For the past eight years, this blog has shared road trips far and near. We’ve brought you historic sites, museum tours, mountain climbs, sailboat rides, racetrack thrills, dining adventures, and most especially… unique roadside attractions. From visiting the World’s Largest Duck and the World’s Largest Penny, to being serenaded by God Bless America at the world’s largest miniature village, to having a 64-piece animatronic orchestra play us a concert at The House on the Rock, we revel in the odd, the offbeat, and the just plain weird.
So when my wife learned about a sand castle contest that’s been happening in the beach town of Belmar, New Jersey for almost four decades, of course we took time off from work to visit! We also found a new location to satiate our sweet tooth, and an awesome coffee shop too.
Let’s begin:
The Belmar Sand Castle Contest
Our destination: the seaside resort town of Belmar, about an hour from our front door.As we approached the shore, we could see the temperatures dropping lower and lower on the car’s outdoor thermometer. It was a welcome break from the heat wave currently covering much of the East Coast.Our first stop was to Main Street Donuts, which offers a variety of regular and gluten-free donuts. My wife found it through the Find Me Gluten Free app, and the reviews were promising.Main Street Donut’s approach is brilliant in its simplicity: they produce only a few “base” donuts such as vanilla or chocolate, and then create the variety through extensive toppings. My wife ordered a gluten free “Black and White Cookie” donut (a vanilla donut coated evenly in vanilla and chocolate cream), while I got a regular “Cookies and Cream” – a chocolate donut coated in vanilla cream and crumbled Oreo cookies. I’m drooling just remembering it as I write this!We took our donuts and headed down the block to Offshore Coffee Co., a Jersey shore coffee chain that has two locations (one in Long Branch, the other in Belmar). It had excellent reviews, so we thought we’d give it a try.Offshore Coffee Co did not disappoint – my iced oat milk latte was excellent, as was my wife’s almond milk latte. As for the donuts? I didn’t savor it – I was too busy shoveling it into my mouth. So very, very good!!After our mid-morning snack, we parked at the beach. Surprisingly, we found plenty of available spots (although every spot would be taken when we left a few hours later).The entrance to the New Jersey Sand Castle Contest was at the 18th Street entrance to the beach. With a sea breeze and temperatures in the 70s, we had a pleasant walk from our car.This year was the 37th running of the Sand Castle Contest. Registration opened at 8:00 am, and contestants had a mere four hours to build their artwork before judging began at noon.By the time we arrived around 10:00 am many of the designs were well on their way to becoming fully formed works of sand art.This contestant was putting the final touches on her Olympic-themed design.Want a snack? I loved the streak of mustard on the hot dog.My inner 8-year old loved this elaborate obstacle course for toy monster trucks!I love the “excavation” of the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton!Taking a break from the competition, we enjoyed a walk along the beach and boardwalk. We returned a little later in the morning to see the sand sculptures as they neared completion.We were only gone for twenty minutes, but upon our return the participants were working in high gear as the deadline for judging approached.“Happy birthday to you… happy birthday to…”(Insert Jaws theme music here)This year’s winner of Best in Show was Jurassic Beach… while there were a lot of cool designs, this was definitely my favorite.Previous winners The Bikini Boys created this amazing work based on the Pixar movie Inside Out. This work was created as a guest exhibition and not part of the judging. After taking in all of the sand castle fun (and enoying one last look at the ocean), we got back in the car and headed home.After an hour, we were back home… and back to uncomfortable outside temperatures! The TLX crossed the 40,000-mile mark on the trip. Onward!
Wrapping Up
The 37th Annual Sand Castle Contest was a lovely way to spend a morning in mid-July. Being able to watch people’s creativity unfold, to create works of art only limited by their imaginations (and their skill with sand), and to do it while enjoying an ocean breeze, was simply fantastic. As a bonus? The event is absolutely free!
Thanks, as always, for coming along on another journey down the open road ahead. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some sand to shake out of my shoes.
The donuts were AMAZING!! And if I hadn’t had work in the afternoon, I definitely would have grabbed a bucket and shovel and started building a castle of my own!
The Open Road Ahead 
the sand castles were amazing. Atlantic City also has a sand castle display which is good.
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I didn’t know AC has a sand castle contest too – I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for reading!!
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What a fun way to spend the day! It’s so cool to see how creative folks can get with sandcastles. Also-those gf donuts sounded delicious!
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The donuts were AMAZING!! And if I hadn’t had work in the afternoon, I definitely would have grabbed a bucket and shovel and started building a castle of my own!
Thanks for reading!!
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