Nature Adventure

The other failed attempt to get Joey to a boat ride was our now-traditional Assateague Adventure, the boat ride out to the island to get your feet sandy looking for nonexistant seashells. I didn't really blame him this round. JoeyAndyDad wanted to sleep in, a luxury equated with things like hot showers and glasses of wine to many of us, and the boys were up and bouncy. We had a coupon, and I thought if I managed to shuffle the boys out, the other adults could have a nice, quiet morning. But then Joey staunchly refused to go, so he got to stay in the room with Dad, and Grandma came with us on our adventure.

In the rain.

Fortunately, it wasn't pouring, but it was grey, misty, damp, and by the end, definitely raining.

As usual, we took a ride through the fishing docks to look at the boats, then out to the island. In past years, we've had really good sightings of the ponies. This time, we learned that ponies are smart, and know not to wander around scrubby little points of island in the rain.

So we grabbed our net and went ashore, where Andy promptly ran off and mixed with the tons of other people who had come. There was an unusually high tide, so there wasn't a lot of space in the area we were permitted to wander on (much of the island is protected, so you can't just roam anywhere).

We did manage to see a hermit crab, and Andy found some bluecrab shells that were probably shed by growing crabs. One very excited young woman actually caught a small fish in her net, so Andy got very happy about seeing a real live fish in a net. Mostly he liked wading around with the other people and trying to catch stuff and talk at the same time. He actually got a bit grumpy because he didn't get to catch a live crab or fish himself.

He did, however, catch himself some seaweed. And insisted we take the crab shells home. They're downstairs somewhere...

Then the rain started rolling in at a decent clip, and we washed off our feet and got back on the boat for the ride back to port.

On the way back, the guide shows off aquatic life, having the kids help by showing live creatures to the rest of the audience. We got to see spider crabs, whelks, clams, starfish, and a horseshoe crab. Andy got to help with the starfish. He was a good helper, and very proud of himself. He really liked the excursion, despite it not having toys or pirate gold involved. Unfortunately, the picture they take when you get on the boat, we didn't get to buy, because the guy can't print and stuff in the rain.