Assateague State Park

Assateague Island is divided between Virginia and Maryland. We went to the Maryland side multiple times, as that side is dog friendly. The Island has many wild horses. On the Virginia side, the horse population is closely regulated--the horses are actually kept in a fenced area, and a few times a year, a vet visits and gives them their shots. Apparently, in the spring, they round up all of the foals, and there is an auction. During that time, 50,000 people go the Chincoteague, according to our hosts.

The horses of the Maryland side are less closely regulated, and there seemed to be a lot more of them. As you enter the island, there is a public beach, and then the park fee area. The fee was waived for President's Day. The weather was wonderful, and the beach was fairly empty because it was the off season. Our dogs ran along on the beach happily, chasing the waves.

Within the State Park, there are several short trails, through marshes. The boardwalks were well maintained, and apparently, you can catch crabs there. Signs were posted, reminding people that crabs had to be a minimum of 5 inches in order to be taken. I can definitely understand now who Maryland is famous for crabs. There were pieces of crabs all along the beach!

We saw several wild horses, though people warned us that they would sometimes attack people. I'm not sure whether that is actually true, or just told in order to deter people from approaching them too closely. I did see people feeding the horses from their cars, despite the many signs forbidding people from feeding them, with threats of fines. I can understand the temptation to feed the horses though--since it is winter, there is less vegetation, and all the horses we saw were skinny, so thin that you could see their ribs. I was tempted to get a bunch of carrots and accidentally drop them, but I did not--the park rangers do not want them accustomed to approaching people, as not all people will have good intentions, and some people might even be afraid of horses.

This part of Maryland seems to be very dog friendly. We went to the Burley Oak Brewing Company, which is one of the few bars that allow dogs inside. They do not serve food, but allow you to bring food from outside. They have a selection of interesting beers. I had a coffee and cream beer, which I liked a lot. They have some sour fruit beers too, which smelled nice, but were not really compatible with my tastes. We ordered pizza from across the street, and it was also a very good pizza--the "Godzilla", which had every type of meat, plus ricotta cheese, and bombs of tomato sauce.

It was such a nice trip. I also found a new appreciation for this gas station chain called Royal Farms. Apparently they always have fried chicken, a good selection of coffee, and milkshakes.

Chincoteague Island

Having been in the big city for so long, it is hard for me to imagine those small towns where everybody knows everybody else. Last weekend, we went to Chincoteague Island in Virginia. There is one stretch of highway that goes straight to the island, with billboards every five feet. Once you arrive on the island however, it's very peaceful.

This time is not the tourist season, so a lot of restaurants were closed. This quiet however, made it a really nice escape from the busy city. We got lucky with the weather. As we approached the island, my first thought was how blue the water is. It's a different type of blue though, since it isn't indicative of how clean the water is. Indeed, if you look closely, the water is murky and really muddy, though as a result, the shores seemed to be filled with oysters. One man said that his friend used to just hop to the seashore during his lunch break and open oysters and have them as a snack. The water there smells pretty bad too, probably due to the minerals. Nevertheless, from far away, the water is such a dark, bright blue, that it looks even bluer than the clear sky above it. The seagulls also eat the oysters, by flying with them above the highway and dropping them onto the pavement so that their shells crack open, and then they can eat the meat inside. I saw one seagull do this--later the islanders would complain that it is a danger actually, as sometimes the oysters end up hitting people's cars!

You can drive around the entire island in about 15 minutes. Main street wraps around the island. The church is on church street, and there is a school on school street. Farther out, the names of the streets are ocean themed, like seaweed street.

We stayed with an older couple who had six dogs, since we wanted to bring our dogs with us on the trip. It was a great environment for them, since the couple had a very large yard, where the larger dogs would stay in for most of the day. Two smaller dogs stayed inside, and a cat came to visit every now and then.

The seafood on the island was very good. On friday's the American Legion is open to the public, and they have excellent shrimp and clam happy hours. There is only one bar that is open during the off season, which is Chattie's Lounge. The atmosphere was really good, with live music. The seafood was indeed very fresh, but so fresh that there was still mud and sand on the oysters. I was not such a fan of the raw oysters, but the fried oysters that I had from one of many seafood carry out places were very good.

The main attraction from Chincoteague Island is the wildlife preserve on Assateague island. Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed, even in vehicles, from the Virginia side of that island.

We did a few short hikes on Chincoteague, through old marshland, around the High School.