When I describe the beach near our house, I often refer to it as a gravel beach. I’ve read the term cobblestone beach and I think that might also be a good description. There is sand at the beach. We can attest to that because we walk along the beach nearly every day and a significant amount of sand makes its way back to our house. Although we remove our shoes at the door, we are constantly finding sand in the dustbin when we sweep and the bucket when we mop.

The bay itself is relatively shallow. At high tide the water is less than 5 feet deep for nearly a mile away from the shore. At low tide, it is easy to walk a half mile out into the bay on nearly dry ground. When the tide recedes it leaves behind what look like mud flats, and the ground can be a challenge to walk upon in places as the mud can develop significant suction. Those who know what they are doing have success harvesting clams.

Yesterday was the 9th annual sand sculpture competition at the bay. At 6 am, a pancake breakfast was being served at the library, which is across the street from the beach. Coffee and muffins were also available. The event was a fundraiser for the library. A field not far away was a designated parking area where visitors could park for a donation to the library. Registration for the car show opened at 6 am and for the sand sculpture completion at 7 am. The sand castle competition had to begin early as the tide receded. High tide would be back by 3 pm, which meant the sculptures had to be judged by noon and would be islands surrounded by water by a little after 1 pm. The car show had to be in the morning because many of the cars were set to participate in the Old Settlers Parade in nearby Ferndale. The parade and picnic is a century long tradition in that community.

It was a busy weekend in north Whatcom County. I admit I forgot about all of the festivities until I made what I thought would be a quick run to the hardware store. With various streets closed for the parade and a lot of visitors in town it took me at least an extra half hour to pick up new batteries for the carbon monoxide detector. In the afternoon, near high tide, we walked down to the beach to discover that there were a lot of people still out enjoying the water and sun.

Our beach is an interesting place because there are many nice days in the summer when it is nearly abandoned. We find it interesting that people rent beach houses and then stay inside when our weather is mild and the water is inviting. The ocean is a bit chilly for an extended dip, but hardy folks find swimming there to be invigorating. Our beach isn’t the best swimming beach simply because the water is shallow, but that makes it a fun and safe place for children.

We didn’t venture down to look at the sand sculptures. Some days we aren’t in the mood for crowds. Although I don’t mind donating to the library, the hassle of parking down at the beach didn’t seem worth it and walking all the way to where the sand sculptures were located would have added a couple of extra miles to our usual walk and would have required us to walk much earlier in the day than our usual.

We don’t mind sharing the beach with the crowds. There is plenty of space and plenty of time. We didn’t go down to the beach on the 4th of July either. Avoiding the crowds seemed like a good idea that day, too.

And we can get a pretty good car show just living in our neighborhood. Heading to the beach with a classic car is a common entertainment and we can see beautiful cars nearly every weekend. Sure, they gather at car shows, but individual cars are common driving alongside the coast.

It is a busy weekend for us. Today is our last Sunday as employees of our church. Our interim position is winding down. We’ll go into the office tomorrow and on Tuesday we will be officially retired once again.

One of the tasks of interim ministers, especially faith formation ministers, is to clean out areas in the church where old resources have accumulated. For the past two years there has always been a cabinet, closet, or storage area in need of cleaning and sorting. In one closet we found over 50 years accumulation of Sunday School curricula. Most of the contents of the closet were resources that no one will ever use again. Among those resources, however, were a few treasures that should be kept and stored in a way that they are more accessible and can be used. The last days of this job have been no exception. Our office had to be cleaned out, and it was a place where a lot of resources accumulated, especially during last week’s Creation Care Camp. There was a box of children’s coloring pages, books, and other resources that is kept in the usher’s closet at the church that needed to be sorted and organized in order to be useful. You’d be surprised how many things get stuffed into that box that are not useful resources for children visiting worship. Music resources used at the camp had to be put away in the music room. It seems that sorting and organizing is just a part of our lifestyle these days. We filled several wastebaskets and recycling bins in the process.

We have a similar process going on at home. I have a stack of boxes that I brought home having removed them from what had been our parents’ summer cabin before it was sold in the spring. Most of the contents of the boxes are papers that need to be shredded. There are old financial records, including records from my father’s businesses that have been closed for 40 years. Once again, those papers have to be sorted.

After a couple of days off I will be back at the task or sorting. One job ends and another begins. I don’t know exactly how to pull of being retired, but I don’t expect to become bored any time soon.