Maryland

4/1/2022 We cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge which is considered “the world’s largest bridge-tunnel complex”. It’s a total of 23 miles long including all the man-made islands and approaches roads. You spend a total of 17.6 miles either over the bay or under the bay.

Our eventual destination on this day is one that has been on our bucket list for a while: Assateague Island. In case you didn’t know this is the famous island off the coast of Maryland that has been home to a heard of wild horse for a long, long time. It’s a wildly popular place to visit in the summer and getting a campsite here is nearly impossible without massive amount of advance planning. We are here during the off season though, so we’re in!

Grace is a tad braver because she has her waterproof boots on.

Now for the amazing fortune we’ve had……a foal has been born just 5 days prior to our arrival and mama is looking after him in the campground we are staying in.

Don’t worry, I got LOTS of pictures, you’ll see some more.

4/2/2022 Yeah, they aren’t kidding. There were horses all over the place and you never knew where they were going to be.

See what I mean…

At some point in time (a long time ago), some investors thought they were going to build a road network out here and then add luxury resorts and housing. A hurricane had another plan for them and the entire project was abandoned. This is what is left of the early stages of road construction.

Horseshoe crabs are the very definition of prehistoric and we found quite a few dead ones on along the beach.

This is what we like to call “sea goo”. Over in California, we would find large collections of it laying on the beach and then struggle to keep bear from eating it. Here, we have found one tiny little drop of it.

Ah yes, they both have waterproof boots on today and they are both feeling extra brave.

4/3/2022 We have left the island for a semi-quick trip to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Park site. It was close enough and it tied in nicely with some of the civil rights stops we made earlier in this trip.

Back on the island, it was a good day for horse sight-seeing. The “fun” part is that the National Park Service has a requirement that you need to stay at least 40ft away from the horses. Of course, the difficult part is that the horses don’t have ANY rules for how close or far away they are supposed to stay away from humans. We were watching this one walk right up the main road through the campground when out of nowhere it turned towards us and sped up. I managed to get this picture before scurrying away.

Mom and the new foal were pushing their way through this thick bush…

….and then popped out right where we were standing and watching them.

The foal seems a tad too human curious as his young age.

4/4/2022 I am up early and decide to head out to watch the horses graze in the morning sunrise.

We’re off to the beach and this fun little guy made me laugh. Seems like most crabs disappear during the day, but not this one. Just hanging out on the sand in the middle of the day.

I guess we know where the horses have been!