We stayed in a gorgeous hotel at Chincoteague for free.  We had stayed for a month at an extended stay hotel while waiting for our house to close in April. I had enough points to enjoy one night somewhere, so we decided to spend the points where we could get a wow!

We had views like this from the room's balcony...

These are the hotel flowers. I wish my hyndrangea would bloom.

      Being a $200 room, we're going to have to look for something much cheaper on a return trip. I have a friend who highly recommends Dove Winds in the off season.  It won't have the views but she told me that the rooms are clean and you get several rooms and a kitchen.

     Then we headed for Assateauge Island.  You drive across Chincoteague to the bridge, which connects to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

 When we got to the island, our first adventure was a short hike to the Assateague Lighthouse.

Then it was a thigh burning climb to the top. The views were worth it. Can you find any of the Assateague wild ponies? 

     Well, that wasn't so hard after all, was it?  LOL  I forgot I had labeled the pictures when I uploaded them so I wouldn't forget!  Here is the closest shot we could get of them from the lighthouse...

     While at the lighthouse, we learned that each one has distinctive markings and light flashings to aid sailors. This continues to be a working lighthouse.  Although there are other lighthouses with the same coloring, this is the only one with this specific pattern. Even though gps is popular these days, at times when they fail, the sailor can navigate the old fashioned way with his charts and lighthouse information.

    After the lighthouse, my husband wanted us to take a three mile hike to the beach. "Uh, dear, it is sweltering hot here. And the bugs are atrocious."  Summer is the worst time to hike in the words due to the bugs.  As it is, my husband is recovering from a nasty attack of the chiggers he got while we all went hiking in the woods along the run (creek) behind our house. He can't understand why he got chiggers and we didn't. Well, he insisted we had to hike. I was looking at the park map and elatedly said we could drive to the beach! Then we could walk up the beach away from the crowds. I love to walk along the beach!  No, we had to do the hike, because he wanted to show us the nature he saw when he was there a year ago in April.  (April is a great month to do the nature trails!)  So we loaded on our deet bug repellant, on top of sun screen, and got our beach bags, lunch, beach mats and my new beach umbrella (I'm not supposed to be in the sun too long).  We hiked and my husband is the one who got eaten up by the bugs!  Oh well.       

     I didn't think we'd see any wild life in the sweltering heat, because we never do in Texas. But I was wrong. We saw a deer...

an egret...

and my son pointed out the Archimedes' Screw.  Okay, that is not wildlife, but I was proud of him anyway! We learned about these in TOG Y1U3 when we studied Ancient Greece. He made his own Archimedes' Screw. Last summer we got to work a real one at a pond at the Witte Museum in San Antonio. For him to identify this so quickly was a proud teacher moment!

Ahhh, then we saw a Great Blue Heron. I could have stood here all day...except for the roasting sun and no shade. Had it been April I'd have suggested we eat lunch right here and quietly watch!

We watched him catch a fish and eat it.  You can see a fish in his bill in the above picture.  

      We could have stayed quite some time but it was hot, so we continued hiking to the beach. I was beginning to doubt that there was an Atlantic Ocean. Finally, at long last, there it was...

     We spent several hours here. The ocean was cold! I was never able to get all the way in. I've only been to the Gulf of Mexico (from Texas islands) and the Pacific (from when I lived in Hawaii) and this is the coldest ocean I've ever been in.  The water must have been 60-70 degrees. Probably comfortable for most people! ;)  The kids had fun playing in the surf and collecting sea shells and interesting sea weed.  My son grabbed some of our empty water bottles, used his pocket knife to cut off the top, and used them for building a sandcastle.  The kids also found an old horseshoe crab shell.  This bird tried to find some food on my daughter's beach mat but he couldn't find anything.

Finally we packed up to go and when we got back to the car, we drove around and found more ponies!

Sometimes there are egrets on the backs of the ponies.  The egrets eat the bugs from the pony's back.

Here is the lighthouse from the Atlantic side.

     After a few more stops to the Refuge museum, a few shops and another seafood dinner that we shared, we took the long drive home.  This was a great weekend vacation.  Not that I've been to Virginia Beach yet, but whereas that beach is more modern, Chincoteague is a step back in time. 

