Ocean City

 Ocean City, MD

The LT was there for work, and I use that term loosely since he had so much down time, so the kids and I took the short drive to visit. 

 The Atlantic Ocean is still very cold, but the kids did not mind at all...

there were rocks for climbing...

 sand for making sand angels...

 sea gulls swarming someones lunch...

 and kites for flying.

That is our hotel and the beautiful boardwalk in the background.

 We took the afternoon and drove to Assateague Island National Seashore, home of the wild horses.  I apparently had no idea that horses lived wild anywhere!  The horses were not afraid of people and walked right up to us.  To keep the population of the horses to a maintainable number the park rangers shoot the females with birth control darts every year.

The visitor center at the park also introduced us to the Whelk, a sea snail.  That long rope that is coming out of the Whelk is the egg sac.  The egg sac rope will eventually be about 3 feet long and connected together are hundreds of pods filled with hundreds of eggs.  

 And we played with the horseshoe crab, a harmless crab found all over our beaches.  Looks like something from the prehistoric era.    

We stayed and played for a few days and then made our way back to our side of Virginia on the famous Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnel.  It is 23 miles of bridges and tunnels over the Chesapeake Bay, all water.   

 I still get nervous driving over and under water, but it is amazing that such a thing exists.