Sand Soccer at Seaside

Say that ten times really fast! Too bad it wasn't a sunny day or I could have said "Sunny Sand Soccer at Seaside."  It was cloudy but at least it didn't rain today. There were soccer fields set up yesterday on the beach, so we figured something might be going on either yesterday or today. While riding our bikes down by the Promenade (the boardwalk), we saw a LOT of action going on today and stopped to watch.
Lots of teams playing, and a wide variety of ages participating. The bright colorful jerseys--hot orange, chartreuse, pink made up for the grey day.

Great fun, it looked like. The kids were really enjoying themselves and playing hard. Some played barefoot, others played in those water socks. The fields were very short so the game went quickly. They even had a father/son or daughter match going on! I'll bet some of those dads are going to be VERY sore tomorrow. It made me think back to my soccer days. I started playing late in life, at the age of 32 and played adult soccer for a couple of years. Sprained both my ankles numerous times but never at the same time. But, I loved it and when my girls showed an interest, they played, too, for quite a few years.

Here's sand in your eye, kid! A different kind of hazard in playing sand soccer, that's for sure, besides the usual shin kicks, twisted up feet in the melee, and other possible injuries involving bare feet.....

And here is some more action in the sand...these kids were playing their hearts out...

There is always a story and as a budding photographer, I look for the story when I see an event like this. The beautiful black dog (black lab?) was at attention for a good 20 minutes staring at a flying disc at his owner's feet. It was like he was pointing for the disc. The minute the owner was going to pick up the disc, the dog was going to be ready. But because his owner was watching the soccer game, he wasn't in the mood to throw the disc for awhile. That dog stayed at attention for all that time until the game was over. Then the fun began. You could tell he was an experienced disc catcher! He looked really happy to be chasing his yellow rubber disc....

Kids celebrated their wins in different ways...some did the jump for joy....

Some went down into the water to cool off....BR-R-R-R-R! I believe the water is only in the fifties right now?

There were the usual congratulatory photo opps with proud parents and coaches....

There were other things going on at the beach besides the starring soccer feature....ALWAYS the opportunity for kite flying at the beach....I'm envious of this boy's kite, it's so pretty!

It's great to stumble upon local things in your travels, you can't always find out ahead of time what's going on in a small town so we were glad we saw this. We'll see what more we can stumble upon in the next few days or maybe something more planned, who knows? Only Eldo knows.....(well, actually, Sparky is the event planner usually, but Sparky doesn't plan too far ahead so even she doesn't know at the moment).....See you later!