Bethany day 2

After breakfast, we hit the beach. We drove down to the main square, scored a close parking spot and started towards the beach. Most of the boardwalk was an icy mess, but someone shoveled a path to the beach. We dropped all the beach toys except the shell pail. Then we started shelling. One thing I miss about where I live is how far we are from the beach. I LOVE the beach. Growing up, we were about a half hour from Manasquan and would spend a lot of summer days on the beach. We would leave the house early and by 7:30, we were on the beach. By 2 or 3, we were done and would go to Grandmom’s house to be hosed off enough to go swimming. Some nights we would pick up subs and eat on the beach. On weekends, we would drive a little farther and hit Island Beach State Park. We rarely, if ever, went to the main beach. Instead, we went to the unsupervised beaches with no flush toilets. And then in the winter, we would occasionally go to the beach. As I got older, beach badges got really expensive and we traveled more. I spent more time on beaches in Florida, Tortola, the Bahamas. So today was very nostalgic.

When I was around 11 or 12, my sister and I got a blistering sunburn - my first ever. I had blisters on my face, and pain over the rest of me. Unfortunately, it was only one of the first days. So we came up with a plan for the rest of the vacation. We would go swimming, shelling and anything out in the sun until 11. Then we would sort our shells, clean them and identify them under the shade of the picnic table canopy. I learned a lot about different shells, and we collected a lot of interesting shells and sharks teeth that week. Today, I had my NJ beach shell expectations - mussels, oysters, clam, quahog, and an occasional snail shell. Imagine my surprise when I found whole welks, lady slippers, and THREE SAND DOLLARS!! I never thought the sand dollars came this far north, but the weather has been strange, so the choppy water might have dragged in some unusual shells. After strolling down the beach, we stopped to play in the sand and snow. The kids still insisted on gathering water to make wet sand castles. We made a snowman and ran around like lunatics.







We came back to warm up before searching for lunch. Hubs wanted fajitas. When he wants a certain food, nothing else will substitute. It was amusing that we got all the way to Ocean City to find out the only open Mexican restaurant didn’t open until 5. So we set off to grab a hoagie at Wawa and tracked down Asseneteague State Park. I will pause for the inevitable “Mommy said ASS”. Assenteague is where the wild ponies live. It was an incredible experience to pull into the parking lot to find three wild ponies eating grass. There were some idiots who were feeding and petting the ponies, and yes, I was hoping they would get bitten!! I think it’s amazing that there is a place for us to observe wild animals, but people who feed animals teach the animals that humans will feed them and they will lose their natural ability to find food when the humans go home. Ok - off the soap box. We headed to the beach, but we were intimidated by the electric fence on the dunes and the four foot drop off. We observed the beach and then headed back to drive through the park to find more ponies. Two miles into the drive, we hit the National Park. We turned around because $15 was a bit steep for the privilege of driving through. If we were staying all day or at least going to get out of the car, we would have gladly paid. Instead, we returned to the really awesome visitor’s center. Trinks and I are going to get the Misty of Chiconteague books out of the library this week. We’ll be prepared for our next trip down this way.







We tried to go to the Assawoman Wildlife preserve. Unfortunately one of the roads was closed, and it was getting late. We trekked back to Ocean City, hit the Candy kitchen (yes - there is one every 2 blocks or so), and made it to the Mexican restaurant just after they opened for dinner. Trinks and I had burritos, S had chicken tenders and potato chips (but ate a ton of salsa and chips) and hubs got his fajitas.