Day two of our vacation had us driving east to the ocean. We crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge early and avoided any Labor Day weekend traffic. We stopped at Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware to visit the beach and do a little swimming.

I can’t remember ever swimming in the ocean. I was at the ocean during my stay in Ireland, but I only walked along in the surf. The salt water was yucky. lol. Matt showed me how to hop over the little waves and duck under the big ones to make my way out a little ways. The waves were really crashing, probably a result of the storms brewing out to sea, and after being thrashed around for a little bit, I came back in to rest on a beach towel while Matt got his fill. He was really upset that we forgot the boogie board, but was determined to get his money’s worth.

Our next stop was another beach, further south. I’ve wanted for a long time to see the wild horses along the coast and on this trip we stopped at Assateague Island National Seashore. We stopped at the ranger station to get our backcountry camping permit, stuffed what we needed into our back packs and headed out for a 4 mile hike down the road and then the beach.

The beach was still very busy on our hike in so we walked above the 4×4 vehicles in the soft sand. It made for a very tiring walk, but we got to camp as the sun was getting close to setting and found a nice surprise of picnic tables and a port-a-jon at the site. We set up the tent and had a little dinner before heading out on the beach in the moonlight to walk. By this time, most of the vehicles were gone and we had plenty of space to stroll in the surf. we picked up a few seashells and saw some little crabs darting sideways as we came near.

On the way back to the tent some other campers called us over and we sat and laughed for a while before going to bed.

The next morning we awoke early, which I found much easier to do when sleeping in a tent, and watched the sunrise before breakfast.

While packing, Matt spotted some of the horses in the distance and we took turns watching them with the field glasses. I hoped they would wander close enough for me to get some pictures, and I was a little disappointed when we were ready to leave and they were nowhere to be seen.

The return walk was much easier as it was still early and there were hardly any people out yet. We walked the whole way back along the beach, barefoot, seeing more people as the morning went on. We found many more shells, Matt took a little morning swim and we found this little guy:

Assateague was my favorite camping spot and definitely in the top of all the places we visited, but I’d like to go back and try for some horse photos again.