Assateague Island

When I was...*goes to check my name and age printed on the inside cover of the book* ahh, when I was eight, my mom did what any good-slightly-insane-about-horses-and-still-thirteen-inside mom does.

FYI: Your mom is still thirteen inside. And she's got an seventeen year old in there as well.

Anyways, mom gave me MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE. And I read it, and liked it, but I wasn't all ape-shit over horses so it wasn't like the greatest.thing.ever. Which was kind of how my mom viewed it.

We went to Ocean City, Maryland for vacations as a kid, and one year my mom convinced my perpetually grumpy father to drive over to Assateague Island to see the ponies. (Clarification: There are two islands. The book is written about wild ponies on Assateague Island that the kids bring over to Chincoteague Island. Chincoteague is inhabited, Assateauge is not)
It was raining, so I guess he figured it was better than sitting in the motel.

We didn't even get out of the car. And I think I was going through a "rap phase" at the time so I had my earphones in and just stared at the marshes and was like- uh-uh, got it mom, ponies!!

I remember this vacation for several reasons:

1. The trip to Assateauge (least cool)
2. I was twelve and finally allowed to go on the boardwalk with the older kids without adult supervision. (Very cool)
3. In five years I would look back on that vacation and know that also wandering the boardwalk was an eighteen-year-old bad-ass with muscles who I would eventually see naked. (THE COOLEST)

Now I made myself blush.

Anyways. Last year, aforementioned bad-ass and me celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary by going to Ocean City in the middle of winter. I was pregnant, so the cold did not disrupt my plans of eating my way through the town. Buffets, doughnuts, diners, Thrashers, Dumsers, oysters, crab...
Let's just say I gained about fifteen pounds in that one weekend and leave it there.

We also headed over to Assateague. Which was much cooler with a hot guy than with my pony crazy mom. Don't worry though, I texted her some photos.

Turns out, Assateague is awesome.

And tip for the summer: You can swim at Assateague, and change in their damn bathrooms! (for those of you unaware, Ocean City does not allow changing of clothes in their public bathroom and they have bathroom nazi's there to prevent such foolishness. They really want you to buy a motel room to change in, or get naked in your car)

Some things have changed since whatsherface wrote MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE. Paul and Maureen will now be electrocuted if they try and slide down the dune like the do in the opening scene.

But maybe it's different further down the coast.

You can get permits to drive on the beach now-- it would be an awesome camping trip to go down the coast in a Jeep, camp at the bottom and come back.

They have brochures about it in the visitor's center. I read all the brochures because said bad-ass:

Loves himself a good visitor center. And this one....this one had a movie, sprawling exhibits, a giant topography table of the island and tons of old photographs.

Man, we were there a long time. Like I said, I had time to read all the brochures. So it's like forty-five bucks for the permit to drive down the beach.

Don't mind me, I only had two fresh-made Boston creme donuts that morning. And an omelet. And hashbrowns. And two cups of coffee. And half of my husband's french toast. Pregnancy makes you as hungry as just-woke-up-from-hibernating bear.

I love being able to visit places I read about. Or read about places I've visited (if the author gets it right). I read MISTY again this morning and it put me right back on the beach.

Minus the belly, cankles and start of fat-face.
(p.s. I was only five months pregnant here.)

Buy MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE