September 18, 1999
We'd planned on this trip ever since last Thanksgiving. Everything is closed in Washington during Thanksgiving and since it's well into the off season, we thought we'd try something different. That trip was a smashing success - even in the almost winter of late November. It was a change to stay in a hotel, the town of Chincoteague had a great ice cream shoppe and of course the ocean was a big attraction. We all enjoyed both beach combing and wading. But the water was rather cold.
Since a week in Chincoteague is over $600 in the summer, but only $450 in the off season, we promised our selves we'd come back again in September. The off season begins after Labor Day.
Last year we stayed at a hotel called the Dove Winds. The kids slept in the bedrooms and the sofa in the living room. It had a pool (which made Dennis and Brian puke) and was close to Assateague, the nearby island nature refuge and Atlantic Ocean coastline. This year, we got an even more luxurious place to stay!
Our trip began on Friday. We took Dennis, Brian and Mark out of school and packed the Suburban. Roger and Paul worked their home school to allow time off. We arrived there after 4 or 5 hours. The rental was a townhouse.
The townhouse costs a little more than the Dove Winds, but once we found it and made a cursory review of all it had to offer, every single one of us were delighted. It's nicer than our own home in Germantown!
The living room/dining room/kitchen are all joined in a single area and accessible by a front door to the living room area and a back door to the kitchen. The upstairs is the master bedroom. They overdid the master bedroom as is the modern style. It has a huge bathroom, walk-in closet and bay window. Each bedroom (and the living room) has a ceiling fan/overhead light. There's phones in the master bedroom and kitchen. The living room has a TV (with cable) and VCR. We brought the Sega machine so, at least while we're here, it also has a game console with a variety of game cartridges. The kitchen has a toaster oven, full-size microwave and large, empty refrigerator. The kitchen table comfortably sits 8. In addition, the whole place is sparkling clean and tastefully decorated. Did I mention the washer/dryer? Normally I wouldn't get too excited about such a thing but when you're constantly getting soaked and salty at the beach, and only brought so many clothes, it can be a real welcome convenience.
After the townhouse exploration was completed, we spent some time unpacking, and picking out where we'd like to sleep. Mark and Paul ran off to check out the swimming pool and everyone else soon followed. They also discovered the dock which was a great place to capture crabs. Mark had brought his trusty wildlife containment unit (cage) which was soon filled with specimens of the local crabs. The fiddlers weren't very big - some of them were smaller than spiders - but there was another species, with their claws of equal size, that were much bigger, perhaps an inch or two across. Nothing blue crab size though.
Mom was able (though barely) to persuade everyone that a trip to the beach would be preferable to the local pool. We made it to the beach in the Suburban and before Juanita and I locked up the car, the kids had disappeared over the dune and were splashing in the surf. I haven't mentioned this yet, but just yesterday, hurricane Floyd swept through this area. We weren't even sure whether we'd make our vacation; it was a category 5 hurricane at one point. Two million people were evacuated from Florida! My point is, that the winds were still strong and able to whip up some good waves. So they stayed in the water, fighting the surf till way past dinner time.
For dinner, we had micro-waved beef stew and Juanita's extra hot chili. It was quite a pleasant affair with all of us seated comfortable at the table.
Since I passed out shortly after dinner, I can't really say what happened next. Passing out in the front room (the bedroom just off the kitchen) has all the advantages of passing out on the couch with none of the disadvantages. You can still hear everyone playing so you don't feel like you're totally withdrawn but it's much more comfortable and no one jumps on your guts. Anyway, while I spelt, the kids (& Juanita) watched Zorro and The Three Musketeers on the VCR.
The next morning, everyone slept late. Brian must have been the first one up because he asked me twice (while I was still in bed) to hook up the Sega. I finally got out of bed and did it though. Mom soon followed and we had breakfast of sorts. Mom made a breakfast but the kids ate haphazardly.
Breakfast pretty much wiped out our food supply, so a trip to Park's Market was next. The kids grabbed Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops and Kix. We also got some more mundane items like bacon and eggs, but we probably left Park's with half the bags full of "goodies." After replenishing the refrigerator and cupboards, we headed off for the beach.
