Carved From Sand: The Oostende Sand Sculpture Festival

Everybody's favorite little monster

I've lived near my share of beaches yet had never been to a sand castle festival before. I'm really not what I would consider a beach going person, usually visiting only one a year with friends,  so I chalk up my not attending one to the crowds, sun and heat that I associate with a summer time beach. But I'm living in Belgium now where country's beachfront property is limited to just a few kilometers along the North Sea (65 to be exact) and the sun and heat are fleeting summer visitors. So moderate temperatures and my son's love of Disney movies inspired us to visit the sand sculpture festival in Oostende, Belgium last weekend. And as it turned out, on a cool, windy and damp Saturday afternoon in July it was the perfect place to be.

Oostende is a Belgian beach resort sitting on the shores of the North Sea. We visited in early July when the seas were under yellow flag warnings, the lifeguards were bundled up in multiple layers and only a few brave soles were actually swimming in the rough water. (Belgium is not the place to visit if you want a beach vacation where you can actually go into the water).  But we weren't at the beach for the beach itself; we were there to check out the 8,000 square meters of Disney inspired sand sculptures that Belgian friends had told us was something we didn't want to miss.

From the moment we stepped into the fenced area protecting the sculptures from the brisk wind we knew we were in the land of Disney. The ubiquitous happy music that fills the air at all Disney parks was floating through the air. And the Disney movies, old and new, that we all love? They had been brought to life in the form of giant sand figures. We had kept Sidney in the dark about where we were going so he was immediately in awe as we stepped onto the beach and he came face to face with Mickey Mouse. Then he recognized the characters from Up...and Ratatouille..and Cars...and Mary Poppins. Around the corner we found the Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Snow White. For those of us old enough to remember there was Indiana Jones, Mark Twain, and the Swiss Family Robinson. Sidney scooted from one sculpture to another checking them all out and marveling at the over sized characters that he has only seen on the screen. (We're saving the required trip to Disney Paris for when he is a bit bigger). He was also enamored in watching the sand artists at work and promptly declared that he needed his own pail and sand to create his own castle.

And the intricate details? As an adult I was amazed at the level of details. No detail was too small for the artists who hail from around the world and descend on the beach each summer to turn 6,000 tons of sand into 3-D reproductions between 2 and 12 meters high. From the bark on trees to the hairs on the Lion King's mane the level of detail was impressive. Each shingle on the Disney castle was chiseled to perfection. Because of recent rains some of the works of art had been damaged so we were able to watch artists as they patched their work back together. With great care, sand and a bit of water they made repairs that blended in perfectly with the original works of art. And yes, these really are works of art. I'm not sure if I had a favorite as I liked them all. The boys in my family? Naturally they loved the Star Wars sculpture.

Finding Nemo

Winnie the Pooh and friends

The iconic castle

Cars

Peter Pan

The King of the Lions

and of course Star Wars........

The festival has been held annually since 1997 with over 5,000 sand sculptures being viewed by millions of visitors. And now we can include ourselves in those numbers. The sculptures will be on display until the end of August so there is still time to visit. Or if you can't make it this year (or you just want to see more as we do), you can visit next year. There really is something about Disney that brings out the child in all of us.

If you go:

Disneyland Paris Sand Magic
Strand Oostende
28 June - 31 August 2014
www.sandsculputure.be (check for future dates)
12 Euro for adults 8 Euro for children age 4 and over
Group discounts and handicap/stroller accessible

Classics Are Never Out Of Style

We live in a fast paced world. From the Internet, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook providing us with news and status updates the minute news breaks to portable technology which allows us to bring the instant news with us, it feels as though we are always connected. And it isn't just adults who are a part of this trend. Facebook groups are filled with queries for the best iPad and Kindle apps for children as young as age two and every child seems to have a game system (or two), cars come equipped with rear seat entertainment systems complete with DVD players and headphones, and there are other electronic setups that one could only dream about a few years ago (and I am probably unfamiliar with). Yes, things are moving fast.

Perhaps I am dating myself here but one of the "advances" I love is that of cartoons. I grew up on black and white then color Saturday morning cartoons. Wiley Coyote and the ACME supply company and Mickey Mouse and his companions were a weekend staple in our household. Somewhere along the line, however, these classics gave way to more modern animation. First came claymation then Pixar popped onto the scene with their glossy computerized cartoon images. Our DVD cabinet is filled with the likes of the Toy Story, Cars, and Ice Age series amongst others. Sidney knows the words to most of the movies and can watch them over and over again. And because of their multi-faceted levels of humor, even his parents enjoy watching them. (But maybe not as much as he does). These are the only cartoons (I'm not really sure you can even categorize them as that though) that Sidney knows. It was only recently that I realized that Sidney is missing out on the classics from my childhood. For Sidney, Mickey Mouse only exists in the form of the Mickey Mouse Club and is just as agile and colorfully animated as his Pixar buddies. So when he recently saw an old Disney film featuring Donald Duck, he excitedly asked me what it was.

Our local grocery store has a children's room in the front of the store which is in view of the checkout lines. (American grocery chains would do well to adopt this practice). Inside this small room are giant sized Lego building blocks, a small slide, and a television and DVD player that only plays what I consider the animated classics (alternating back and forth from English to French of course). During a recent trip to the store Sidney came running up to me in the check out line wanting me to come with him to "see something cool." When I joined him in the play room I saw Donald Duck playing on the screen. Sidney wanted to know what it was. After I explained who Donald was Sidney wanted to know why there wasn't any real color on the screen. I did my best to explain why but Sidney quickly hushed me since he was mesmerized by the scene that was playing out before him. I wanted to leave the store but as Wiley Coyote came onto the screen Sidney begged me to stay longer. We weren't watching fancy animation and the plots were ridiculously simple but Sidney was soon laughing out loud at what he saw. It made me realize that he was getting just as much enjoyment, if not more, from this simple film than he does out of his flashy movies at home.

On the drive home I explained to Sidney that the cartoons he had watched were the ones that his father and I had grown up watching. He wanted to know if we watched Cars when we were little. I told him no but talked about Donald and Mickey and their friends. He responded by telling me that he thought that was funny but he also liked the movie he had seen and he wanted to see more. So on our next trip to the library we made a beeline from the DVD section. Much to both of our delights the library has a large selection of these classic cartoons. We chose one to take home and it is the only one Sidney wants to watch at the moment.

It is fun to be introducing Sidney to such childhood classics. In a culture where we are obsessed with everything being new, modern and "the latest" it is refreshing to rediscover and introduce my son to these classics. Perhaps they are now considered retro but whatever you call them, for me it reiterates that if you find something classic it will never go out of style. Perhaps Pixar films will be that way for my grandchildren's generation. But who knows if there will even be animation, cartoons, or even movies by that time.........