A quick peek at last night’s activity in the barn: Nik demonstrating excellent jig-saw technique.

Who knew that a little LED and a battery could astonish Anna so completely that she doesn’t have a giggle in her?!

Theo demonstrates that Level 12 of the Tough as Nails puzzle is indeed possible (over the large piece of PVC, without touching).

Sam and Nik have a brilliant idea: to make an invisible kite. Pretty good job, eh? They decide it might need a bit more substance to actually fly.

Anna’s decided to build a sailing ship-riverboat hybrid. It also will have running lights, and comfy bench, and a fishing pole. All that is needed is a cooler of delicious cold beverages and a lazy afternoon!

Piper works on her traditional kite design, improved through the use of a block of foam to connect the chopsticks.

In order to shape his boat hull, Carter uses the hot-wire-cutter to remove some foam. Leo is fascinated and has collected his own foam to cut. Not for his kite, just because.

Gus is worried that his sail will literally sail away. Perhaps he’s aware of a monsoon forecast that we somehow missed. So it will be secured to the boat using both box tape and gorilla tape. That should hold it.

The non-traditional blue running lights should be our first clue that this boat is not playing by the rules. The next clue might be the giant forecast of DOOM.

There is a pesky set of lines attached to this soon-to-be-kite sail so Elena needs to remove them. The handiest tool is a box cutter, which she seems all to happy to swipe in Robyn’s general direction. No Tinkerers were injured in the making of this kite.

Fiona uses the traditional kite construction process, including Gever’s recommended sewing of the tail onto the kite at the duct tape reinforcement. The “thread” used is thin copper wire, which is held like a needle using – what else – needlenose pliers.

Elena eshews the traditional diamond-shaped kite for a box kite. Neither she nor Robyn has actually ever seen a box kite up close, much less made one. But they give it a go.

The crew grabs up their creations for the trip to the test site (aka beach). Sam can’t wait that long, and tests the kite right here and now (Nik has already flown it out of the barn).

Since Sam and Nik have already flown their kite all over the ranch, it needs repairs immediately upon arrival at the beach. Sam doesn’t want to wait another moment, and drops to the ground as soon as he’s out of the car. Note that the kite actually is pretty invisible. Unfortunately they couldn’t find clear duct (or electrical) tape.

After flying their kite virtually non-stop since leaving the barn, now that we are about to walk out onto the sand Sam and Nik have one final run. I believe we never see the kite again (maybe because it’s so invisible? note that even the string is clear fishing line).

We find an isolated spot on the beach, near a river pond for boating and just steps from the ocean.

Liz has never been to the West Coast before, so must immediately dip her toe in the Pacific. All those movies and TV shows must have been showing a different Pacific Ocean.

Leo is from LA – land of the movie and TV Pacific Ocean. He, like Liz, is wondering what cruel joke we are playing on the kids: promising to take them to the beach and bringing them to this foggy, cold place. He appears to be attempting to elevate out of the water in order to avoid the cold. It doesn’t work.

The kids all give their boats a try in the pond, and imply they are shunning the water, by leaving their clothes on (for the most part). Many later will wish they had worn only their swimsuits, since wearing cold, wet shirts is… cold.

Fiona is really eager to get her kite into the air. She has the speed (helpful since there is no wind), she has the determination (trying every technique and variation that anyone suggests), but what it turns out she needs is a dihedral. She eventually mods her kite and it flies beautifully.

Nik and Sam are first to get seriously wet (as usual). They actually have been splashing around in the ocean and came over to the pond where everyone else is. They are obviously quite happy to find that the shallow pond is much warmer than the Pacific Ocean.

Gus has been weightlifting driftwood, and Gever decides he needs a more significant challenge. So he balances a piece of driftwood on top of him. Gus seems pleased.

Leo appears to be doing his daily tai chi, but if you look closely you’ll see he is actually holding a kite string. Leo turns out to be the only kid at Tinkering School who actually knows how to fly a kite. He not only gets it up in the air with ease (and plenty of running), but understands the technique of letting out more string so it flies higher and gets in the better airflow.

Not only can Leo fly a kite, he sure knows how to build them, too. Note the non-traditional circle shape, and excellent use of the various paragliding materials.

The warmish pond is irresistable, and virtually everyone is now down to their swimsuits and completely soaked. I’m not sure what the game was, but they covered a lot of territory in that big pond.

