Chincoteague Island

 We live in New England and we vacation bi-annually at a beach in North Carolina.  The particular house that my family stays in happens to have a Sunday check-in.  We've tried to take advantage of that "extra" day - Saturday before check-in - to do something fun on the way to NC.  Fortunately, there are lots of options.  We visited Williamsburg two years ago.  After being incredibly indecisive about where to go this year, we decided on Chincoteague Island.  And because sometimes our decisions don't involve very much planning or forethought, we made this decision after we already in the car driving south for a few hours.  But it worked out great!  We loved the area.  Since we only had one day, we felt like we could spend more time there some other time.   We didn't even see the wild ponies, after all. 

After breakfast Saturday morning, we rented bikes and rode the short distance over to Assateague National Wildlife Preserve (at least I think that's what it's called, but I don't have time to look it up because the troops are getting restless..).  It was a lovely time.  My shifting stages of life don't always allow for bike riding with my kids, but I'm so glad when I do have the opportunity to do it.  Aidan wasn't thrilled with the bike riding, but we've had to accept the fact that our kids, ranging in age from 1-11, won't always enjoy the same things.  You do what you can.

 The island light house.  We chose not to spend the $22 it would have cost for our family to walk up it, although we heard the views were very nice.

After riding for a while, we found the ocean.  My big kids hadn't been to the ocean for two years and Lauren didn't remember it at all.  It's always wonderful to return to the beach.

Aidan showed no fear of the water.  He was like a sea turtle, always turning back toward the water after we pulled him back.  All of the kids, of course, got soaked.  We went through an amazingly huge pile of clothes for one day.

Lauren's reaction was priceless.  She had one split second of fear of the waves coming in.  That fear was immediately replaced by utter joy when she realized that we were about to spend a week at the beach.  She squealed with delight.

Aidan was determined to catch the bird he saw down the beach.  He just kept crawling toward it.  I tried to turn him back toward the rest of the family, but he wouldn't have it.  He was going to catch the bird.  His tracks were so funny, with his little one leg-one knee crawling technique.

After fussing for a while, he finally zonked out in the bike trailer.  

Jack also took the kids crabbing and we had some great food and ice cream.  After our Saturday at CI, we were off to Atlantic Beach, NC on Sunday morning!  Pictures soon!