Camping at Assateague

This weekend we went camping at Assateague Island National Seashore with our usual camping buddies. With new camera in hand we headed out on Friday. The sun was shining, it was a beautiful day, and this cute kid was in our backseat.

We arrived at the ferry with some time to spare so we went inside the terminal for a few minutes. After less than an hour, someone was ready to run!

If you look in the background, you will see a small sports car (I don't remember the name of it) that Paul told me is his "retirement" car. I'm a little worried because he can't fit me and his guitar in it!

Once on the ferry (which has become quite the routine in the past year), we staked out a table and grabbed some food. Rudy tried on Paul's hat.

Besides eating, Rudy's other favorite activity on the ferry is video games.

Paul sat near Rudy while I wandered around and took pictures.

The bets purchase ever- a roof bag! I still don't know how we went anywhere without it!

After arriving at the other side of the bay, we drove the rest of the way to Assateague and before reaching our campsite, were greeted by some horses.

A gorgeous view of the sand from our site.

Shortly after arriving, Rudy and Liliana and I were walking back from the bathroom and were being followed by a herd of horses. Rudy had to be reminded to move away from them; I think he would have stood there and waited for the horses to approach him!

The horses stopped and checked out this campsite; apparently they had a bag of marshmallows out and apparently wild horses really like marshmallows.

Our tent and Chris and Megan's tent.

 The sun starting to set behind our tent.

Rudy and Liliana watching the horses walk by.

 Now, it was after dinner, the sun was starting to go down, so naturally the kids all wanted to go to the beach. I was able to get Rudy and Liliana to stop very briefly for a picture before they ran the rest of the way.

None of us had planned or expected the kids to be in the water, so they were all fully dressed. We rolled up pants and tied skirts and dresses up and wet and sandy they all got.

Even Ashton had fun in the sand.

Paul played lifeguard.

Ashton ate some sand.

Saturday night was supposed to be a bright full moon, but the weather ended up being lousy, so I'm  glad we got to see such bright moon on Friday while we were on the beach.

Eventually it was getting too dark and the kids were all shivering (while insisting they weren't cold), and we bundled everyone up and headed back to camp. This is Paul and the 4 big kids waiting for me to come back with towels.

The next morning started out clear. Rudy and I were the early birds (except for Olav and Ashton), so we took a little walk.

Trying so hard to stay OUT of the water and still be as close to it as possible.

A view of our tents from the beach.

If you look closely you can see Olav and Ashton walking around.

Saturday morning the horses visited us again. It was pre-breakfast, so there wasn't any food out, but they left us a few gifts anyway.

What better way to start the day than with a battle?

Ashton wanted to help cook breakfast.

The favorite toy of the weekend - Ashton's toy.

After breakfast, we got the kids in their bathing suits and went back to the beach. By now the fog was rolling in and the sun was nowhere to be seen. This was not at all a deterrent to the kids.

Notice all the adults, no bathing suits, not in the water. We were smart.

After spending an hour or two on the beach, where it kept getting grayer and windier, we headed back for lunch. we were frequently visited by a red-winged blackbird at our camp.

After lunch it was foggy and rainy and we went many different ways. Chris, Megan and the girls went for a ride. Olav, Lily, Paul, and Rudy decided to nap/rest. So Kim and I took a walk to one of the trails with Ashton. On the way we saw this deer.

The trails were very marshy with lots of warnings about poison ivy; we were grateful we only had Ashton, in his stroller to worry about.

From a boardwalk at the end of the trail, we could see some horses.

When Kim and I got back from our walk, Rudy and Lily were up, so we decided to take a ride to the Visitor's Center.

I think Rudy has an internal clock set to about 10 seconds for pictures - if you don't take it in that time period, you are out of luck!

This is what Rudy and Lily spent most of their time doing - watching animal videos on a computer screen.

On the way back we encountered some horses again.

The best thing about camping is how much the kids amuse themselves. For the most part there was very few requests from the kids that the adults play with them. The girls willingly had light saber battles with Rudy and he played with them (don't tell - they had barbie dolls - and some Ken dolls and horses- that Rudy played with. Of course, his character always had some special power!)

Charlotte was the athlete of the weekend. She got any and every adult she could to play any sport she could.

Easy dinner Saturday night - hot dogs that the kids grilled themselves and burgers. Followed by s'mores, naturally.

Playing around with the new camera- a regular picture...

taken again with sepia tones...

---and pop art.

It was a cold and windy night.

Epic battles kept the kids warm for the most part.

And then the fun began. Chris drove his car on the grass to inflate an air mattress. Then when he was done, he drove straight to get out instead of backing out. This led to his car getting stuck in the mud. Here Paul and Kim try to push him out. then Olav came and helped while Megan and I corralled all the kids.

When that didn't work, Paul decided to play iron man and attempt to pull the car out himself (okay, maybe that's not exactly what happens, but it sure looks like it).

Once all our attempts had failed the only thing left was to go find a park ranger for help. The catch was, we weren't supposed to drive anywhere on the grass, so we knew there might be a problem. The rangers came and with their help, and some planks of wood, and me driving the car (my help was probably what pushed us over the edge), we were able to free the car. Chris got a fine and it will be a long time before any of us let him forget it.

That night was very windy - the tents blew around with the wind and no one slept very well. I woke up early and took one last walk. The day was brighter than the previous one.

The bathrooms. The night before we left, we discovered that there were no bathhouses at our campground, just cold showers and 'chemical toilets' (fancy port-a-potties, really). This is what it looked like. None of us attempted the showers, especially with how cold it had been. The bathrooms weren't bad. Some of the kids were a little uncertain at first of the big hole under the toilet, but they all got over it.

This bump is Charlotte and Liliana trying to keep warm.

Rudy eating breakfast. he was so proud that he was the last one to wake up. A very rare occurrence but one much needed since the night before he didn't go to sleep until about 10:45 and was wide awake by 6 a.m!

Getting ready to take down the tent.

It was so windy that rolling up the tents proved the be a challenge. The kids were called on to help weight the tents down.

One last view of the mark we left at our campsite (tire tracks).

All the kids. See Rudy trying to look unhappy...

...and then smiling...

...and then remembering he wanted to be unhappy again.

Chris, Megan, Charlotte and Liliana.

Crazy us (Rudy was trying to be uncooperative by lying on the table, so Paul and I just copied him and we all posed that way.)

Rudy and Kim.

Kim and Liliana and Charlotte.

Kim and all the big kids.

Olav, Ashton, Lily and Kim.

The annual group shot.

As we drove out of the park, we saw one last group of horses and with them was a baby who was born in March. The perfect end to our trip.

We had a reservation for a ferry but since we were leaving earlier, hoped to catch an earlier ferry. I checked and the website said there was plenty of availability on the earlier one, so we drove straight there. When we arrived we found out that the wearlier ferry was sold out and we were fifth in line for space if someone didn't show up. All we wanted to do was get home so we crossed our fingers that there would be room- and we made it, along with 3 or 4 other cars behind us. If we hadn't made it, we would've had to wait about 2 hours for the next one. When I got home I had an email from that morning from the ferry company telling me the later ferry had been delayed because of mechanical problems and would be about an hour late. if we hadn't made that earlier ferry, we would've had to wait 3 hours in the ferry terminal! We were very thankful that it all worked out and we could be home sooner and cleaned and unpacked. Now to plan our next camping trip!