| After a little walk we got to the contest area.  There was a pretty wide range of skill levels, from church youth groups... |  | 
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  |    |  |   |  | ...to little kids who got inspired from all the digging and carving and decided to make their own sculptures. |  | 
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  |    |  |   |  | The really skilled groups had their plots further north on the beach. Some were really well done.  One group had a really cute bear looking into a car.  Here's some pictures from their plot. |  | 
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  |    |  |   |   |  | Another group had a "big top" circus theme. |  
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  |    |  |   |   |  | One had a living room theme that was quite realistic.  Note the beer can on the table.  The couch didn't look all that comfortable, though. |  
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  |    |  |   |   |  | The dot com scene also made an appearance |  
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  |    |  |   |   |  | Castles, not surprisingly, were also pretty popular, ranging from the simple to the much more elaborate. |  
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  |    |  |   |   |  | And we had all kinds of animals, fish, dogs, dinosaurs, dragons, you name it. |  
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  |    |  |   |   |  | Tools ranged from shovels to drywall trowels to feather dusters |  
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  |    |  |   |  | This one was cute--Fish 'n Ships. |  | 
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  |    |  |   |  | A couple times Eric had to lift me up so that I could get a good view. |  | Last year they did this one face up, this time the poor guy was face down in the sand. |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |