Day Four - We Go to the Beach

What is the very best thing to do on a Wednesday? Go to the beach!

When the ocean gets too cold, we go to the lagoon and turtle around in the amber water.

Then a new idea occurs - with all this driftwood, we should be able to build a raft. Elijah starts figuring out which pieces of wood are dry enough to float.

After collecting some small sticks into a somewhat stable waffle of a raft, someone gets the bright idea to try and move a giant surfboard of redwood down to the lagoon. The hard part is that it's a perfect quarter arc of a tree that probably stood more than a hundred feet tall - and it weighs something like 900 pounds. Levers and fulcrums are brought to bear.

Then more levers and fulcrums.

Then more helping hands.

Then we lay down rails to keep the enormous slab from sinking into the soft sand.

While some are moving the log, some are soaking up the sneaky peeks of sunshine that are hinting at how hot the beach is about to come.

But we keep getting more hands on the ancient chunk of redwood.

Meanwhile, the ongoing raft project is shaping up.

Our favorite blue bowling ball wanders around the beach, an object of curiosity.

The gray skies split open and the temperature on the sand rockets up.

Elijah takes his raft out for a spin.

Portrait of a Young Tinkerer: Althea, Hollywood Style

Gil makes some significant additions to Elijah's raft, and then he takes it for a test flight.

A little while later, the huge log makes it to the slope at the edge of the lagoon...

...and into the water!

Fun immediately ensues. Non-stop, unfettered, totally silly, giddy, fun.

With a few more cross braces, Gil's raft (based on Elijah's start) proves seaworthy.

Meanwhile, this is going on.

The scratchy side gets covered with a tarp.

Which is nicer on the feet when doing a back flip.

Kate and Chane take a long swim across the lagoon and back.

Portrait of a Collaborator: Chane at Rest

Huck Finn (Gil) and Tom Sawyer (Sam) decide to pole up the river.

The tarp comes loose as a game that seems to have no real rules other than "get on the log!" causes almost constant rolling.

There was also some "synchronized swimming" in the shallows.

Serena demonstrates that the log also works as a meditation raft.

Glynn and Kate take a quick swim down to visit Tom and Huck on the raft.

And the game continues.

We win!

As a small cloud drifts past the sun, Tom and Huck drift under the bridge.

This may be the least efficient boat propulsion ever deployed at Tinkering School.

Tom and Huck return safely from far Tortuga.

"Let's jump off the log!" says Glynn.

Always bring a gymnast or two to the beach. Crazy stuff like this will happen spontaneously. Althea does a handstand as Rhody looks on.

"Silly gymnasts," says Glynn, "logs are for jumping!"

"No," says Althea, "handstands!"

Sam agrees with Glynn, jumping is great!

"Diving!" says Kate as she knifes into the water leaving almost no splash. The Russian judge awarded 9.2 points.

Kip aligns himself with the jumpers.

And Rhody aligns herself with the center of the earth and the hand standing party.

Ending with a backflip dismount.

No one is surprised to see that Rhody's brother Gil is also a hand-stander.

Everyone, re-applies sunscreen after leaving the lagoon. Parents everywhere breathe a sigh of relief.

Sam supermans along the beach looking for injustice and evildoers.

Portrait of a Young Tinkerer: Sam

And we close out the day back where we started, in the cold clean waters of the Pacific Ocean.

These are our feet.