serpent to squid to Snoopy. None were spared. But we all knew that would happen there on the beach.

What a great way to spend a Saturday morning: barefoot upon the sand among new friends whose names I don’t know and faces I might never see again.

So who won this delightful competition?

The Disappearing Island—which was a real place called Billingsgate (before it, too, washed away)—was named best of show. The two sea serpents were honored and Miss Eastham got a second place…she deserved it, her hair and toenails were to die for!