Theo decides to take the center cells of the paraglider (which was already designed to fly), and use that as his kite. When he’s directly in the wind (which finally picked up a bit), it works perfectly. But really only then….

Leo’s kite just worked so great, I have to show it again. Leo even was able to get it flying downwind (albeit quite low and with a LOT of hard running.) Note what has happened to Theo’s kite when the wind shifted slightly.

What you can’t see under all that sand, is that somehow Carter decided it was better to wear his jeans rather than his swimsuit. However the pond was so inviting he couldn’t resist going in. In his jeans. So they are soaking wet, and now buried in sand.

Julianna reports that the wet sand is the perfect surface for doing gymnastics. After testing it out with a few cartwheels, she gets Anna to join her for a twirl.

Gever shares one of his favorite beach pastimes with Anna: making sand balls. Not to throw or anything. Just because.

The boys head over to explore the fort that someone has left behind. Gus later reports “you could just pull on one stick and the whole thing would fall down… unless you pulled one from the top.” Excellent engineering analysis! Apparently there is a lot of other interesting stuff near the fort, as they spend the rest of the afternoon there (and are the only dry kids returning home).

Carter is not satisfied with the boat he made, which is distinctly small and not very buoyant. He decides to go on a hunt, and eventually tracks down this _exceptional_ boat. He is quite proud of it, and rightly so.

While the boys tended to play wave jumping, the girls seem to be playing something more like wave watching. It seems that the challenge is to hold your ground; Julianna is quite clearly losing this round. Perhaps she has noticed the triple set about to come in.

I think that Elena just had an itch on her leg, but I like to think of her as a little pink beach flamingo.

Anyone who has followed us during previous years likely recalls Theo’s inability to stay out of the water. Frankly I was amazed he lasted this long. Note that he really did intend to stay on the beach (since he didn’t change into his swimsuit). But he Just Couldn’t Resist.

Julie is doubling as lifeguard and photo-documentarian today. Despite her casual appearance, she really was keeping an eye on those wet kids.

Theo quickly escalated from some casual wave jumping to full-on body surfing. Since we weren’t sure about an undertow, the rule was you couldn’t go out deeper than your knees (not counting splashing from surf). This severely limited Theo’s ride, but he didn’t seem to mind.

Steve just took one (maybe two) cameras out today – perhaps to protect the fancier gear from the salt and sand. However he couldn’t just stand there, could he? He had to do some upside-down videoing. (Hopefully will make it up for the Bonus video.)

Anna paddled out to enjoy Carter’s boat, and they came across some siblings with a boogie board. Since the pond was wave-less, they were invited aboard for a ride around the pond.

Red, yellow, brown, freckled and brown freckled: nearly the full spectrum of summer colors at the beach.

In order to avoid hypothermia we declare it’s time to head back. Based on the relatively quick re-assembly, it must have been just about time.

Sam hasn’t been in the water for ages, and is actually pretty dry. It’s not entirely clear how he managed to get a sand mask. Hmm… a sand mask? Just paint a little water on your face, then sprinkle some sand…

Carter has left his boat in the care of the kids he met on the pond. He has indicated where they should leave it so he can find it when he returns. Meanwhile he has managed to get sandy – again – while rinsing off to leave.

Theo wants to hear Steve’s report on how the boat did. It was a minimalist design – I liked the nut on the “dagger board” for stability.

Theo also interviews Gus on how his boat performed. Gus managed to not lose the sail, although he indicated there wasn’t really much wind so the boat didn’t go anywhere. All this boat analysis – is Theo wishing he had made a boat?

Fortunately Carter removed his shirt (unlike half the Tinkerers) before getting wet, so he has a dry shirt and jacket and hat to put on. He is MUCH warmer now. Soon we will force him to remove his soaking, sandy pants and wrap a sweater and towel around to get him back to the ranch.

Robyn is clearly the ace planner: the kids all brought their towels, change of clothes and soap with them to the beach (well, safely stashed in the back of the truck). Gever is in charge of running everyone through the hot shower before returning to the ranch house for dinner. He claims it went without a hitch….

Sam and Nik favor us with a concert after dinner. They clearly are inspiring a new generation of Tinkerers (Gus and Carter). Sam’s ringing finale solo sparks Nik and Gus to exercise their vocal cords as well.

The world as Steve sees it (sometimes anyway).