You can't tell that I love my Mother's hometown, can you? How can you find a better place? It's an island; the local seafood and locally grown food is totally fresh; there is the National Seashore on the next island; there is a National Wildlife Refuge on the next island; one can easily use a bicycle to travel all over both islands, Chincoteague and Assateague; there are museums, a library, bookstores and wonderful shops available; one can rent a bike, a boat, a kayak, a canoe, or a moped to get around; the island trolley service is available; one can bird-watch, pony-watch, or people-watch; one can camp out, or rent a house, condo, motel or hotel room, or stay at a bed and breakfast; swim at the beach, or at your motel/hotel.... read in the shade or the sun; listen to the waves or lap of water against a bulkhead and hear the cries of the seabirds; catch your own supper; eat in or eat out.... Your choices are endless.
Besides being named the "Happiest Seaside Town" by Trip Advisor.com, Chincoteague can also claim, as of yesterday, to be the home of the Best Ice Cream in the United States - Kelly Conklin's Island Creamery has been named as having the best ice cream, again by TripAdvisor.com. Of course, I highly recommend several businesses on the island, besides the Island Creamery... The Horse With No Name Studio and Gallery on Main Street, The Purple Pony, each and every established restaurant, Captain Barry's Back Bay Tours (and Sunset Cruises), Pony Tails Salt Water Taffy, and Sundial Books, to name a few. I usually stay with relatives, when I'm on the island, but having stayed at two establishments, I can highly recommend the Refuge Inn and Dove Winds.
The Pony Auction will begin at 8 a.m. on Thursday, a week from today. Consulting the tide charts, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company and the US Coast Guard are advising visitors that slack tide, the only time it's safe for the ponies to swim the Assateague Channel, will occur between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Wednesday, 30 July. That means a long wait in hot sun and high humidity for those waiting on the Chincoteague shore to see the Pony Swim. If you decide to go early to get a good viewpoint, please remember to take plenty of sunscreen, mosquito and/or fly repellent, a shady hat, sun glasses, and plenty of water and/or Gatorade (or an equivalent) - drink frequently, and hopefully you won't need an ambulance ride due to heat exhaustion.
The 27th Annual Chincoteague Blueberry Festival will begin tomorrow, 25 July, and will continue until Sunday evening. Admission is $5 per day for adults, $8 for a two-day pass, or $10 for a three-day pass. Children under 12 have an admission fee of $1. Any thing and everything you can imagine that can be prepared and cooked with blueberries will be available. There are also more than 100 artists who will be displaying their arts and crafts for sale, as well as day-long musical entertainment and the wandering Jamel the Magician. The Festival is open from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and is held at the Chincoteague Community Center.
With Pony Penning happening on July 30, 31 and August 1, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company's Carnival will be open every evening (except Sunday) from Friday, 25 July, through Saturday, 2 August. Most folk call our Carnival "quaint" - there are lots of food booths (fries, hamburgers, clam and oyster fritters, pizza, hotdogs, pies, fried softcrab sandwiches) - and lots of booths with skill and chance games, there's a Bingo area, and the Carnival rides - a Ferris wheel, The Whip, a carousel, and many others. There are also a lot of raffle items up for grabs - a quilt, a Chincoteague pony, usually a boat, motor and trailer, a motorcycle, riding lawn mower, and more. For many years, the Carnival was where cousins held reunions and caught up on family news, because it was regarded as "Homecoming Week."
(Can you tell that I want to be there?)
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