Lazy Hazy Days of Santa Barbara Summer

September is always the best month for beach activities in beautiful Santa Barbara. Other parts of the country are singing "Autumn Leaves" while we are getting our beach toys out! My son's birthday is at the end of September and he will always be remembered by his classmates for having the best birthday parties...they were always at one of our gorgeous beaches. A great time for bonding with back to school mates. The fun part about beach parties is that you can invite the entire class (there's plenty of room), set out the toys, make sure the kids have a buddy system, invite some of the moms to help watch them, lay out the beach blankets and umbrellas and settle down for a lazy late summer afternoon. Our coolers filled with drinks, bags of chips and goodies; and Pizza delivered. What could be better! Through the years the kids always had a fabulous afternoon and thought we were 'cool'! What a no-brainer!

The last great beach party was during our son's Senior year in high school. Christmas Unity's fundraiser held annually at the Association of Realtors featured a Beach Party & BBQ at Hope Ranch Beach for 50 of your favorite friends. Offered up for bid by one of my Real Estate Associates and her husband, I was the successful bidder and decided to use it for our son's final Birthday Beach Party the following September. What a fun event! It was the last days of September...a gorgeous day. We started setting up around 11 am and didn't leave the beach until after sundown.

Come have your own lazy day of summer. Here is a suggestion for a single, couple, group of friends or the whole family:

Saturday, September 12 is a Sandcastle Building Workshop, (free) to be held from 11 am to 1 pm, at East Beach by the Cabrillo Arts Pavilion (across from the Mar Monte Hotel). Open to all, it is a great fun day to learn tips and techniques for building sandcastles and sand sculptures. People of all ages are welcome (children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult).

Bring: a couple of buckets, few pieces of plasticware, and any other tools you think might be helpful.

Saturday, September 19 is the Santa Barbara Sand Castle Festival, located at East Beach, presented by the Citizens Planning Association. Admission to this fun filled festival is free. Entry fees to participate in the Sand Castle Contest are nominal with special rates for sancastle contest teams for kids 6th grade and under (no adult help, please) and nonprofits.

Festival time is 11 am to 6 pm

10:30 - 11:45 am Contestant Sign-in and Team Registration

12:00 - 3:00 pm Contest (Building San Creations)

3:00 - 3:45 pm Judging & People's Choice Voting

4:00 pm Surf-a-Duck Race

4:30 pm Sandcastle Awards Ceremony

Take the MTD Waterfront Shuttle to or from the festival for only 25c

Additional fun events: 60's surf and sun era music with DJ Jerry DeWitt, The KELP Surf Band will be performing classics from the surf scene's heyday; Sweet harmonic fingerstyle guitar played by Bruce Foldfish.

for more information: http://www.sbsandcastlefestival.com/index.htm for information by telephone contact Naomi Kovacs at 805 (or 877) 966-3979

Enjoy the last lazy days of summer!