We finally arrived at the bay bridge and I knew we were getting closer to our destination.
We got to my moms around 10pm, loaded her luggage and headed to the coast. I had called the campground when I realized we would be arriving long after check-in. The staff was very nice and offered to leave our key in the entry box along with instructions for getting in to our cabin. We finally arrived, get everything inside and we all crashed pretty quickly. It had been a very long driving day for us.
The next morning we were able to see the campground in the daylight and explore a little.
Our little cabin at Fort Whaley.
We caught the campground shuttle to Ocean City to spend a few hours on the beach. Baily and Taylor had never been to the ocean and I couldn't wait to see how they were going to like it. Everyone loved it! The 3 kids never left the water. Taylor was soon body surfing the waves on the shore and searching for sand crabs and seashells. He had better luck finding jellyfish. After a few hours of sand and sun, we returned to the campground for dinner. We made steak and potato foil packets and corn on the cob on the fire and enjoyed a late evening campfire.
Day 2 we made a trip to Wal-Mart for some beach supplies. Taylor decided the shells and rocks were hard on his bare stomach when body surfing, so he wanted a boogie board. We picked up beach chairs and an umbrella then spent the day at Assateague Island. We were greeted in the parking lot by some of the resident wild ponies on the island.
There were signs posted that told about the ponies and how to keep yourself and the ponies safe as everyone shared the beach. The beach at Assateague was a little less crowded. There were lifeguards on duty, but no boardwalk. A much smaller crowd. Once again, everyone loved the water. Mom and I spent most of our time lounging under the umbrella and people watching. The kids hardly left the water!
The kids did decide to come up and get something to eat. Mom and I had fixed a cooler full of sandwiches and the seagulls gathered to wait patiently for a bite (well, some not so patiently)
Later in the evening, another group of ponies joined us on the beach.
At first, everyone gathered around getting pictures, but after a while, they wandered down to a secluded spot on the beach and just hung out doing their thing.
Our friend Brandi drove down and spent the day with us. She and the girls then snuck away to Wal-Mart on the way back to the campground and surprised Danny with a cake for his birthday.
On Wednesday, we met my cousin Sherrie and her family at Frontier Town, the sister campground to Fort Whaley. They have a water park which was free for us to use with our campground rental. We had fun and it was great to spend some time catching up with family. We met Sherrie's boyfriend Eric and her son Tyler is Taylors age. They had a blast together!
Sherrie, Eric and Tyler came back to Fort Whaley to hang out with us for the evening. Danny grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and the boys spent time catching crawfish in the stream in front of our cabin.
Sherrie lived close by and Taylor wound up spending the night with Tyler on Wednesday night. Thursday morning, mom decided she had had enough sun and sand and was ready to wrap up her week. We left the girls to explore the campground and drove mom the hour to her house. While there, I got to visit with my dad for a bit and also play with moms dog Buddy, who had missed her like crazy!
We picked Taylor up from my cousins house and when we got there, Eric had made enough food to feed an army! We stayed for lunch, visited with my Uncle Jerry and headed back to the campground with plans to meet up with everyone later that evening for dinner and some fun on boardwalk in Ocean City.
Our good friends Laura and Chuck and their daughter Chayla came by the campground later and we all carpooled to Ocean City. After dinner and laughs at the Dough Roller, we met back up with Sherrie, Tyler and Eric played on the boardwalk until midnight when everything closed down for the night.
Friday morning, we loaded up the van for our trip back to Tennessee. We had a great week. Assateague Island is on our list of places to visit again. Fort Whaley is a good place to stay that is quiet and clean. It is a little further to drive to the ocean, but it was nice to have a relaxing place to return to in the evening after a day of fun.
We had such a fun time with family and friends. It was great to spend time with my mom. The kids are already trying to figure out how to move closer to the ocean. What a great week!
