They learned their lesson the hard way. The giant sand castle they’d spent hours building the day before was completely gone. The seashell-studded turrets and deep moat had been washed away by the wind, rain, and surf.
“Guys, let’s build another one—a better one,” said the sunburned college kid on midterm break. “But not so close to the water this time.”
The four fraternity brothers carried their towels and the plastic ice buckets they’d pilfered from their hotel rooms up the beach. They stopped at an area near the vegetation line.
“This looks like a good place. And the sand is still moist. Great for packing.”
“Let’s make it twice as big as the one we made yesterday, and let’s get really into it with the decorations. You guys start digging, and I’ll search around for some cool shells and stuff.”
“Why do we have to do all the manual labor?”
“Bro, you’re an idiot. You go search for shells, and I’ll stay here with these guys and get the important stuff done.”
Within an hour they had molded dozens of sand blocks and stacked them in towers of varying heights. One of the boys went down to the shoreline, filled his bucket with water, and blended it with sand. He drizzled the mixture on the tops of the towers to form tall Gothic spires.
“Hey, dudes, I found a load of shark teeth,” called the one who had gone in search of decorations as he returned. “They’ll be wicked on top of the castle wall, like spikes to keep out the barbarians.”
When they were finished, they stood back to observe their handiwork and marvel at the architectural triumph.
“I gotta go get my iPhone,” said one. “I wanna take a picture of this.”
“Wait! We’re not done yet. We have to dig the moat.”