Monthly Archives: November 2011

2nd Annual Assateague Thanksgiving

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We went down to Assateague Island for Thanksgiving, like we did last year.  This was our second trip with the new RV.  We arrived at Assateague around midnight on Wednesday night.

Thursday morning was like the whole weekend, sunny and in the 60s.  The campground was pretty empty on Thursday, but it did fill up a bit over the weekend.

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Not many people on the beach.  We spent the whole day wandering the beach and collecting shells:

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Friday morning:

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We went to the visitor center on the way back from going into town to buy a hatchet and firewood:

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Low tide:

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B in the distance:

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I taught M to split wood: 2011-11-25 14.51.09

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I taught M a stance that maximized the likelihood of having the same number of legs at the end of the exercise.  Safety first!

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We had a great campfire on the beach Saturday night.  I won’t forget B’s wide eyes as I recited Jabberwocky, which we used to do at Hancock.  We also sang Ghost Riders and Paradise.  Of course, we had s’mores as well.

Sunday started with a beautiful sunrise:

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M’s mining operation:

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We left Sunday morning and drove the hour or so to the southern end of Assateague, in Virginia.  The Virginia side of the island is a wildlife refuge.

There’s an old lighthouse there, which is still operational, albeit with modern optics:

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We collected quite a few shells, and I flew my kite for a bit.  It’s quite a birder’s destination; we saw many people with ridiculously large lenses photographing far-off birds.

Next to Assateague is Wallops Island, home of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.  They have a great little visitor center which we enjoyed. 

Here’s a Little Joe, used at Wallops to test the Mercury capsule’s LES (launch escape system):

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This past summer we saw its successor, Little Joe II, which was launched at White Sands.

We were home by Sunday evening.  The new RV is great!  It’s very nice to be able to pull over and have a meal or use the bathroom without having to fold up or down the RV.  Crosswinds were an issue at times, especially coming over the Delaware bridge, but we managed.

As always, we are looking forward to our next trip!