     We have longed for years to go to Chincoteague. I "discovered" the location of the island when my husband first took me to Colonial Williamsburg when we were first married.  Then when my kids were little, I read the Misty and Stormy books to them and we longed to go to Chincoteague and see the ponies.  When we took the kids to Virginia in 2004, we tried to work in Chincoteague but it was a loaded trip and had to let it go.  Then last spring my husband went TDY to Maryland for a few weeks (which ended up becoming the stepping stone for his current job at the Pentagon).  On the weekend he went to Chincoteague...while we were stuck in Texas!  We were devastated! Since we were planning a vacation to Virginia, my husband told me to work Chincoteague into the schedule, but once again there simply wasn't enough time to an already loaded trip.  Chincoteague is not the easiest place to get to, so we let it go. When we crossed the bridge into Chincoteague, we felt that we had arrived in more ways than one.    

     First stop after arriving in Chincoteague was lunch. I had packed a picnic lunch, which we ate at a little park overlooking the channel and marsh we had just crossed.  I was surprised that I was chilly!  We recently moved to Virginia from Texas, and I am still not used to getting chilly in July and August.  After we ate we walked around, partly so I could warm up. 

     We went straight to the Misty statue. 

     After checking into our hotel,we went to the Chincoteague Pony Center where we got to see some of the wild ponies who had made the swim and had been purchased.

Now they are tame.

This one ran straight for me when he saw me take a picture of him.

Then he reached out to sniff me and let me pet him.

     As glad as I was to see the ponies, I was disheartened to see them cooped up in a little corral. Next stop was the Beebe Ranch. This is the family represented in Misty of Chincoteague.  As we walked in to the house, we were greeted by Mrs. Beebe! Her husband is cousin to Paul and Maureen, and he was another grandson of Grandpa Beebe. When Marguerite Henry wrote Misty of Chincoteague, she lived with the Beebes for a while and watched the interaction of the family with the ponies.  Having fallen in love with Misty at Pony Penning Day, she purchased Misty and took her home with her on the mainland while she continued writing the book.  Later, Marguerite Henry let Misty return to Chincoteague for breeding purposes.  By this time, Mr. Beebe, the cousin took care of Misty at this property.  We got to tour the barn

and see a short movie on Misty and the Beebe Ranch connection. 

We got to see their ponies, one of which is a Misty descendent.  

      Here I was glad to see that they had a real pasture and space to roam. 

     Then we went back to the house to "see" Misty...

...and Stormy!

Do you know Stormy?  She is Missy's baby. The kitchen of this house is where Missy was sheltered during the terrible Northeaster that flooded the islands in 1962.  This catastrophic weather event, Misty and the Beebes were all featured in the of National Geographic Magazine. Misty was pregnant while she stayed in the kitchen during the storm. That baby was Stormy. Mr. Beebe is the one who put Misty in the kitchen during this storm. But in the books, it's Paul and Maureen, since those were the characters that were already established. But many of the events that took place in the book really happened with Misty and Mr. Beebe.  

     After the tour, I talked to Mrs. Beebe and my husband talked to Mr. Beebe.  The museum had closed and we needed to let them go, but they kept asking if we had questions. So we did! After a few pony questions, I told her how I loved Virginia and Colonial Williamsburg, etc, etc, etc.  She enjoys Colonial Williamsburg as much as I do. She gave me lots of touring tips. We found that we all had a lot in common.  

     As we were driving around town we saw a sight that was hilarious!  I pulled my camera out but my husband made a turn before I could snap it.  You know the children's picture book, Make Way for Ducklings? We saw that with geese!  There must have been fifty of them lined up on the sidewalk in front of one of the houses on Main Street, waiting their turn to cross our path on the street. How I wish I got a picture of that!       

Then we parked our van at the hotel and walked around town.

 One of the shops we went into was a wine shop.  My husband called me over for the wine tasting.  Someone else was supposed to be in charge of the tasting, but she hadn't yet showed  up. So a gentleman was in charge.  As he poured, he looked at me and asked if I spoke Spanish.  Yes!  (Well, not really, but I can pronounce it and talk a little!)  There were four bottles of Spanish wine, none of which he could pronounce. So he had me read the bottles for him. Spanish wine, at least these bottles,  is really dry.

