Assateague Adventures Part 1

 Over the summer we read Misty of Chincoteague. It was a fun book to read, and even more fun because we just got to go there! On Sunday I took the kids to go camping on Assateague Island in Maryland.

 It was a blast! Our campsite was right at the base of the dunes. A very short walk and we were on the beach.

 The weather when we arrived was absolutely amazing! The fence here is to protect the dunes from people and I think, the horses. The fence is supposed to be electrified but Tyler tried it out and said it wasn't. :)

 Some friends came to visit us at our campsite and brought their four kids. We roasted hot dogs and made s'mores. As the sun began its decent, we saw a sun dog! The only reason I know what a sun dog is is because of my friend Linda, who posts a lot of cool weather phenomena.

After that, we rounded up all seven kids and went for a walk on the beach. I hadn't seen these friends in quite a while, and couldn't believe how big their kids are getting!

They made instant friends!

Because of the way the park is set up, there is beach access only for campers. I will write more about that tomorrow. That means the beaches are not crowded or full of tanned-leather women in too-small bikinis or otherwise unsavory beach attractions. At least not while we were there.

We collected a ton of shells and watched the waves roll in.

And we found this crusty old chap, a wizened horseshoe crab who has been around the block a time or two and has the barnacles to prove it. It was alive and caused lots of excitement. We learned in the Visitors Center that they use their spiky tails not as a weapon, but to flip themselves upright again.  We also found 3 dried up carcasses of horseshoe crabs, and each kid came home with a special treasure. P.S. This time I got smart and brought a gallon ziplock for each kid, labeled with their name, to put their treasures in. It worked great!

As we walked the sun was setting and the tide was on its way out. It left these really cool channels of water, which of course drew the kids like a magnet.

They splashed and got nice and sandy before bed time.

Tyler was a man on a mission: find awesome shells!

Here are Scott and Merry Jo with their newest little snuggle bunny. He has a delightful number of chins and is quite adorable.

And here we are! Long ago, in the days of yore, when Friends actually airing in real time, and we had no kids, we used to get together and sew in my basement apartment. Until Merry Jo had to leave RIGHT NOW because Survivor was on, and DVR hadn't been invented yet. See...I told you it was in the days of yore.

Pretty soon the sky began to light up and it was the most beautiful sunset I have seen in a long, long time.

The verse that kept repeating in my mind was: The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Psalm 19:1

After everyone went home, we trekked to the bathrooms with Tyler as flashlight man and came back and crashed in the tent. The sound of the waves did a good job of lulling everyone to sleep. Unfortunately, it did nothing to keep me asleep but that's camping for you. More tomorrow, and yes! We saw the ponies!