Rest

This weekend was restful because we stayed home. I was on duty Saturday night and ended up grounding 12 girls (out of 19) for not checking in on time. Some of them completely forgot, others went to sleep, and several even said "I didn't know where you were". Oh really!?!? I've been living in this dorm with you since Labor Day and you suddenly have amnesia? Ooooohh, I was so mad.

We've been too busy with work (and recovering from this awful week) to tell you about our camping trip with Jared and Caroline at Assateague State Park in Maryland. If you ever have a chance to go, GO! It's so amazing. There's the ocean, then sand dunes, then the campground.... there are even wild horses! Thankfully, we made reservations with the state side and not the national side....

The first morning, we woke up to horses roaming around our tent. Of course, we couldn't get the keys in time to snap pictures of them sniffing around but these I took just after:

 Matt is too afraid to come out...

While Jared and Caroline slept in, Matt and I checked out the beach early in the morning. Then we had a morning fire and breakfast.

Temps reached 86 degrees... it. was. HOT. We were beach bums most of the morning and early afternoons. The water was cold but really refreshing. We had to pay a million dollars for a bottle of sun screen at the camp store (who packs sun screen for a camping trip on October 4th?? Noted for next time.).

Later that afternoon, we went to go find some more wild horses, since they weren't coming to see us on the beach. "Why are there horses?" you ask... Here's what the website says:
Some people believe that the wild ponies of Assateague arrived on Assateague Island when a Spanish galleon cargo ship (with a cargo of horses) sank off the coast and the horses swam to shore. Others believe the wild horses arrived there via early colonial settlers. Recently in 1997, a Spanish shipwreck was discovered off Assateague Island, which lends credit to the first theory. In any event, the ponies have become well adapted to the seashore ecosystem. Wild horses feed on saltmarsh cordgrass, dune grasses, bayberry twigs, rosehips & persimmons. 
The website makes them sound great, but the campground pamphlet called them "short" and "bloated," eating "nutrition poor" marsh grasses which "stunts their growth". Poor things.

Jared and Caroline quickly get out of way of an approaching horse.

 Aaaahh, a good back scratch.

Next, we went crabbing! I'd never done this before, but Jared and Caroline were pros and they taught us the techniques. Apparently, crabs like raw chicken necks. Me too!

Some of them were too small to keep, but they didn't want to let go of the net for their freedom: small brains.

 

 We caught 4 crabs: two males, two females. Catching and measuring them was so fun.

Jared looked up on Youtube how to season and cook them. It was a lot of work for such a small amount of meat, but it was my first time eating something I caught (or hunted). Crazy that this used to be the only way to survive back in the day. I wouldn't have survived long.....

That night, around the campfire, a horse came tiptoeing up to our car (whose trunk we had left open... whups!) and snuck a bag of chips and a couple of bagels. We shooed her away, but she made herself right at home and started chomping on everything else including a can of sardines (ouch teeth!).
Here's Matt trying to save as much food as possible. We couldn't scare her away fast enough. I guess those marsh grasses hit the spot for only so long....

The next morning, we woke up early to watch the sun rise over the ocean. It was so worth it, but our camera didn't capture the best pictures. Oh well.

Aside from the hungry wild horses, we also saw tons of crabs. Here's one just coming out of his sand hole.

While we watched the sun rise, we saw a couple of dolphins jumping and swimming right in plain view. It was so cool. No picture of that though...