    Since we had a free hotel room, we wanted to splurge on a seafood dinner.  Gotta have seafood at the beach. We had made reservations as had been recommended, and it was finally time to eat. We decided to share plates so we ordered 2 platters of steamed oysters, clams, snow crab, blue crab, stone crab and shrimp. The waitress had to teach us how to open the blue crab. She kept coming to check on us as we were really quiet and intent on cracking all those shells. Sometimes we were laughing at the mess and I could easily imagine the kids at the other tables asking their parents, "Why do those people play with their food?"

     While I was cracking shells, I happened to overhear one word from the table next to me.  That one word made me stop to wonder if I had really heard what I thought I heard.  No, it couldn't be.  That man who followed us all through school in history and literature this past year, week after week, followed us on vacation. I looked at my daughter and she exclaimed, "They are talking about Napoleon!" Incredulously, we started our own conversation about Napoleon.  So there were two tables, side by side, in a seafood restaurant, on Chincoteague Island, talking about Napoleon. 

     After getting stuck in traffic and getting lost, we finally made it across the Chesepeake Bay on one of those huge scary bridges. The view was gorgeous so I managed to hold my breath and focus on picture taking.

 We discovered some fascinating things while driving on this huge peninsula.  We drove through the town where Frederick Douglas was born. Then we drove through Cambridge, Maryland, the town where Harriet Tubman was born. One of my favorite historical topics to read about when I checked books out from the library was stuff like espionage and the Underground Railroad.  Therefore I read a lot of Harriet Tubman books. I recalled she was from Maryland, but I never dreamed that she was on the peninsula side.  Wow, that just puts all those Underground Railroad trips into a different perspective!  Her land route for escape was extremely limited. In fact she had to cross a large river to get north, had the Chesepeake to her West and Atlantic to the East.   

     We also drove by Tilghman Island. Wait a minute!  Is that named after Tench Tilghman's family?  You don't know who Tench Tilghman is?  Well, I didn't either until a couple of months ago. From some research I did, I think this is land that belonged to his family.  We sat in the car talking about who Lt. Col. Tench Tilghman was. He was aide-de-camp for General Washington during the American Revolution.  Washington had high regard for Tilghman and gave him the honor to take the news of the British surrender at Yorktown to the Continental Congress.  Two of his swords can be viewed today at the Maryland statehouse.  The fancier sword (see link) was worn by Tilghman in the Charles Wilson Peale painting Washington, Lafayette & Tilghman at Yorktown . At the link is the symbolism, explanation and interesting tidbits of the painting.  I just found this and I know my kids will enjoy learning this.  They'll even enjoy going to see the swords and paintings. We were just at Mount Vernon today and they enjoyed the Generals exhibit which showcased cannon, swords, flags, medals, etc. Well I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll blog about that later because it was so much fun to see their enthusiasm in the museum. ;)

     On the drive we listened to Adventures in Odyssey.  I'm good with chit chatting in the van but my husband and kids wanted to listen to these radio adventures and it helps to keep my husband from getting bored while driving. My daughter had recently told me that one of them mentioned acting and Williamsburg. Really? That was the one I wanted to listen to so I told her to bring that one. We were laughing and laughing at this rendition of learning how to be an actor interpreter. Here's the story. Odyssey is a fictional town in Ohio.  The city recently discovered they had a historic home in town, 200 years old.  Now used as an old barn, it is being "refurbished" to it's historical "splendor" from 200 years ago. As the town sets out to hire professional actor-interpreters, the family, who owns the barn, insists they can do the job. (Hmmmm, do they have any unit celebration experience?) The city is also hiring a professional trainer of actor interpreters.  While waiting for him to arrive, they throw some stuff together, give their first tour and it goes well. As that tour group leaves the cabin, a critical guest arrives, asking them questions that they don't have any answers for. He points out the things in the cabin and on their costumes that are historically inaccurate. etc, etc, etc. Turns out this is the professional trainer who just finished training a group of actor interpreters in Williamsburg.  (That's the only mention of Williamsburg.)  He puts the mother to work redoing the costumes, sewing them BY HAND!  (Uh oh!  I like hand sewing but my sewing machine is a life saver!)  The dad gets tons of books to read to brush up on history from the latter 1700's to early 1800's. (Now, I read all of my kids history books each week, averaging 100 pages, on top of their literature, etc, etc, etc, and I thought I read a lot!) The kids are given various historical homework.  And they have THREE days to get in historical acting interpreting shape!  Even CW employees get weeks to learn to interpret history. (I learned this on one of the podcasts.) I'll leave you to find this adventure to get the rest of the story!  We were laughing!  We are so glad that the CW actor interpreters get more than 3 days to prepare for their parts. (I bet they are too!) They do an incredible job, they are our favorites of all the historical interpreters we've ever seen, and we enjoy their work immensely.

