Chincoteage and Assateague Isand

During the middle of our spring break week, we made a little girls' trip up to Chincoteague Isand.  I really didn’t have a particular reason for picking it other than I saw something about it on a website, found a good hotel rate, and the dates worked, so we decided to go!  Mouse is always up for our adventures, so she came along with us.  After getting to the hotel and checking in, the girls wanted to go straight to the beach.  Assateague Isand was right next to our hotel, so that’s where we spent a lot of our time.  Most of the island is a nature preserve, but there are also beaches for people to play/swim at.  It wasn’t swimming weather, but Nina and Lyla always seem to have fun at the beach no matter what the weather is.  It’s never easy to get them to leave!

 

Once we did leave the beach, we explored a little bit of Assateague by car and got to see the wild horses.  I expected there to be herds of them, but from where people can access, we saw small groups of them.  I’ve since learned that we were lucky to see any at all.  I talked to people who have gone there hoping to see them and left not seeing any!

 

 

Since it was after 3pm by the time we got to another large nature preserve section of the island, we were able to drive our car around a road inside that section of the preserve.  From what we could tell it seemed to be an area for bird watchers.  I’m not sure what bird(s) they were looking for, but you could tell that was the draw of that particular section of Assateague.

  

 

After exploring Assateague for awhile, we went back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner.  The girls found this little turtle trying to get into our room, so they named it and kept it for a few hours.  One of the housekeeping staff said there are tons of those little turtles around, so with two girls it was kind of hard having just one turtle, so we (well, really Mousey) looked and looked for another turtle to no avail.  Thankfully before the night was over the little guy got returned back to his habitat.  I’m sure he was much happier there than in the empty trash can of the hotel room! 

  

We had dinner on Main Street in Chincoteague, then we went to the Island Creamery for ice cream.  I read that the Island Creamery was a “don’t miss” stop in Chincoteage, and it definitely did not disappoint.  Their homemade ice cream was delicious!  Nina had Marsh Mud (chocolate ice cream on steroids), Lyla had Cookie Dough, and Mouse and I shared the Bourbon Carmel Crunch.

  

For day two, we decided to rent bikes to explore more of Assateague.  That was definitely the way to go!  There were a lot more places you could go on bikes than with a car, and you could cover a lot more territory on bikes than you could on foot.  The first stop on our little island bike tour was the Assateague Lighthouse.  The lighthouse was owned by the Coast Guard until 2004 until it’s maintenance was transferred to the nature preserve, but its light is still actively used for navigation by the Coast Guard.  It’s 142 feet tall, and we climbed steps all the way to to the top of it.  Our selfie is from the railing at the top of the lighthouse.  It does make your stomach a little jumpy to be up that high in small space though!

  

We continued to explore on our bikes and took a little detour off the official trail to explore a little by the water.  We were hoping to see more horses over there, and while we saw evidence that they had been there (large poop piles), we didn’t see any, but we did see tons of small snails and some horseshoe crabs.

 

 Before biking off Assateague for the last time, we saw the group of horses again.  The ponies have been living on Assateague since the 1600’s, and it seems like they enjoy a pretty nice life on the nature preserve with lots of land to roam around.

So, we can check the box on Chincoteage and Assateague for relatively close adventure trips.  I think Mouse and I's favorite part was exploring the island by bike, and I think the girls’ favorite part was playing on the beach and feeding corn to to the two ponies at the bike rental place. It was nice to have that little get away to combine with the hiking and the zoo from earlier in the week.  Once we got home late Thursday night, it was nice to have Friday to relax a bit at home.  While I was teaching on Friday, Mark took the girls fishing.  According to him, they’ve become quite the little fisherwomen.   They caught fish on Friday then wanted to go back out on Saturday morning - they didn’t have to twist Mark’s arm!

  

Spring Break 2017

For Spring Break this year, we had plans to be in town some and out of town some.  So, on the days we were in town, I tried to plan some fun things for us to do.  One of our favorites is hiking, so on Monday we went to one of our favorite local places for a fun time hiking, exploring, playing in the dirt, and getting dirty.  It was a beautful spring day to have some simple fun outdoors.

  

  

 

The next day we headed down to the zoo (along with everyone else in the DC area!!).  Being at the zoo when it’s crowded is much different now than it was when the girls were younger.  I remember in the past being very stressed when they were young and we were at places like the zoo when it was crowded.  It always seemed like it would be so easy to lose one of them while wandering away to look at something, getting separated in the crowds, moving around with a stroller, etc.  Now, even though it was crowded, we all had an easy time staying together, they’re strong enough to walk a lot in the heat, and I was relatively worry-free about us getting separated or someone getting lost.  It was very hot on Tuesday, but we had plenty of water and the girls made ample use of the misting stations and opportunity for Dippin’ Dots!

 

I was surprised that the big cats were active in the heat.  The tiger was playing with a large plastic tunnel before getting in the water, and the lion was up and walking around - even showing us his lovely teeth!!  

 

Unforatunately, the reptile house was closed, but we did get to see this guy hanging outside the front of the building.  We did take our time looking through the small mammal house and one of the most entertaining were the lemurs.  They were being fed by a zookeeper when we came though and were cute and lively.

  

This little elephant was one of our favorites. He/she put on quite a show with the trainer.  It was very cute!

  

 

The pandas - always a must see!

Thank goodness for those misting stations!  They definitely kept the girls refreshed over the hot afternoon.  It was a fun day at the zoo!

 

 

Horseback Riding

For Lyla’s birthday this year, the one thing she really wanted to do was go horseback riding.  I looked into several places, but had been recommended to try the Marriott Ranch in Hume, VA by both my mom and a friend from the neighborhood.  Both had heard of people going there and having a great experience, so it seemed like a good fit for us.  Lyla’s birthday was a month ago, but the trail rides didn’t begin until April, so originally we were scheduled to go on Friday of this past week.  Unfortunately though, Lyla had come down with the stomach bug last Sunday and really wan’t better until midway through the day on Wednesday.  Between wanting to give her another day to get her strength back and cold/windy weather that was forecasted for Friday, we changed our reservation to Saturday, and I’m so glad we did.  We had a sunny, beautiful day for our ride!

We picked up Mouse on our way out, and made the lovely drive out to Hume, VA where the ranch is located at.  We fitted ourselves with helmets then waited on the back deck while the horses got ready.

 

Lyla was just a tad bit excited!

The ranch guides knew we were there for her birthday and were kind enough to let her pick out the color horse she had her eye on.  Lyla rode Tinker, Nina rode Beau Beau, Mouse rode Tickle, and I rode Rusty.  All the horses were very nice and tame, but I was still surprised that they didn’t keep Nina and Lyla’s horse on a lead.  They told them how to ride and just let them do it. Both girls did a fantastic job!

  

  

The ride through the ranch was amazing.  The ranch itself is over 4,200 acres, and our ride was 1.5 hours through fields, the woods, through streams, up and down hills, over a log, and we even passed a longhorn bull on our way through Paradise Pasture.  The horses are accustomed to walking in a line, and they did that well, but we all had some laughs at little quirks of the horses.  Mine always tried to stop and snack on bushes, Lyla’s would want to walk really close up against trees and shrubs in order to walk on the softest part of the path forcing Lyla to dogde a few branches, and Nina’s horse wanted to cut the line in front of my horse (much to Rusty’s annoyance), and Mouse said her horse was as sweet as could be.  We all had such a great time.  I wish I could have taken pictures on the ride, but I could only bring my camera phone in my pocket, and riding a horse while snapping pictures with my cell phone isn’t really conducive!  :)  

 

However, we had such a wonderful experience, and it was perfect for Lyla.  We didn’t even get a chance to get our helmets off at the end of the ride before she was asking when we could go again.  I don’t think this love of horses is going away any time soon.  So, I’m really thrilled that she got this experience!

  

Swinging into Spring

After a most gorgeous February, March didn’t seem to want to follow suit.  We had snow (thankfully only once), some warmer temps, some cooler temps, and like typical spring - lots of unpredictability.  We also had the start to the soccer season for Lyla.  It kicked off with a tournament in McLean.  The first day was beautiful - hot in fact. The next day was frigid!!!  It was good for the girls to be back in playing form again.  They had off most of the winter (except for some indoor sessions), so this was a good test for them getting back to “real” play again.

 

The life of a sibling during games and tournaments changes like the weather.  One day the sibling is climbing trees, having fun, and enjoying herself.  The other day the sibling is freezing and not so happy under a large blanket trying to stay warm and dry with hot chocolate.  Hopefully there will be more sunny and enjoyable days this season than the alternative! 

T  

Spring snapped back into a cold spell for Lyla’s class field trip to Morven Park.  I got to go along as a chaperone as the kids because Soil Scientists and learned about the best types of soil for growing plants, did some soil experiments, and got to blend up their own mix of premium soil for growing some green beans in their classroom.  

   

Then thankfully the warmth decided to come back this weekend some.  It rained so much on Friday that Lyla’s Saturday game got postponed, but Sunday was warm and sunny an a beautiful day for soccer and playing outside afterwards.

  

Cayenne and Nina soaked up some sun while Mark and I washed cars and Lyla played in the water.  The day would have finished out great, but poor Lyla ended up getting sick later in the day.  I would have never guessed it was coming as she had so much energy earlier in the day, but one Simpson is down and out with the stomach bug. Hopefully she’ll be the only one!!!