So, just got back from what was probably one of the best vacations in my life. I was 25 ft. away from real-life gray whales. I flew a 1942 WWII plane along a beach. It was incredible.

Though as awesome as that was, I believe my favorite part was spending an entire day on the beach building sand castles with my sweet, sweet wife. Here’s the short version:

The Kingdom By The Sea

Once upon a time, there was a small castle. The rulers were wise and industrious, and the tiny kingdom began to prosper. The castle soon became a very large fortress with several buildings on the inner court. The princess even had her own tower with bridges to other parts. But it didn’t stop there. A massive wall was constructed, as well as a temple and a city gate. But what would a castle be without a proper kingdom? Roads, highways, villages, churches, mid-, low-, and high-income housing districts were constructed. There were even lakeside shorefront properties and timeshares. Pretty much everything.

As the kingdom grew, it was necessary to build towers and inns along the roads to protect the people, as well as another fort on the western border. And all the while, the castle became larger and more beautiful. A large crab shell was mounted above the city gate as a symbol of the People of the Shell.

Their prophets foretold a coming doom by flood and waves, but no one believed them. They just kept on building and building. Our kingdom is too great too be destroyed, the rulers said. (Besides, the tide wasn’t going to come in for hours!)

It wasn’t until it was too late that the council decided to take action. (They had lost contact with the western kingdoms, and there were reports of massive, incoming waves of destruction.) So they built a giant wall and levy system around the entire kingdom to protect it from the water! And it worked! For a while, it directed the waves around the outside, and a feast was held in honor of the king!

But, as the sun began to set, our poor kingdom was slowly overcome by water, even as their engineers tried to reinforce the levies. The waves were just too much! A giant monster jellyfish even landed on top of the high income suburbs!

We were very proud of that castle, though. Even as we were forced to leave for our next destination before it got too late, its walls were still standing, even though the entire kingdom around it had been washed away.

Can you see why I adore my wife? I can. I’m going to remember that day for a very, very long time.