This was our big day at the beach. The wind was even stronger. Roger, Paul and I spent all our time battling the waves. Mom and the three little guys stayed closed to shore. There's a "gravel zone" you have to pass through in order to get to the good waves.
At the very edge of the surf, the water is light and foamy. That's where the sandpipers play, look for delicious sand crabs. If you go out a little further you end up where all the waves are crashing. This is probably the worst place to play. Not only are the waves always pushing you off balance, but all the shells get washed up and smashed to pieces here. The sand is covered with all these broken pieces, hence the name "gravel zone."
Getting caught in the gravel zone is a nasty business. The big waves knock you over and grind you up with all the broken shells. You can get all scratched up. But, if you can make it past the gravel zone, you can make it out to where the sand is smooth and the waves crash only occasionally. That's where Paul, Roger and I stayed, bobbing over the top of the big waves. Once in a while, a big wave would crash early and wash us, with great velocity, into the gravel zone. The consequence of missing a wave could be a big scrape up the backside.
We did this for three hours. What fun! I finally came out of the water when I missed a wave and did a somersault on my head into the gravel zone. That and being smacked regularly by each incoming wave for three hours, finally wore me out. Shortly after, Dennis wanted to go home so we all hosed ourselves down at the bath house and headed back.
Ooo, I almost forgot to mention the conch shells. Out past the gravel zone, the conch shells were all intact. If you walk around long enough, you eventually step on one and then can pick it up. Since we spend so much time there, we picked up ten conch shells. People kept on coming up and asking where we get them from. So we gave away three.
After the beach we went for ice cream and then home for dinner. We'd pretty much had all our fun. That evening, Mom had a turn behind the wheel and got to decide where we'd stop. The first stop was Pony Tails, a souvenir/taffy/Christian Book Store right beside the Dove Winds, the place we stayed last Thanksgiving. We'd gone through this store pretty thoroughly then so the return visit was brief.
Mom than took us to Souvenir City. She was attracted by the 20% discount on T-shirts. It didn't look like much from the outside, but inside it was just short of amazing. They had: seashells, T-shirts, fishing gear, swimming gear, beach gear, toys, beachwear and fireworks. Just a list of what they had doesn't do them justice, though. They had so much of everything and all of it was so good. Mark was lured in by all the seashells while Paul seemed fascinated by the fireworks. In fact, we was so fascinated, it moved him to reach for his wallet. When we finally left Souvenir City, Mark, Dennis and Paul had nice new shark T-shirts. Paul also walked away with 12 bottle rockets (which he split with Roger), smoke bombs and flash bombs. It was well after dark when we got home, so Paul let them off in the parking lot. The bottle rockets turned out to be really miniature Roman Candles. They sparked briefly, shot out a big spark that went up high then fizzled out. After a few of those, we were ready to experiment. Paul and Roger tried lighting gangs of the bottle rockets together. We had some success, but three was the biggest group we managed.
The flash bombs were the most amazing. They were killer to watch, they were so bright. And they flashed like strobe lights. Paul lit a couple of them off but decided to save the rest for scouting campfires - won't that be a sensation!
We wanted to watch the VCR after that but it got cranky and ate up all our tapes. We had to watch Flubber again. Juanita and I went upstairs to watch something dopey on our TV. But everyone was sleepy and tired from our day at the beach and so we all passed out (relatively) early.
Sunday we all got up late again. Why not, we're on vacation? Juanita had been talking about visiting one of the local churches, but some people were opposed to this. They called them "Nehor" churches, after the Book of Mormon anti-Christ. We were leaning more that way though than visiting the nearby Mormon church since that would have made a heck of a drive. In the end, we all stayed home and had a morning devotional, very much like a family home evening. Roger and Paul both put on a very good demonstration. Roger reviewed the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet, which he always carries with him. Paul helped the younger kids recount stories from the scriptures animated with stuffed animals. Mom and Dad gave brief talks on why brothers should make an effort to get along. Can you guess why?
The rest of the afternoon was spent quietly fishing off the dock. Mark caught the biggest glass shrimps. Paul caught some fish. The crabs remained safe, despite our best efforts. Mom had bought some pimento and pickle loaf at Parks Market but it was deemed unsuitable for human consumption. But it was useful as crab bait. When a flock of seagulls came by, we wasted the entire pound of it feeding them.