So maybe you can't make it to the beach right now, that's no reason not to build a sandcastle.  VirtualSandCastle.com has an easy touse little online program that enables you to create your own Sandcastles online.

I tried it myself and it only took a couple minutes.  Once you create your sand castle, you can send it as an ecard.

I built Castle SandVania, which you can see I have embedded below.  It only took me a couple dozen mouse clicks.  :)

I also put together a little video of this effort, which I will share separately as soon as I can get the video uploaded and approved by Revver.

In the meantime if you are preparing to travel to the beach this might be something to entertain your kids before you leave.   The graphics in this program are very fast and pretty easy and intuitive to use.

Maybe the best thing about building a sandcastle online is the fact that you won't get any sand or grit in your keyboard or mouse wheel!

I get lost in photoshop and many other photo programs in about 30 seconds, but I was able to build this on my first try without really making any mistakes at all.  I even put in the sea gulls and crabs and the sea gull with a crab.