A Day at the Beach

Our friend, Emily, has a house on Chincoteague Island, Va. It's cute and charming, like Chincoteague itself. I am not a 'beachy' person but I do like this tiny island on the Chesapeake Bay. We can ride our bikes to the beach, through the wildlife preserve on Assateague Island, seeing an array of beautiful shore birds and of course, the wild ponies of Chincoteague. I did make it to the beach for a couple hours, laying in the sand for a bit and watching people in the surf. I like looking for beach glass, but there was none to be found.
Emily used to live on a boat (for 6 years!), docked in various slips around D.C. It's a great way to have cheap rent (saving for a beach house). She bought this little island cottage a few years ago and has now sold the house boat and bought another house near Annapolis. But she still has boat urges so for her vacation this year year, she spent the week in Chincoteague building herself a kayak. From scratch. From a book at the library. Emily really is amazing. She does most of the plumbing, carpentry and electricity in her homes. She figures things out and does them. Well, she does work at Goddard Space Center and she might be a rocket scientist, so there you go. Anyway, when we got to her place, she was about to have the maiden launch of her new boat, which she has dubbed, "Lumpy" because she thinks it is a bit. I think it's smooth and sleek, and pretty damn nice for being made out of regular plywood.


She bought a little wheeled 'trailer' for it, loaded it on, strapped it in, and then walked it 1 1/2 miles to the water.


Yeah! It floats! She even made the paddles. Total cost: about $150, including the trailer and comfy seat. Go Emily!

Mr. Whippy's is a favorite spot for gathering and tasting the fine elements of soft serve. Mr. Whippy has been around a long time, although I don't know how long. Forrest is enjoying his twist cone after having spent 7 hours on the beach.



This is the view down the lane from Emily's little house. It's on a quiet street, down a crushed shell road.


We were given a delightfully colorful sunset to end our stay.