looks more like pebbles than sand.

It is sand..just wet from the storm that morning..I sit there and fish all of the time

Thanks

Very pretty... it bums me out that I now live in a place with too much light pollution to get nice star shots

I'm with kyricom in my jealousy, but am more curious as to your camera settings to get such a gorgeous shot.

great night sky

Thank you erveryone! The settings were the following:
ISO 6400
30 s. (hence the little lines instead of dots for the stars)
F/4 (18 mm)

Beautiful, well done

this is very dramatic with great angles and tones