The Chincoteague Report - Day 2

(Sunday, August 9, 2009)

So, I promised a house report and a house report you'll get.

First of all, let me remind you that we're dealing with accommodations for nine people. Affordable accommodations for nine people. Five adults. Four children. So, we managed to find a lovely three bedroom house that fit the bill quite nicely. A queen bed, a double bed, three twins, and a sleeper sofa.

Basically, my sister and brother in law were assigned to the queen, Jeff and I managed to commandeer the double, my mom snagged one of the twins... and then there were the children. Ah, yes.... the children. Four kids, two twin beds, and a sofa bed which is located downstairs.

Well, the only way that I was letting Kate the Great sleep downstairs was if she slept with her cousin Shelby. Eventually, it was decided that the Kate-ly wonder would sleep in one of the remaining twin beds and her cousins would rotate in the third with the other two sleeping in the sofa bed.

So. Sleeping arrangements sorted.

The house is what one would describe as.... quaint, eccentric, filled with character. A lovely screened in porch greets you at the front. The kitchen is small by American standards though it does manage to comfortably hold a table that seats four. The rooms are .... interesting. Well, not the rooms so much as the.... floors. Every room seems to be at a different elevation. You can't go through a doorway without having to step up or down.

Oh, and the height of the ceilings is.... interesting. Let's just say that at 5' 3" I sometimes have to fight the urge to duck through doorways. Jeff has hit his head so hard that it's brought him to his knees. I can't and don't even want to begin to imagine what it would be like if someone was...... 6'4"!!

So, Sunday.... a morning of investigating and shopping for various odds and ends that we needed here at the house. Lunch. Then... the beach!

The beach was ultra-crowded. At a point right before the parking lots begin, there was a ranger stationed in the middle of the road letting traffic into the lots. For every car that left, one car was let in. Never in the years that I've been here have I ever seen it like this!

Jeff hates the sun. Hates the heat. Hates water. So the beach would be the absolutely best place in the world to take him, right?? After fighting with a lovely sun tent that was purchased to aid in his comfort (actually, it was more a small tiff than a fight), Jeff decided that he was worried that the thing would make like a kite and fly away. Which led to him and I recreating a scene from Gunfight at the OK Corral and me making like mermaid and heading into the water to cool off.

Shelby was quick to join me as I headed out a bit farther than the others and we had a great time in the waves until my maternal/wifely guilt kicked in and I decided that I had better go check on the more non-aquatic members of my family.

Kate was absolutely brilliant this year! She loved playing in the surf and had a great time jumping in the waves and playing with Carly's boogie board. (Small surf board thing for those who are unfamiliar.)






It was back to the house around 3:30pm and then some baked ziti that my sister prepared and froze before vacation. (Have I mentioned that my sister is the EXTREME planner in the family? Vacations are planned down to the final detail and menus are arranged and prepared weeks in advance. I should also mention she rocks and I know that my more lackadaisical and spontaneous view of vacation must drive her batty.)

After dinner, Gretchen and her family rode their bikes to the Creamery. Mom, Jeff, Kate and I did the car thing.

Creamery Report:

Jeff had orange serbet and grapefruit sorbet and proclaimed it excellent. Kate had her chocolate in a dish from the start. (It was eaten with due haste and rainbow sprinkles.) I stuck to my vow of one scoop only and got Elvis Chocolate Dream which was created by one of the local elementary schools. Rich chocolate ice cream, chunks of peanut butter fudge (apologies to my peanut butter hating friends), and frozen bananas. Horribly rich and divinely decadent. I LOVED it. No roundups were attempted at this time.



Steve is confident that he will perservere and Jeff is still balking at the idea of putting his money where his mouth is. (Or as I like to say.... his mouth is writing checks his ass can't cash....)

The bike riders than headed over to Assateague for another tour of "The Loop." The Mom-mobile also made the trip as well. I had my camera in hand this time! When we stopped by the side of the road so I could see how photogenic a lovely pair of deer were...... I was thwarted by a winged menace! Well, many winged menaces!

Mosquitoes!!! Argh!!

As soon as I stepped from the car they swarmed me like... like.... like mosquitoes! I quickly snapped a few shots... killed the ten or so that were attempting to raid my blood supply and jumped back in the car! Unfortunately, a few determined blood suckers came with me and we spent some time on a bug hunt before all was clear.





When we saw the ponies again (same set that was seen the night before...) I was ordered to remain IN the vehicle.

Jeff was quite amazed by the numbers of dragonflies that he saw... but judging by how plentiful their food supply is (you guessed it... mostquitoes) it suddenly wasn't quite so amazing.

It was twice around, looking for the bike riding contingent of the vacationers and then back to the house. (Bike riders spotted on the way home.)

Oh, I forgot to mention our friend! Evidently there is a pet deer that roams around the house and after the bikers left for The Creamery.... he made an appearance!




Okay... I better get to bed. It's going on 11pm and someone.... whose name begins with J and ends with F is getting annoyed at me being up "so" late. *cue the maniacal laughter*

I'm going to add pictures in the morning. (If I can!) (As you can see.... pictures added!!)

(Coming up.... Monday, Monday..... Searching for Mom's Restaurant of Dreams and Other Non-Adventures.)