Sunset at Chincoteague

Alas! A weekend off!! We're leaving the DC heat and heading to the ocean.

This weekend we took off for a little getaway to Chincoteague Island.... home of the Wild Pony Roundup, Saltwater Cowboys, Baldy's restaurant and the best little budget tourist shops this side of the Mississippi. Of course, we came to this Island because of the famous "Misty of Chincoteague" series and the alure of a whole island set aside for wild ponies.

When we arrived on Friday, first thing we did was head out to the beach on Assateague island. Assateague is the national wildlife refuge where the horses run free, you can drive right out there from Chincoteague and it has a nice long coast line of the Atlantic.
(It was much bigger than we imagined!!)

We are just north of Virginia beach, if you came up from there on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (that 17 mile bridge tunnel we told you about?) and then hung a right on the peninsula. You drive out to Chincoteague, and then Assateague is right next to it (the green.)

We are currently right out there on Beach road.

AKA, Heaven! The crashing surf made us realize we had serious beach withdrawals!

The sand out here is super soft, and there are tons of little baby clams (they are like sandcrabs, but they still have the clam shells... so I guess they are baby clams?) The kids had fun watching the shells wiggle in their hands, then later digging a big hole to bury Daddy's feet.
Look at Greg, he actually did get stuck in the sand. And his signing is becoming much more natural!

Here is short daddy!Shayna didn't want to kiss daddy, he was too stubbly!! Now- isn't that picture wild? The sand looks like water with the sun setting behind it. Remember now the sun is setting behind us, to the west. Here's a picture facing east, while the kids enjoyed getting their feet tickled by crabs. (and Josiah loving being the tallest for once!)

About that time I realized the sun was setting and had to go play with my camera!
Assateague Island is a wild bird sanctuary as well. A lot of the island is marked off "for birds only". It became a challenge for me to get birds in all my pictures.

So there is the sun, setting over Chincoteague Island... we headed back for some pizza and good sleep (and I tried to do homework! Really!). About that time we realized Assateague's wildlife also includes hungry mosquitos .. so we resolved to get repellant tomorrow and go back to find some horses. Nite Nite!