    We were almost to Chincoteague and we discovered a NASA facility which gives free tours.  On the property, my kids found the NOAA facility and they thought that location made sense. I used to be signed up to receive hurricane updates from the Atlantic, which we received from NOAA.  Also when we lived in tornado alley on the Texas/Oklahoma border, I had a weather alert radio where I'd get tornado alerts from NOAA.  The kids were impressed by all the giant gadgets on display.

     After driving by NASA and NOAA, we were driving across the huge marsh and Chincoteague was in the far distance.  Stay tuned. The next post will be pictures of Misty and other ponies at Chincoteague! 

     In telling people about our trip to Chincoteague, I am surprised at the number who have never read the book. What?  Not read Misty of Chincoteague?  That is one of the best written children's books ever! In fact, it won the Newberry Award in 1947.  The Newberry Award is awarded annually to the best children's chapter book. (The Caldecott Award is awarded annually to the best children's picture book.)  Our pictures of our weekend at Chincoteague won't mean as much to those who haven't read the book, so before I post pictures, I am going to tell a little bit about Misty.

     Beloved children's book author, Marguerite Henry  has written numerous wonderful books about horses.  Of all the horse books that have ever been written, Marguerite Henry's books are the ones who can charm the reader into the history, culture and geography surrounding the beauty of various horses.  Her first famous children's book was Justin Morgan Had a Horse, which tells the beginning of the Morgan horse breed.  This book was fun to read because Almanzo Wilder, husband to Laura Ingalls Wilder of the Little House books, grew up raising Morgan horses and won Laura's heart with his own Morgans when they met in Dakota Territory.  It was for this book that Henry handpicked the illustrator for her book, Wesley Dennis. Enchanted by her story, he was willing to illustrate her book for free.  His charming illustrations drew readers in to her engaging story and the famous writer/illustrator team was born.  The team's next book was about the wild ponies of Assateague Island...centering on the adorable Misty.

      Before I tell you about the book and the subsequently made movie, I need to tell you about the history of the ponies. In reality, scientists do not consider these to be true ponies. Genetically, there are different main breeds of horses:  ponies (small), horses (mid-size), and draft horses (large).  The history and geography is wrapped up in the genetics of these ponies. First the history. Actually no one knows. But there are many legends. The favorite legend is that in the early 1600's, a Spanish galleon full of horses sunk off the reef in a terrible Northeaster (like a spring hurricane, but worse). The horses swam ashore onto Assateague and roamed the island, inbreeding and eating salt marsh grass, both of which eventually stunted their growth.  They are now larger than an actual pony but smaller than a horse. Short and stocky, they are well adapted to survival on Assateague Island.  Another story is that the infamous pirate Black Beard delivered horses to his wife who lived there. Historians consider the more plausible theory is that early colonists of the 17th century took their horses to Assateague Island to avoid taxes.  That doesn't make any sense to me.  Horses were necessary to farming and transportation back then.  My favorite story is the Spanish galleon story, which is the one Marguerite Henry chose for her the opening pages of her book.       

     I purchased a book about Assateague and found a primary source document recording the known existance of these wild ponies in the 1700's.  When we were at Mount Vernon a few months ago, the guy who drove us around the Pioneer Farm on the hay wagon told us that George Washington once road a Chincoteague pony.  I wasn't sure how to ask him for the veracity of that information and we were in a hurry to see the British arrive.  But I wonder. You have to cross the Chesepeake (on a huge bridge today) to get to the peninsula. Then once you near Chincoteague, you drive through a large marsh on an obviously man made strip of land for vehicles. I can't imagine how anyone would easily go to Assateague in the 1700s. I know Washington was a surveryor but I thought he focused on the West. Perhaps he surveyed in the East and came across the ponies. That would be interesting to discover.    

