Camping and the Beach!

In the past, we've enjoyed camping on Assateague Island, and planned to go again in August.  But with Craig's new job, his principal told him that wouldn't work, since that was when the teachers come back.  He said if we wanted to take off in July, though, that would be fine.  There weren't any campsites left at the National Park on such short notice, so we ended up going to a private campground on Chincoteague Island right next door!

With Camille in the mix, we didn't really think we could fit all our camping gear in the car, so we bought a car topper to make room for it all.  This was no small feat-- these things get notoriously bad reviews, and it took us a while to even find a store that carried them.  But eventually we wound up with this beauty:

Don't let it fool you-- that thing is huge.

We drove there-- the kids were VERY excited about the bridges and tunnels over and under the Chesapeake Bay.  It was a fairly uneventful drive, in the best way.  And, of course, lots of Hamilton!  We arrived and got all set up-- the kids very much enjoying their new camping chairs...

I really like how colorful this picture is...

So we use two tents now-- all the kids except Camille in one tent (the orange one), Craig, Camille and I in the other.  It worked very well!

Bentley is funny-- yes, he knew we were taking this picture!

 The campgrounds had a clown lady who came and did balloon animals for all the kids and painted this sea shell on Kendra's cheek:

And she painted this shark on Ryder's hand

We were very pleased with the campgrounds that first night.  There was plenty of shade, and nice grass around.  There was a very small pool, but it still felt nice to dip in it!  And the kids were quite happy with the clown lady.  We went to bed very happy that night, and actually slept the best I think I've ever slept camping!  It helped that we finally bought air mattresses a couple years ago (why didn't anyone tell me that they were so cheap????) AND the kids all slept through the night (last time we camped, Colton kept waking up screaming ever couple hours!)...  So this was great.  The only problem was that I woke up early because I had to go to the bathroom, but I knew that unzipping our tent would wake up Camille!  I've never been so anxious for a baby to wake up, EVER!

Anyway, eventually everyone was up and Craig made breakfast for us-- pancakes and sausage!  And then we loaded up and drove to the beach.

Where we discovered that Camille HATES sand and would scream every time I set her down!  Fun!  I think I held her for the first couple hours we were there!

"I do not put up with ANY crap."

I made good use of the sun hat my sister had sent me for my birthday.  Thanks, Leah!

Camille did finally calm down about the sand for a little while when she discovered the joy of digging in the sand with a shovel. That was a nice reprieve...  And eventually she took a nap in Craig's arms, while Colton napped in mine.

I'm always amazed at how FUN the beach is for kids (at least, kids who aren't afraid of the sand).  After about ten minutes, I'm ready to leave.  But they can play for HOURS-- jumping in the waves, digging in the sand, chasing sea gulls...  It never gets boring for them.  Kendra discovered these little tiny creatures-- baby clams or something?  they looked like tiny pebbles, but every time you exposed them they would wiggle back into the sand.  She would dig up a bunch and then play with them.  One time she found some sort of sand flea or something (it looked like the tiniest turtle, but was kind of see through?  I have no idea what that thing was) and named it Mustache, which I thought was hilarious and kind of gross.  She had a lot of fun with that thing before she finally put it back in the water.

Anyway, the kids had a blast.  We'd brought a lot of snacks and figured we'd eat those and then have an early dinner.  But we hadn't really factored in for how early we'd gotten up (6am?  I think?) and arrived at the beach (8am).  So by the time we were ready to leave, it was only 2pm!  But everyone was exhausted, so it was time to go.  We drove back to the campsite and splashed in the pool for a few minutes to rinse off the worst of the sand.  Then we split up the kids and helped them all shower off (Note to self: next time, bring TWO things of soap and shampoo so we can do this at the same time!  But good job packing two towels for each person-- one for the beach, one for after showering!  It was nice getting out of the shower and not having to use a sandy towel!)

Anyway, after we were all clean, we headed into town.  There was a food truck I wanted to try out for dinner.  We arrived just as they were opening for business (seriously, time is so off when you get up that early!), so that worked out well.  What didn't work as well was that they had a sign for carne asada, but then it turned out that was yesterday's special and it wasn't available that day.  I was so disappointed-- I hate it when you're all excited to eat something and then have to settle for something else.  We got tons of food for everyone.  Eating on benches isn't really how I like to enjoy a meal, but I knew the kids weren't going to sit still at a restaurant, so I think this was a good compromise.

Enjoying a quesadilla and a little ennui...

We drove around Chincoteague for a bit to get a feel for the island, and then got some ice cream before we went back to our campsite and put the kids to bed.  Craig and I were just sitting down to relax together when the campgrounds turned into party central-- people were blasting Taylor Swift, and as I walked around, I discovered that each site was PACKED with people and tents.  It honestly looked like a refugee site!  It's funny, because I don't really mind any of that stuff, but when I just wanted to sit in the peace and quiet and nature and then go to bed early, I found this pretty annoying.

So, yeah.  Thursday night I liked our private campgrounds.  Friday night, not so much.  And then I remembered that the National Park had brand new bathrooms last time we went, and then my mind was made up: next time, we're going back to Assateague.  But this was a good excursion, too!

Sunset over the minivan.  Gotta love it!

The next morning we began packing up the car and discovered one more problem with our campsite: at that time of day, our site (just ours!) had NO SHADE!!!  And this was the day that Virginia finally decided it was summer and it got to be about a hundred degrees (seriously-- Craig checked the weather app later that day, and with the humidity it said it felt like 108°!!!).  So there we were, trying to pack everything up and load the car, and we were just dying in the heat.  The kids were all exhausted and grumpy, and we just wanted to go home.

But.  We also wanted to see the beach one last time, mostly because we'd paid for a week long pass, just in case we wanted to go back.  Now, we didn't really want to go back, but goshdarnit we'd PAID for it, so we decided we had to at least take one last look at the ocean.  So back to Assateague we went!

We passed through the toll booth and were meandering down the road, and I was staring blankly at the car ahead of us, when it suddenly hit me: I knew that car!  The license plate read, "O 2BE US"-- that was Margie Faint, our next-door neighbor in Manassas!  We followed her to the beach, parked right next to her and hopped out and gave her hugs as quickly as we could!

It was so fun to see Margie again!  We could have talked all day, but she was there with her grandchildren and we weren't planning on staying long, so we kept it relatively short.  But it was a real treat to run into her like that!

Margie's granddaughter snapped a few family pictures for us!

And then, of course, despite their previous complaints, the kids were all excited to play at the beach again:

We could have stayed for hours, again, if only I hadn't already packed all the towels and swimsuits!  Next time we'll plan better!

On the drive home, we stopped right away at the NASA Wallops Visitors Center:

I love Ryder's smile here...  It's perfect.

Ah, Bentley!

And then lunch at Chick-fil-A

And some very sleepy kids for the remainder of the drive!

It was nice to be home and showering in a real shower again.  Craig unloaded the car and vacuumed all the sand out of it, despite the ridiculous heat.  I did my usual five loads of laundry or whatever.  And we enjoyed being home again!  It was a good trip, and I'm so glad we pulled it off and had so much fun!

Next time, though, we'll be sure we get a spot at Assateague National Park!