This past weekend Madeline, Henry and I went camping at Maddox Family Campground in Chincoteague, Virginia. It was Henry's first camping trip. ( We had slept out in the tent on the deck about 2 years ago.) We got a late start on Friday since we had to wait for Mads to get home from work. We arrived at the campground at about 10:30 PM. We quickly set up the tent, unloaded the car and got ready for bed. We set up camp on the edge of the campground overlooking the channel that runs between Chincoteague and Assateague Islands. We had an unobstructed view of the bridge and lighthouse. We were soon asleep.
Satrurday dawned clear and very windy. The birds woke us up by 8 am. We ate a quick breakfast of Pop Tarts, muffins and cereal, then headed out for a bike ride to Assateague. Henry was on the tag-a-long behind my bike. The wind was brutal. On the Wildlife Drive we saw a black snake, endangered fox squirrels and lots of waterfowl. We headed to the Pony Trail and actually encountered a pony in the parking lot. The Pony Trail has recently been paved which was a very nice improvement from our previous visits. We rode up to the beach and noticed that the crowds were non-exsistent. We headed back to the campground to have lunch and then back to the beach. The wind was even worse headed back to Chincoteague. We had to petal hard even going down hill!
Lunch was yogurt, grapes, peanut butter sandwiches and Party Mix. To keep Mads happy we stopped at the Coffee shop for her caffeine fix. The beach was also very windy. Too windy to set up our beach umbrella. We set our chairs with our backs to the wind and tried to read. Henry played in the sand trying to dig a big hole to hide from the wind, but it keep filling with blowing sand. Henry would stop playing intermittently and take off running down the beach. He would run to the edge of the ocean and then take off joyfully through the surf, returning to us breathless and salt splashed and happy. He would then lay down in the warm sand to catch his breath. We thought he was carzy since the air and water were cold and the wind. Eventually, Mads helped him build a sand castle. When we were all sand-blasted and sand-crusted and cold and tired we headed home. At the campground we took very welcome, warm showers. Since it was only about 3 PM, we headed to Memorial Park. Chicken City Road was closed at Church St so we kind of got lost trying to find the park. We did find the Viking and Pirate shop, but it was closed. At Memorial Park, we played on the playground, then we walked along the dock where people were crabbing. We discovered the skate park and were lucky enough to find two skateboards to play with. Mostly we sat on the boards and rolled down the various ramps.
Back at the campground we lit the charcoal for our dinner and sat around reading and enjoying the view. After burgers and hotdogs on the grill, we took a drive over to Assateague to see the Wildlife Drive. We stopped at the visitors center near the beach and enjoyed the setting sun. Next stop was Mr. Whippy for the largest small cones ever! Back at our site we threw some logs on the charcoal and started our campfire. We ate s'mores and used our burning mashmallow sticks to make light writing photos with Madeline's camera. The stars were amazing!
Since we were all cold and tired of the relentless wind and Mads was very sunburned we headed to bed by 10 PM.
Sunday morning was cloudy, cool and, yes, WINDY! I got up first and headed out to get coffee and tea for myself and Mads. After another simple breakfast we figured we would try another bike ride. We rode over the bridge and there were breakers in the channel! After a strenuous ride on the Wildlife Drive and Beach Trail we stopped at the visitors center and enjoyed the exhibits. We learned that we had seen two Bob White quail, half dozen barn swallow, lots of turtles, Snowy egrets, sand pipers, plovers and Great Blue herons. We fought our way back to Maddox against the wind.
After packing up our gear, tent and bikes and eating lunch we left the campground with plans to go crabbing. First we had to find the supermarket which was difficult with the Chicken City Road closure. We bought a package of chicken legs and headed to Swan Cove. It had started raining, but we had raincoats so we were undaunted. We picked a likely spot, changed into our flip-flops and crocs and got the string and chicken legs ready. The edge of the cove is very mushy and mucky. I immediately sank deeply into the mud and almost lost my flip-flop. I found a hillock to stand on and instructed Henry and Mads to stay to the grassy spots. We tossed in our strings and waited. Before long I had a crab on the string. We reeled it in and had our first crab! Too small to keep, but we tossed it in the bucket with plans to let it go when we finished. Did I mention it was raining, and cold and windy too? After about an hour or so we had 5 crabs all too small too keep - and Henry wanted to stop. Mads wanted to catch one more, so we keep going. Suddenly a large snake pops up out of the water 2 feet in front of Henry and swimming right at him. I think we all saw it at the same time. Madeline screamed and ran up the bank dragging her chicken leg on a string behind her. Henry screamed, tossed the net he had been holding and ran behind me. I jumped back from the edge of the water and landed in the muck and tried to protect Henry. None of us is sure where the snake went. We quickly decided it was time to leave. We stopped at the visitors center to help us identify the snake. It was a Northern water snake about 4 feet long and non-poisonious. We were all pretty shaken by the incident. Henry and I were covered in mud from the knees down. We stopped at the beach to try to clean up at the showers but the wind was blowing so hard it was painful to be out of the car for too long. Somehow we managed to get our shoes and socks on. Last stop was the lighthouse. We were able to go inside the bottom, but were too late to go up to the top. Maybe next time! After one last stop at the Island Creamery we headed home.
Henry loved camping! He can't wait to go again - hopefully with Dad and the rest of the family!