     Since the early 20th century, the Chincoteague fire department gained ownership of the wild ponies and established the annual Pony Penning Day, held the last week in July. On Wednesday, the men take their horses by ferry to cross the channel to Assateague. These cowboys then round up the wild herds and have the ponies swim across the channel to Chincoteague Island. This is a huge event, with onlookers in boats and on shore.  The ponies are then taken to the fair grounds to be penned up. Thursday, the auction takes place, where the young ones are sold.  The proceeds go to the fire department. On Friday, those that were not sold, are taken back across the channel to Assateague to roam wild another year.          

     Marguerite Henry's book, Misty of Chincoteague, tells the story of two orphaned children, Paul and Maureen, who are being raised by their grandparents, the Beebes.  (This was a real family.)  Grandpa Beebe owns a pony ranch. He buys ponies on Pony Penning Day and sells them throughout the year to mainlanders who want a Chincoteague pony for their children.  Paul and Maureen dream of buying their own pony, so they set out to raise money. Since Grandpa Beebe sells untamed ponies, they ask if they can tame the ponies, so that grandpa can sell them for more. In return, grandpa will give the children a portion of the earnings.  The children do not break the pony in, that is the quick way. The sure way is to gentle them. (That was interesting because one of the actors at Colonial Williamsburg told us that is how the horses are tamed for the crowds at CW.  I liked hearing that!)  It is wonderful to see how Paul and Maureen gentle the ponies. After all the ponies are sold, Paul and Maureen look for more work around town, digging for crabs and clams and doing odd jobs.  It was fun to hear about digging for seafood. We'd like to do that sometime (though we don't know how). In essence, I was impressed with the work ethics of these children. They did not ask Grandpa Beebe to buy a pony for them. Instead they asked for jobs so that they could earn money. Compared to contemporary books, movies and television, what a novel thought! 

     Specifically, the children  pine for one particular wild pony, the elusive Phantom of the Pied Piper's herd, whom their father had told them about in the years before his death.  Previous Pony Pennings failed to capture her, but the children are determined to corral Phantom. Paul gets to ride with the other cowboys on Pony Penning Day and successfully brings in the Phantom, because she is slowed down by her baby.  When Paul sees the baby lying in the mist, he names her Misty. Grandpa Beebe had warned Paul and Maureen that an older wild pony cannot be tamed.  Can the children buy two ponies when they only saved enough money for one?  Can they buy them before anyone else?  Can they tame the Phantom?  Lessons of love, courage, and loyalty abound in this touching fictional story that is based on real people and events. There is really a Beebe family (we met them). There is really a Beebe Ranch (we were there).  There was really a Pied Piper, Phantom, Misty, and Stormy...all Chincoteague ponies from the books.  (we got to pet Misty's descendant) Chincoteague Island still has Pony Penning Day. (we missed it by a couple of weeks) Assateague Island still has the wild ponies (we saw them).

     If you have never read Misty of Chincoteague, run, do not walk, run, to the nearest library and get a copy. You will be transported to a magical island with simple childhood joys of yesterday, filled with dreams, drama, and emotion, surrounded by commitment, courage, faithfulness and love.  Oh, that's right, we visited Misty's island of yesterday's simplicity and joys last weekend. The downhome friendliness of Chincoteague, the mystique of the Assateague ponies and the charm of Misty's story lives on. Stay tuned for pictures!     

My dh finally came home a few days early! The one Saturday dh was there, he went to a place the dc and I have been begging him to let us go to.  Does this remind you of a famous children's book?

Ever read Misty of Chincoteague?

Here are one of the wild ponies on Assateague Island.

Assateague Island is a barrier island. Marshes face Chincoteague Island...

Whereas the other side has the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean...

Assateague Island is a nature preserve with many animals like bald eagles...

herons...

wild deer...

and even ducks...

This is the area where the ponies swim across the channel between Assateague Island and Chincoteague Island every Pony Penning Day...

Here is the fire department that sponsors Pony Penning Day...

You can even ride some of the tamed ponies...seasonally.  April is not the season, but summer is. 

My dh had promised to take us out here as well as Colonial Williamsburg and Washington DC for our summer vacation this year.  He had told me I had 14 days to allot for the vacation, so I had already spent a lot of hours planning lots of fun.  Then he said we had to add Chincoteague to the list.  I didn't know how to fit that into 14 days. 

(Added Aug 15, 2009-My husband did get a job at the Pentagon because of this TDY in 2008!)