Port Aransas Sand Festival

Have you ever seen what a professional sculpture artist can do with sand and water alone? I know I haven't. So I put a visit to the Port Aransas Sand Fest on our calendar and invited a couple of friends to join us this past weekend. 

The drive down takes about 7 hours from where we live in Fort Worth so we planned a day for driving and dawdling along the way.

First stop: Collin Street Bakery. We had recently watched this fruitcake fraud documentary about the Collin Street Bakery, and also learned they're world famous for their fruitcake—so our curiousity MADE us stop by and check it out.

(They do have many other kinds of cakes and treats inside. So it's worth the stop.)

Marla discovered free samples of the cake were available—I've NEVER had a fruitcake before and I thought I'd like it. But I'm glad we tried the sample first—my face says it all. No worries though, we bought a couple cookies and a brownie to make up for our lack of enthusiasm for the famous fruitcake.

We then traveled down to Seguin and stopped to lunch at Burnt Bean Co. 

Put this one on your list my friends. We arrived just in time to devour their offerings. The restaurant is open until 3:00 and sells out of many menu items before then. And I know why—IT'S DELICIOUS. The street corn pudding, the bacon ranch taters, the brisket...dang. Now I'm hungry. Here's a short video.

The meal was so good I forgot to take a nice photo. So here's a rude one. Sorry not sorry. And if you need dessert like most humans do, there's also an antique shop a few doors down that sells their own homemade ice cream which also makes a tasty, tasty treat. If you're traveling that direction, find a reason to stop in this little town at this BBQ joint if you can—but check their hours and get there well before closing as they sell out fast.

Upon arriving in Port Aransas, I was very excited to find our little Airbnb called the Blue Barracuda Beach Cabana down this happy little street.

The place was SO cute, I mean, "made you grin as soon as you turned down the lane" kind of cute. We felt like we were on a legitimate beach vacation and the cabana fit all our needs. (Plus it was more than $100 cheaper than the next available listing. TOTAL score!!!)

The next day we readied ourselves for the 25th annual, 4 mile long Sand Fest! Read more here.

It was quite crowded! If you choose to go, get ready for shopping, eating, to see some adorable dogs and their weird owners alongside some very amazing sand sculptures!

Many of the artists set up some kind of container to hold sand and water to get their structure started.

The contestants (some of them coming from another country) and yes, this was a judged competition—are allowed to use only sand and water, plus any carving and texturing tools they needed. Once the sculptures are done, they are sprayed with 1 part eco friendly wood glue to 9 parts water. This keeps the wind from slowly degrading the sculptures before they're judged. 

Some popular themes seemed to be: sandcastles, religious, heads and skulls (no surprise there.) But there was a good mix of original ideas for sure. 

One of my votes went to the sculpture above for style. One went to the sculpture below for imagination. I don't know when the results of the competition will be posted.

It's fun to overhear what people in the crowd are saying. One lady to her husband said of the sculpture above in a thick southern accent, "See? Ah told you it had somethin' tuh-do with brains." It made Adam and I look at each other and laugh. 

We had a great time on this mini vacation and with some added planning, we'd go back again. Here are my suggestions if you're thinking of attending the Sand Fest in Port Aransas:

• The Festival takes place over three days, the artists begin sculpting on the first day. If you want to see a finished product, attend the event either late on the second day or first thing on the last day. (Perhaps shift your plans to take a Monday off instead of a Friday.) 

• It can be windy, wear sunglasses to keep sand out of your eyes, a hat that stays fast to your head and don't wear a dress that will fly up! I may be speaking from personal experience...or not, you’ll never know.

• If you're bringing kids, think about staying on the beach to play after visiting the sculptures. You might be hot and ready for a dip, and the kids will certainly be ready to try their hand at sculpting after seeing what the professionals can do.

• You don't need to rent a motorized cart for the festival. The event covers 4 miles, a lot of that includes parking and you have to park the cart in the same place as the cars. If you want one to putt around town during the rest of your stay, a cart would certainly be fun, but you won't feel like you're missing out if you don't. 

• The event won't take a lot time out of your day, so be sure to search for other things to do in the area if you don't plan on being a beach bum.

• Plan to eat an early dinner. Everywhere we went the wait was 1.5 hours and many places were understaffed or sold out of menu items. We ended up at Dominos after a few frustrating tries on the second night.

Glad to have these new memories!