Chincoteague weekend

This is an unusually nice weekend. In August there is always a nice breeze through the place. No AC necessary! The temperature is moderate, the ocean is warm, the breeze is soporific. This weekend we have Pickle, our oldest daughter, with us.

The beach has not been as crowded as in the past, perhaps due to the gas crunch. At any rate, this year there seems to be an increased focus on surfing. It could be that the surfers are local and just appear more numerous when the crowd is thinner.

The waves seemed more than usually perfect for surfing. Normally there is a short break at the sand bar, then a second break near the shore. This time the break was continuous from the outer reach of the sand bar all the way to shore. There were some long rides today for a change.

That left more time for some maneuvering. I don't know what they were called, but it was pretty cool. There seems to be a bit of everything in the water, long boards, short boards, kayaks, and boogy boards. They were all getting good rides.

I kept to my normal occupations, however; daydreaming, kite-watching, lunching, people-watching and such-like.

And tomorrow there was

It always feels good to me to come to Chincoteague. I can rest here. I can beach here. I can always see something to capture on film here. Today it was this ghost crab, stirred up by a little boy with a plastic shovel. Boy, was he surprised! So was the crab, which attracted a crowd quickly.

So were we, when it came time to purchase our Duck Stamp for the year. Normally you purchase a $15 Duck Stamp and it gets you into Assateague National Wildlife Refuge (and the beach) for the rest of the year. This year they introduced a $15 beach pass on top of that. Only the federal government could see doubling their price as trivial. Maybe it is, but it was a bit of a shock.

We found out that someone from work is down here for the week, too. We'll visit a little later in the week.

Long pull today

We started the day in Orange Park, just south of Jacksonville, Florida. There's a story, but it has some pictures, so I won't tell it now.

We had a plan at one time to slowly make our way up the coast, visiting a couple of places and people on the way. That was all scrapped this morning. We left with the intention to get all the way to Chincoteague if we could. And we did, 12 hours later.

So tomorrow it's more of this

and this
















and maybe this

So go, check out the little ponies and get sand between your toes. Fly a kite, suck on a crab, get a sunburn, swim a little!