I call up Sandman, Matt Long who was conducting these workshops and peruse his website, www.canyoudigit.com. I'm impressed that his toy by the same name was voted, top 25 toys by Parents' Choice Foundation. I'm equally impressed that he is mentioned in a ton of magazines and TV shows like; Good Morning America, Live with Regis and Kelly and even on Sponge Bob. But I'm most impressed that he is such a down to earth guy with a big heart who loves kids and does a lot of work with them.

I ask him if he can give me a private castle building workshop, he happily agrees.

We decide on Coney Island as the location for my new home. Matt explains, "The sand is great there, plus there is this cool myth that a long time ago the sand was dumped from ships from the Caribbean, who used it as ballast. Ah, this adventure is getting cooler by the minute.

I ask Matt how I will recognize him on that day?
He laughs, "I'll be by the water, directly in front of the Wonder Wheel. You can't miss me; I'll have a shovel, and a shopping cart with an orange flag that says, "Can you dig it."
"Nice advertising there." We laugh.
"By the way Matt, mind if I tape this for an episode of Fran's World, it's a show I do about my life?
"Not at all."

With the date set, I decide if I'm going to do something as cool as build the perfect sand castle and tape it, I'd want my family to come along. So I invite my sister, Sharhira and my niece, Athena to meet me on the sands of Coney Island. (Sounds like a 1940's movie title.)

At 9 A.M. on the groundbreaking day I search the shoreline for Matt.
There off in the distance I see this tiny figure digging away.

I walk up to him and his is happily knee deep in sand. Within a few minutes my sister and niece shows up. My six-year-old niece, who always loves to pitch in, offers to shovel. The shovel is bigger than her... but we let her try.

With a determined look, but not the strength to match, she says, "Wow, Frannie this is pretty hard." We laugh and take over from there.

The extent of my sand castle experience is putting two buckets of sand upside down, and then making some cheesy roads and tunnels. Here of course we were going for the Disney castle effect... one where you can imagine a princess being rescued from the turret, better yet, a castle where the sexy pirate, Jack Sparrow, would come knocking at my castle door. Hey we have the right sand for it! (Get it Pirates of the Caribbean!)

With my fantasy tucked aside, we start building.

Matt begins, "As you can see one should always bring a real shovel to the beach, this will save a lot of time and your back. The reason is you want to start with a good size pile."
"Just like the foundation of any house."
"Exactly... the first step to a great castle is to prepare a good pile for water."
"So Matt, is there any easy way to carry the water besides going back and forth with a bucket? I mean any pipelines going into this?"
"Nope the easiest way is to have someone else carry it for you!"
"Where's Athena?" I laughed. "Just kidding. I better watch what I'm saying or I'm going to get in trouble with child labor."
Matt smiled and continued. "Now for the sand to work right it must stay tight... so it has to be very wet... that's why we build near the water."
"Good point. I mean all castles will wash away, but hopefully not while you are building them."
"Yes, you want them to at least last for a couple of hours. Now, once you have the sand wet, the second key to a perfect pile is to pack the pile but patting it down."
"Patting like in a police line up."
"Spoken like a true New Yorker! Actually, I like to pack the pile and get into a rhythm... singing helps..."Can you dig it, can you dig it..."
"Matt, I like you but I am not going to sing that song."
We both laughed.

We moved onto the next phase, the phase where we break out the tools. You see Matt has this whole handy dandy toy kit, plus a DVD that makes this as easy as sand castle building 101.

First up, we took Matt's form buckets (buckets without bottoms) and filled them with sand, about ¼ way up, then we added water... making sure to get rid of shells, rocks, dead crabs, discarded beer bottles, or anything that would interfere from my castle becoming a fine work of art. Once it was filled to the rim, and all debris removed, we slide the form up and "ta da"... the shape of the form bucket was left.

