Parks Recreation Centers Golden Co

Castles in the Sand

Yesterday, hoards of sand sculptors gathered along the sunny stretch of Marina Beach for the annual Sand Sculpture Contest, which featured everything from the traditional castle to a representation of the Space Needle.

According to Tammy Rankins, an employee of Edmonds Parks & Recreation , participants didn't need to sign up beforehand. The contest included two categories: Kids only and Family, which includes kids and adults.

Upon arrival, each participant received a colored flag depending on what category they were in. Prizes were awarded for the Best Overall, chosen by three judges. Judges included a member of the Parks & Rec board, an employee from the contest’s sponsor Nama’s Candy Store , and Mayor Mike Cooper. It was Mayor Cooper’s first year as a judge.

“I think I will probably judge on creativity,” he said before the contest began. “There is no real criteria, so I am going to look and see what strikes me the most.”

Rankins has been in charge of the contest for the past six years, and although it was sunny yesterday, she said the turnout is always big regardless of the weather.

“It happens rain or shine, and the turnout is the same,” she commented. “One of the best things about this contest is just getting outside and enjoying the beach and the weather. It is good quality family time. The youngest person participating today is probably two years old, and the veterans are the grandparents who came out to help.”

One ambitious group of teenagers was sculpting a gigantic sea monster, and garnering a lot of attention. Local Edmonds resident Mike O’Day had participated in the sand sculpting in previous years, and when he saw an ad in one of the local papers, he suggested that his son get together a group of friends and start digging.

“We didn’t have any big plans before we got here, we just knew we were going to make some kind of sea monster,” O’Day said, then laughed a bit. “I kind of tricked them into doing art today—teenage boys don’t do much art, but they got into it, sculpting, refining, adding shells and details.”

Winners of the contest received “Golden Buckets,” which weren’t actually golden, but were filled with delicious saltwater taffy from Nama’s Candy. 

Two awards were given in the Family Sand Sculpture Category due to it having the most entries.

'Parks and Recreation': Showrunner Michael Schur on Leslie's ...

It's not -- but it did lead to Schur revealing to us this most minor of spoilers: You'll see former NBA player Detlef Schrempf in at least one episode this season as we check in with Entertainment 720, Tom's new business venture with Jean-Ralphio ( Ben Schwartz ). We also talked about a lot more, including what Schur's excited about so far, the decision facing Leslie ( Amy Poehler ) and the casting of Patricia Clarkson as Tammy I. Michael Schur: We were in negotiations and looking at pictures to try to find a good look for her wardrobe-wise. And in every picture we looked at, she had blonde hair. In my memory, she has brown hair. ... So I was thinking this makes sense, because in my mind, she has dark hair. We're still trying to figure it out ... but I believe we're going to try to make her hair dark. When we were sitting around thinking of pretty, dark-haired women, it was, "Oh -- Patricia Clarkson." This has happened many times with us now. We've been incredibly fortunate. When we were designing Ben, it was like, "If we could cast anybody, it would be Adam Scott -- that's literally the way we were talking about it in the [writers] room. Then we found out a week later he was potentially available because "Party Down" might not come back. So it was, "Let's try to get him." The same thing with this character: "Oh, it's like Patricia Clarkson," and then we went and tried to get her, and got her. So it couldn't have worked out better. Part of the April-Andy [ Aubrey Plaza and Chris Pratt ] is at the end of last year, April was going to become the manager for his band, and the arc we're playing with them is she sort of becomes his life manager as well. There are certain things about the way he's conducted himself and gotten to the age of almost 30 without being too much of a grownup, and she starts to help him do that. The biggest question in the premiere, and in the first chunk of episodes, really, is what does she do? Does she go down path A or path B, when A and B are mutually exclusive? She has a guy she really likes, she has a job opportunity that's been her dream since she was a kid, and she can't really do both of them. So the whole premiere is really about her trying to figure out what it is she's going to do. She makes a decision at the end of the episode.

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