Goodnight Sand Dollars

Have you ever been lucky enough to find a sand dollar on the beach?

As kids, my sisters and I spent many barefoot hours hoping to find just one.

Well, we sure made up for that over this Labor Day weekend...

DH and I spent the last long weekend of summer at our favorite Maine campground, Searsport Shores, on a site looking over the beach. This was the first time that my sister, Andi, came camping with us (that's her on the raft, on the very right, with Nancy to her left, and me, the big sister, supervising) and we wanted to make this trip special for her. Well, it was better than special...it was a weekend of pure magic.

We found over 100 sand dollars on the beach in three days!



We got so excited that we went to look in our "magic river" at each low tide...

even late at night...donning silly light-up hats and an old flashlight.

We don't know if Hurricane Irene was responsible for bringing us so many sand dollars, but we prefer to think that our little sister, Nancy, who loved the ocean, might have had something to do with the magic we found.

When we got home Monday afternoon, we bleached the sand dollars and put them out in the sun to dry.

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Now we just have to come up with some unique ways to display so many sand dollars...anybody have some creative ideas to share?

It was sad saying goodbye to Searsport for another summer. As we drove away, I felt as if I was experiencing my own version of the favorite children's book, "Goodnight Moon". I guess my late summer version would have to go something like this:

Goodnight Searsport
Goodnight Moon
Goodnight campfires
And long days of June.

Goodnight bees...

Goodnight weavings in trees...

Goodnight goats...

And Goodnight knit things made from your coats.

Goodnight sailboats...

Goodnight garden...

Goodnight lobsters...

And Goodnight skunk!


Goodnight marshmallows
Goodnight Hershey bars
Goodnight sea glass...

And Goodnight tea in jars.

Goodnight ocean
Goodnight tides
And Goodnight to campers all cozy inside.

Goodnight kayaks...

Goodnight swing...

Goodnight sand dollars
And Goodnight summer things.


On the last morning of our trip, Andi gave me a gift she had chosen for me before we left home...

How could she have guessed how perfect this would be after our magical sand dollar weekend?

And we noticed these......

the first red leaves of fall... reminding us to treasure these summer-sister-sand dollar memories through the cold winter to come.

Goodnight friends.

I am linking this late-summer post to:
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
White Wednesday at Faded Charm
Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer
Nifty Thrift Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Sister Sunday at Sisters of the Wild West