Matt enthusiastically continued, "We now have a rough outline. Next we are going to make a slurry mix in the bucket."
"Slurry mix? What are we working at McDonalds?"
"Yeah, sort of... we have to keep the right consistency... then we place a handful of this mixture on top, pound it, and it becomes the first turret."
"Very clever sandman... but it needs a little work there."
"Yeah, slow down fast talker, we are getting there. We need to scrape the sides away and make and upside down ice cream cone."
"Ah, now you're working for Carvel. This is fudgy the whale... Matt you are making me hungry with all your food references!"
"Well, you can eat soon if you want because once you have this done; you have learned two of the most important techniques."
"Matt, you know I'm teasing you... this sand building is actually very relaxing to do. How did you start all this?"
"I worked with wood, this was a natural progression. I modeled all the tools that I use here in my Can you dig it kit, from wood carvers tools."
"Pretty sneaky, but clever." I smiled.

Matt then explained all the sand tools.
"The largest tool is the sand wedge hoe which is for cutting and building the sand. Moving down the line we have the large detail shaper, the medium shaper and smaller shaper..."
"The names are pretty self explanatory. I like that!" What's this round thingy?" I asked.
"That's the bull nose scarper, for curve cuts and round details."
"Geez, who would have thought this was so intricate... this is a true art."
Matt nodded, "Yes it is... and I love doing it."
"I can see that... Oh wait, how did this get in here... let me throw this out..."
"No... that's my manually powered sandblaster, a very important tool."
"Wow, looks like a straw to me."
"Very good observation, it is." We both laughed.
"Politically correct names, gotta love it... oh and we can't forget this mesh bag so kids can keep everything together."

With that we continued to build for the next ½ hour. Building castle walls, doorways, ramps, windows, winding stairways and another turret. As I was being mentored, Matt told me not to skimp on the sand... after all it is free!

Matt was a great teacher, showing me sandman tricks to make things go smoother. For example, he warned me not to remove too much sand at one time or that the castle would collapse. (A good point because I didn't want that to happen after all our hard work!)

Matt gave me insider tips; "Whenever you create a detail in a sand castle, take time to clear it with the master sandblaster or as you called it, ‘the straw'. The clearing marks the difference between a good and great castle". (And I of course only wanted a great castle.)

Within two hours, we had a beautiful masterpiece. My castle by the ocean was done! I stepped back and admired it.

I thanked my wonderful architect, Matt. Then took a ton of pictures... since this wouldn't last long I wanted it captured in photos for years to come.

With our work complete, people gathered around and were "oohing and ahhing". I wound up having the admirers do the closing of the show with me.

Realizing that the castle was only a temporary estate I asked, "So generally how long does a castle stay up?"
"About a day or so, depending on the tide, and the people."

Brian, my cameraman who doesn't get impressed easily, said,
"Matt, this is an awesome job!" Then he paused and continued,
"Would you mind if we blew it up?"

"Blow it up?" I asked.
Brian said, "Yeah there's this show on TV where they build the castles on the beach and then at the end they blow it up."
"Brian, that is such a guy thing!"
I looked at Matt for an answer.
He shrugged, "Wait a while, let people enjoy it and then do what you want."

For the next few hours I did some more show openings, treated my niece and sister to some rides, had a spin on the Cyclone, interviewed other folks etc.

Just before we headed out Brian said, "Fran, You sure you don't want to blow up the castle?"
"First of all, I don't have any dynamite on me, and second, I'd feel terrible."
"Fran, he said it was okay, plus it will be destroyed anyway. People won't expect it on the show."
"Maybe if I sit on it accidentally."
Seeing my hesitation Brian said, "Let's see if it's even still there."

We walked over, and sure enough, my beautiful castle was still standing tall.

For the next half hour I sat there pondering if I should destroy it. The last thing I wanted was for Matt to think I didn't appreciate our work... plus this was my castle by the sea. Did I want to stomp on my dream?

A crowd started to gather. Some yelled, "Don't do it." Others yelled, "It would be fun... it's going to be gone by morning anyway. Of course I realized it was really just a sand castle... and I could always build it again... but... ah... the decision, the decision.

Finally Brian said, "Do what you think will be best for the show... what would be most entertaining."

I looked around and spotted two girls... maybe there was a way around this... a way not to feel so guilty.

So what do you think I did?
To find out, you have to watch the video.

Click To Play

May all your castle dreams come true! Thanks Matt!

Note: To build your own sand castle or take one of Sandman Matt Long's Classes go to www.canyoudigit.com