Beach Camping with Wild Ponies

Well, that title pretty much sums up my last weekend. I know it sounds a little bizarre, but that's exactly what I did. It wasn't exactly something I'd ever thought of when moving to the DC area! Friday after work I drove up with my brother and some friends and we met at Assateague State park in Maryland. We had a little bit of trouble getting there due to some faulty directions, but we made it there just after midnight. Some of our group had left earlier in the day, so it was nice that camp was all set up when we got there. Although, that didn't mean we went to bed right away. The campground was just off the beach, so we walked down there in the moonlight and waded a bit. Assateague is an island famous for its wild ponies and we saw plenty of them that evening. Then we all stayed up talking until around 3. It made for a short night since the sun was up by 6 and I couldn't sleep much after that.


Saturday we spent the whole day at the beach from about 10 to 4. I LOVE the beach! I'd never really been to the beach until last year when I took a trip to Florida, but I discovered a love for it then and had a blast here too. I love getting out into the surf and riding the swells as they come in or swimming into the breakers. We didn't see many ponies in the morning (except for the one that walked into our campsite), but sticking with the pony theme, we buried Dan and made him into a sand centaur.

Rachel Atwood, Ryan Thomas, Ryan Nokes, Curtis Seare, & Marin Arnell with Dan as a centaur--I know its a bit difficult to see at this angle.)

Marin brought a boogie board that was a lot of fun. I'd never done one of those before but it was not too difficult to get the hang of and sometimes I could ride a wave all the way into the shore.

Later in the day some of the ponies walked right down onto the beach among all the people. Everyone was snapping pictures and they actually ended up staying down on the beach for quite a while. So apparently these wild ponies have been living on the island for quite a long time. They are pretty mangy actually because their diet on the island is very poor in nutrients, but since the ponies are wild, the park service doesn't really take care of them; they merely monitor them and make sure they are protected and that people don't disturb them.

Ryan Thomas, Marin Arnell, John Arnell, me, Dan, & Rachel Atwood

Although, I'm trying to figure out what exactly the "Pony Patrol" does.

(As a side note, all I was intending in this picture was to get a picture of the "pony patrol" vest because I thought it was funny. It was only after I took the picture I realized I also captured the "horseplay.")

We finished off the day building sandcastles...


...or rather, John and Dan built Egypt.

Sailing Trip

The Langley Ward Relief Society has an annual sailing trip and that took place this past weekend. Can I just say, it was awesome! I'm so glad that I was able to go, for multiple reasons. Not only were the activities great, but I also got to know some of the other sisters in the ward better. It is great to start feeling like I have friends here who are really MY friends, and not that people are just nice to me because they are friends with my brother.


So I met up with a few people after work to carpool to the house where we stayed. It was about a two hour drive, so we stopped for dinner at the gas station. Yes, we actually stopped to eat at a gas station. Its a place called WaWa's and apparently it is a Maryland favorite. And actually, it was really good! They have a deli in there and they will make you fresh sandwiches and smoothies. When we got to the house we had a lady from the stake Relief Society presidency come and talk to us. It was a good talk, but I must admit, I was kind of distracted because there was a sliding glass door behind her out to the backyard and there were FIREFLIES everywhere!! I kept thinking about how I wanted to catch one, but after our small fireside, they had mostly all gone to bed. I have to say though, there is just something magical about fireflies that makes me feel like a little kid. Living out here is really my first experience with them and it gets me excited everytime I see them. :)

I walked down to the dock with a few girls and we sat and put our feet in. The moon was big and it was a really nice night. The water was even warmer than the air though, I think. It just made me want to go swimming, so pretty soon we all went and got our swimsuits on and went for a midnight swim. It was beautiful.

Jen Pike, her cousin Katie, and Michelle Martinez

A lot of the girls ended up sleeping outside, me included. Since I was outside, I was up with the sun in the morning. I'm not sure what time it was, but it was pretty early. A neighbor come over every morning to go crabbing off the dock, and I think he had just gotten started when I got up, so I went down and joined him and a couple other girls who were up too. The technique was to tie a chicken neck to a string, throw it in the water and then when it starts to move, you pull it in really slowly. The crab is just holding onto the meat, so when you get it in close enough, you scoop it up with a net.

Practicing the technique...

Gotcha!

Before breakfast I also went kayaking a little bit. Around 9 am we started the sailing excursions. I really didn't realize that a sailboat could be so big! I was on the small one and it held about 10 people, but they had a big one too that had 25 or so on it! As we got started on our trip, the man that took us out let me steer the boat! He taught us a thing or two about sailing, but mostly we just enjoyed relaxing in the sun while sailing around the Chesapeake Bay.

Captaining the sailboat!

April Lyman and I are wishing our feet could touch the water.

When we got back, other people had continued crabbing and there was a good haul of crabs that the neighbor was just crating up to take them and steam them for us. When he brought them back, the crab feast was incredible! Eating fresh Maryland crab, I think it would be hard for anyone to hate seafood!

I burned a little on the trip, but at least I didn't turn as red as this guy!

The feast! A delicious payout on our labors.

Virginia Safari Park

For Memorial Day weekend a lot of the LDS singles head to a place called Duck Beach in North Carolina, but instead of going down there I opted for a camping trip with a smaller group of friends from church. We left Friday afternoon and went to Mallard Duck campground and got settled there. Those in our group thought it turned out to be a clever play on words. It was a nice place and we only had a few other people there in the tent camping area that we had to share it with. We thought we'd probably get rained on the whole week (and we went anyway) but it actually turned out to be perfect camping weather. We had 10 of us there and everyone had a good time. It was a great low-stress way to spend the weekend.

The highlight of the trip was the Virginia Safari Park. Wow. I have never done anything like this before and it was awesome! Its a huge preserve where they have a huge variety of animals and you drive through it in your own car. But that's not all. The exciting part is that you get a bucket of food and roll down the windows and feed the animals directly from the car. Words just can't do this experience justice. Take a look at what we had coming through our car windows!

They have no hesitations.

I know very few people who have been this close to a zebra. You aren't allowed to feed them though because apparently, they bite!

Feeding a bull elk.

This guy had an even bigger rack--it was huge! I pet his antlers, which were in velvet and it was really cool. When I tried to take the food bucket away, he just followed right into the car. He polished off every last bit of feed that I had in my bucket.

Two-hump camel coming straight for my bucket. He didn't go for the food, he went for the bucket and snatched the whole thing away from me and proceeded to chew the entire thing. These guys are hairy and BIG!!

Joe, April, Maggie, Dan, and Joe with a kangaroo.

We left Sunday morning in time to be back for church at 1:30. That evening a group of us went to a free concert by the US Marine band. It was at this place called Wolftrap, a huge outdoor theatre with some covered seating and then a huge lawn to bring blankets and sit. It was a fantastic concert. They played a lot of patriotic songs and then ended the evening with an impressive display of fireworks. It was a great way to celebrate the Memorial Day holiday weekend.