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Fortress 7150Home \ Fortresses \ July 2000 \ 7150
Location: Bellows Beach |
Saturday, July 15, 2000
My brothers and I went to Bellows Beach
again. Like the day before, it was partly to mostly cloudy but warm, and
we stayed late enough to see another awesome sunset. Even though it was a
Saturday, the beach was virtually deserted and we had the place to
ourselves. I remember remarking at the time how perfect it all was.
-Shut up and get to the pictures-
For weeks, perhaps months, I had been thinking about making a wall across the beach. Instead of going for height, or size, with dramatic arches or tall towers, I thought it would be cool to go for length. I've always been inspired by the Great Wall of China. I think it's one of the most astonishing engineering feats of human history. What a huge job. So I had been thinking about stringing a wall across the beach modeled after the Great Wall. Today I finally did it.
They're not quite as dramatic as a normal fortress, but they're still interesting and really fun to build. This wall was over 30 feet long. I built it right at the tide, which was on its way out, for a convenient water source and stacked the wet sand by hand to a height of about a foot. Every few feet, when I felt like it needed it, I interrupted the wall with a small tower, then kept going. At certain intervals, I would go back and carve the features until I was at the end, then I would repeat the process. I just kept going until it started to get dark.
Ronbo started off doing a lot of body boarding. The jellyfish didn't bother him like they did the day before. I got some pictures of him out there. Later, Davey and I joined him. One nice thing about building a wall is that it can be considered complete just about anytime; I can always add to it, or not. So I stopped a few times throughout the afternoon to body board with the brothers.
We also interacted with the local wildlife when we spotted a fairly large crab about a hundred feet down the beach. (Large for Bellows Beach: Around 5 inches wide and 2 inches tall.) I guess they have amazing eyesight because when Ronbo would make a large movement with his arm, the crab would run for the safety of the water. After a few waves, it would come back out and continue it's cautious stroll down the beach.
It kept working its way towards us, and we'd wave at it every once in a while to make sure it was actually responding to us and not running into the water by coincidence. But no, it was watching us, and it kept coming towards us. We scared it, but not that much. I was still extending my wall when it crawled right up between us and the water, checking us out. It was much larger than the typical crabs you see there, perhaps this explains why it had such balls. We let it make its way past us since he wasn't hurting anything, and he just kept cruising up the beach.
Another thing we discovered about crabs is that they like jellyfish. Although the jellyfish weren't as much of a problem as the day before, they were still washing up on the beach. I think it was Ronbo who noticed a small crab who came out of his hole, grabbed a jellyfish laying on the sand, and dragged it back towards its hole. It did have some kind of perception problem, however, because the jellyfish was too big and couldn't fit into his hole. Just then, another crab came around and manhandled it away from the original finder of the jellyfish and brought it to its own hole, which was large enough for the crab to bring it inside. It was kind of like watching a cross between "Wild Kingdom" and "This Old House."
When the sun started setting, I decided it was time to take some pictures with Davey's digital camera before we left. I got a few shots of the wall, and some of the sunset, then we set the camera up on the beach chair and took some timer photos of the three of us. After getting what I thought was the best shot we were going to get and walked back to the camera, Davey and Ronbo said we needed to take one more. So I set it up, hit the timer, and returned to where they were standing. I'm surprised I didn't catch on to their plan right away, but as soon as I got there and turned to face the camera, they each took off running in opposite directions, leaving me there alone for the photo. A silly trick that I fell for. You can see me laughing in the shot in the Supplemental Photo Directory.
A couple of goofballs. And it was so nice to have them around.
Photos pending - coming soon...
Supplemental Photo Directory
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