Fun Things to Do With Kids On Chincoteague Island

I love to do everything that is available on Chincoteague Island and it's eastern neighbor, Assateague.  Originally, Chincoteague had a small farming community - mainly subsistence farming - and the main source of income for most folks was from the water.  My ancestors were Chincoteague watermen, and I love the water and all the intriguing marine wildlife...  That is why my first choice of anything to do on Chincoteague is going out on Captain Barry's Back Bay Cruises (see my previous blogs:  http://bscrittersitter.blogspot.com/2015/06/chincoteague-dreams.html  and  http://bscrittersitter.blogspot.com/2015/06/captain-barry-fun-things-to-do-with.html) - Barry's Sea Life Expedition is a fantastic, informative, and (if you want) hands-on trip looking at the things that Chincoteague watermen did, and do.  There are many tour boats to choose from on Chincoteague, but if you want factual information about marine biology and ecology, and how the shallow bays around the islands the islands encourage and propagate sea life, Captain Barry is the best way to learn.
  A large amount of visitors to Chincoteague are there for one of two things - Chincoteague ponies and the birds at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge - or both.  Me?  I'm as horse-crazy and bird crazy as one can be - and, yes, I do have some great suggestions about things to do...
  For those whose kids are pony crazy, or are fulfilling their own dreams (as adults) about Misty and the other famous Chincoteague ponies, I make these recommendations:
  Take a trip out with Captain Dan's Guaranteed Pony Tours - if it isn't the week of Pony Penning - and you will see the ponies (usually several different herds) going about their daily lives.  These Skippers know the individual ponies, and can give great background information.
  Visit the Chincoteague Pony Centre, open every day except Sunday, and meet some descendants of the real Misty of Chincoteague.
   Go across the bridge to Assateague and visit the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge - you can usually see some of the ponies from your vehicle, or you can walk the Woodland Trail to the Pony Overlook.  During the evening, one can drive along the Wildlife Loop, if you don't want to walk it during the day, and usually one can see several groups of ponies there, also.
   Visit the Refuge Inn, and see some of the Leonard family Chincoteague ponies in a pasture between the Inn and the McDonald's.  The Leonard family has been on the island for a long time, and they breed their own ponies, much as Grandpa Beebe did (in Misty of Chincoteague).
   For the people visiting for the bird watching, I can easily recommend:
  Visiting anywhere on the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Assateague Island.  The 14,000 acre CNWR is a part of the  Atlantic Fly Way, and sees over 300 kinds of birds each year.  You can get birding lists from the Visitor's Center, or print them out from your own computer.
   Take the free Wildlife Bus Tour and Lighthouse Tour on the CNWR during the weekends.
   Take Captain Dan's Around the Island Tour.
   Take Captain Charlie Birch's Chincoteague Island Tours & Nature Cruises.
   Take Daisy's Island Cruises.
Rent a bicycle and see the islands (and all the sights) in a relaxed fashion, at your own pace.
If you're there on the weekend (Friday or Saturday night), visit the 90th Annual Firemen's Carnival.
There are all kinds of shops - local artists, photography, painting, decoys, books - and restaurants to fit any budget.
Go the the Museum of Chincoteague Island, the Captain Timothy Hill House (imagine a family living in a space that small), or, head back to the mainland and visit the NASA Visitors Center for space and rocketry information.
 Hire a fishing guide, or rent your own boat, canoe or kayak.
Play on the beach, get a tan, and swim in the Atlantic Ocean at the Assateague National Seashore (the beach part of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge).
Go clamming, crabbing, or fishing from a dock, from the water, or surf fish at the beach.
Swim.
Have a picnic and look at the cloud shapes.
Relax and have the kids read any of the multitude of childrens Chincoteague books, or study the new edition of The Field Guide to the Chincoteague Wild Ponies  Expanded, Revised & Updated by Kelly Lidard. Or look over the Chincoteague Pony Identification Cards by Lois Szymanski.  Check out bird identification books written for kids and/or adults.
** A few words of warning:  Ponies do bite and kick unexpectedly.  Ticks, mosquitoes, midges, and flies are plentiful.  It's very humid and you will sweat a lot - stay hydrated.  Take insect repellent. Use sunblock.  Wear a hat.  Wear sunglasses.  If you go out on the water, take something warm to wear; weather on the water changes quickly.**
  Enjoy the islands!

A Very Strange Dream

Like a nut, I left the book I was reading, and my alarm clock, at Sammie and Tuppurr's yesterday.  I'll pick them up this afternoon.  Since I didn't have my alarm clock, I was worried about waking up on time to get over and walk Rosie and Remy before it got too warm.  Luckily, I awakened at 6:30 due to a dream - and what a dream!  If you read this blog frequently, you know that I am a big fan of  NCIS; most notably David McCallum and Mark Harmon.  But the next person in line is Rocky Carroll, who plays NCIS Director Leon Vance.  The reason I went on an NCIS tangent is because I watched it last night.  This morning, for whatever reasons, I dreamed:  I was sitting on a toilet in a large and very ornate bathroom (I have no idea what I was doing on the pot).  There was a large collection of old and new stand-alone toilet paper holders standing in the bathtub and in the glassed-in shower area.  Director Vance was sitting at a large desk in front of a huge mirror about 5 feet away.  His back was toward me and he was doing some paperwork.  I made some kind of laughing comment about the TP holder collection, and he smiled at me, over his shoulder, and made some type of funny comeback.  He turned back to his desk, and the phone rang.   It was an old empress style telephone made of brass and ivory, and it was sitting next to the toilet (and me). He tossed over his shoulder, "Hey, can you grab that for me?", so I answered the phone with a very quiet "Hello?"  The person on the other end of the line said he needed to speak to the Director.  I began feverishly to grab at toilet paper, so I could move out of the way - after mopping up from whatever I was doing...  I suddenly realized that I was panting aloud, and had what looked to be a five-inch stack of accordioned TP in my hand.  Then I realized the Director was looking at me with raised eyebrows.  He finally asked, "What?"  I replied, in a strangled whisper, "You have a phone call."  He stood, said, "Well, I'll answer it in the other room," and walked through the door.  I looked back at all the TP in  my hand.  He closed the door....  and I woke up.  - Weird!

Other oddments:  A woman in Centreville, Maryland has been charged with 133 counts of cruelty and inhumane treatment of animals.  She had a 200-acre Arabian breeding farm (Polish bloodlines), and investigators found the horses dying from starvation and dehydration last April.  ....  Two full grown mountain lions wandered into an outer suburb of Los Angeles yesterday, and freaked out a home owner and his neighbors.  Authorities believe the cats came down from the San Gabriel Mountains for the hunting of easier game.  ....  Another person has been bitten by a coyote in Broomfield.  Idiot people feed them and then are upset when they attack because they aren't being fed as they are used to.  ....  The manager of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge has requested funds to restore the parking places lost by the waters of Hurricane Irene.  She hopes to replot and have a full set of over 900 parking spaces by early summer.  (But don't expect to see folks working on it now - it's time for the winter and spring nor'easters, and they would just wash all the work away again.)