Chicks in Bikinis

As noted in my previous post, King of Masks, San Diego always has events going on and one of the other events that my friends and I decided to check out this past weekend was the Sand Castle Competition in Imperial Beach. I was the only one who had been the previous year and I remember the sculptures being AMAZING! Better than I could do anyway. So I thought it would make a fun outing for us. Plus it was finally warm enough to go and enjoy the beach!!

Lately the weather has been in the 60's at the beach which isn't so warm and certainly does NOT say "Come play at the beach and dip your toes into the 60 degree water!" (Is that too warm for hypothermia?)

The weather on Sunday was much warmer and the sun was out....GREAT!

So we cram ourselves into my 4Runner and head south. We get about 4 miles from our exit and hit the backup (crap). Turns out, this is a VERY popular event. Actually, the news said that around 300,000 people checked it out!! It seemed more like 500,000!! (double crap!)

Anyway, we ended up taking a detour and navigating our way around the traffic which probably didn't save us any time at all, but at least we were still moving instead of stopped on the freeway! (I prefer moving if at all possible!)

But of course we were still stuck in the traffic because we started to head towards the beach...with everyone else and their Mother! Sooo....being the practical people we are...and exercise conscious, we decided to park a little ways away and walk instead of fighting traffic to look for parking closer to the beach. DONE!

Well, the walk to the beach was pleasant enough...good company, good conversation, sun getting warmer.......and then our walk turned into 1.5 miles to get to the beach. We finally get there and it is CRAZY crowded with people!!

I feel like I'm at Disneyland in the summertime, with busloads of schoolchildren running around screaming (in other words - HELL)...you have to shuffle and elbow your way past people to get a look at the sand sculptures...ALL 40 of them! Whew!! So we decided to take the easier route. Instead of aiming for the front of the sculpture, we walked around the back of each one....much less crowded that way!! The only problem is that if you want to get a good picture of the sculpture, you have to get to the front.

Sorry folks, but my urgency to get that great shot (from a photographer's standpoint) wasn't with me that day. So you will have to make due with the crappy side and back shots I did take! I was crabby that day.....walking that far in flip flops did NOT help my back that I had tweaked earlier in the week and I swear it was 80 something down there that day!! It was really warm!! Plus, I don't do crowds as well anymore....just don't have the tolerance for idiots or rude people/children, so I chose to remove myself from any sticky situations that could have come up.(I prefer a clean record if possible)

The walk back did NOT help my disposition. I needed my tennis shoes, air conditioning, and a quiet space. Thank GOD Mariana knew of a wine bar near her place that had recently opened. YAY!! We stopped there for some much needed food and alcohol! Someone was celebrating their birthday that day, which was fine since they elected to have their party in the upstairs loft. EXCEPT that they were cheeky enough to bring the party downstairs to the main area to cut the damn cake. Which of course meant that EVERYONE had to be down there taking up seats and tables....RUDE! So we had to wait for them to clear their asses out of the downstairs area before we could grab a table. This waiting shit was working on my last nerve!! But everything turned out great...the food was INCREDIBLE! We had this great appetizer - sliced baguette lightly toasted, topped with melted blue cheese and served with jalapeno champagne honey. OH. MY. GOD!!! It was SENSATIONAL!

I know I am totally getting sidetracked with the wine bar, but how can you not?! Anyway, turns out I was PMSing which is why my patience was slim to none that day. Who knew?! TMI for most of you - get over it!

Here are some crappy photos......ENJOY!

Great sculpture....just not a very exciting subject. Pest control AD!

Was this a child's exhibit?? I'm not sure...

This was more like it! Size-wise anyway

You can't quite see the pool table, but it's a shark and an octopus playing pool. Very cool sculpture!

No clue on this -  looks like something I could have done

VERY cool skeleton of a prehistoric marine mammal!

Sponge Bob - always appropriate apparently

The Las Vegas Strip! Very cool idea....but very tiny

Mermaid laying on the sand...you can kinda see her hair. No clue what the rest of it is supposed to be.

Merlin's something or other....can't remember exactly but check out the HORDES!

I couldn't tell you what this is.....I can make out the boat on the left but other than that, it's anyone's guess!

Chicks in Bikinis!! LOL I LOVED this one! Very cute!