Visiting Family in Texas – Part 4

Posted on April 25, 2024 by Robin

The Eclipse in Texas post is here. That was on Monday. I was flying out on Wednesday, but in the meantime Dan and I had a day to find something to do. Kids were at school and Katie and Kurtis were at work. We drove to the town of Blanco to see what we could find.

We ended up at the Buggy Barn Museum where there are over 250 buggies, wagons, and carriages of all types. There is also a street with the Old West look and buildings that can be rented for photoshoots or gatherings.

We wandered around the Old West and explored the buildings.

We found a donkey (plastic) peering out of a stable.

Then we found the interconnected buildings that house the buggies. There are signs on some but not all. I don’t know what this wagon carried–something that needed to be confined to a cage.

Detail of the wheel on that buggy.

I can’t tell you all the different types, but there are a lot. Some of the buggies have signs that list movies or TV shows in which they have been used. Some have been restored for those shows. Others are replicas.

This is a view from an upstairs room that was also filled. There were several times I glimpsed a person driving or riding in a buggy and I had to look twice to realize it was a mannequin.

This person, however, was not a mannequin, but he dressed for the period. He was glad to see us and spent quite awhile telling us stories about some of what we were seeing.

Metal vultures overlooking the fence on the way out.

Back at the house I went on a walk. This is above the gate at Katie’s neighbor to the east.

This is across the road. That’s a bongo that we mostly saw under this tree. There are also zebras and springboks on the property.

One last photo of my new favorite flower. I find this one fascinating. It is called Antelope Horn for the look of the seedpods. No resemblance at this point. Maybe if I go back in the fall I’ll see some.

Visiting Family in Texas – Part 2

Posted on April 18, 2024 by Robin

I’m slow at getting caught up with photos. I may never be caught up. Part 1 of this trip is here. On Sunday we drove to San Marcos for a glass-bottom boat tour at The Meadows Center managed by Texas State University.

This is the view from within the boat so I can share what the boats look like.

This is the view in the other direction showing out tour guide and the other people on the boat.

We are all sitting around a center channel with a glass bottom.

A view looking down into that channel.

A view of the bottom of Spring Lake. There are over 200 springs in the lake, bubbling up from the Edwards Aquifer. The water is at 72 degrees year round and the water from these springs becomes the San Marcos River. The guide pointed out what looked like current at the bottom of the lake in some areas and bubbles in others–those are the areas where water is rising from the springs.

After the tour we explored the Discovery Hall that is housed in the old building that used to be known as Aquarena Springs. For a fascinating glimpse into the history of the entertainment provided by the Aquamaids from the 1950’s through 90’s at this site see this link. Thanks to Kaleena for this great photo of Matt and Kasen sitting on the roof of the Hall.

We did a short walk on one of the trails around the Spring Lake Natural Area.

This sign explains that this area may be the oldest continuously inhabited spot in North America.

After that we drove into another part of the town and stopped along the San Marcos River where there is public access for swimming.

It was overcast, but warm enough for some of our group to want to get in the water.

Another great photo by Kaleena.

Back “home” we took another walk.

This is a close up view of a flower I identified in the last post…what was that? I just looked back. Pincushion Daisy. I took this photo because of the metallic green bee

I am experimenting with he ID ability of the phone (a feature I didn’t know about until Kaleena showed me). If I record something as a caption it shows up here. The common name is Goldeneye phlox.

Musicians seen along the road.

I shared these flowers in that other post also, but sharing new photos.

I am fascinated by this flower. It is so odd. And why that name?

The only photo that I am in–Kaleena took this one.

Next post will be Eclipse Day.

New York Adventure – Day 6

Posted on November 2, 2023 by Robin

If you read the first post in this series you know that I started Day 1 with our first full day here. There was a travel day before that one, as is Day 6. So this would really be our seventh day away from home…just maintaining some level of accuracy.

We took a group photo before we all left. The California contingent are the four of us on the left. Adrianne, on the right, stayed with us. We first met her in Maryland several years ago and have stayed in touch. She drove here from Ohio. Some of the best time on this trip was spent hanging out together in the living room and at the kitchen table.

Fall color on the way to the airport.

Our travel days were easy and without incident. they were just long.

Somewhere over the mid-west.

The Rockies.

Over Salt Lake, but it’s mostly under the plane.

More of the salt flats. Some of you fly all the time and you are used to seeing this. I don’t see this often and I like getting this perspective

Lake Tahoe and the Sierras. That means we’re almost home.

When we see the fields of the Central Valley it means we are home. Aren’t those beautiful patterns?

Those hills just under the sunset are “my hills”. Our farm is in the valley just east of the lower hills.

New York Adventure – Day 3

Posted on October 27, 2023 by Robin

I talked about Day 2 here. Now that I’m numbering the days I see that I have it wrong. Day 1 was really a travel day. We left Sacramento on Tuesday at 11:45 and got to Albany well after dark. That’s why I didn’t count it. I’ll stick with the current numbering system that forgets the travel day.

Kathleen and I both entered handwoven items at the show and needed to deliver them on Friday. That was the first stop of the day.

After delivering our items we drove back to Hyde Park so we could tour the Vanderbilt Mansion. This family tree starts with Cornelius, born in 1794. At age 16 he bought a sailing barge using $100 borrowed from his parents. He started his own shipping business and eventually was involved in railroads. In 1871 he opened the largest strain station in North America, which would eventually be called Grand Central Station. The bulk of Cornelius’ estate went to the firstborn son, William. Wlliam doubled the Vanderbilt fortune and each of his 8 children built extravagant mansions, shown on the chart above. The estate on the far right is the one I toured last summer in Asheville, North Carolina, known as “America’s Largest Home”. Notice on the family tree there are no heirs for Frederick’s home, third from right.

Frederick and his wife, Louise, had no children. They left the estate to Louise’s niece but she didn’t need it, having plenty of her own money and a mansion, after marrying into another rich family. She tried to sell the property but there were no buyers. Her neighbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, suggested that she donate the estate to the National Park Service, and the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site opened in 1940.

The entrance hall was used for seating and conversation as well as having doorways into all the other first floor rooms. The green marble pilasters were imported from Italy. (From Wikipedia: “In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function.“) We were told that many of the home’s features and furniture were imported from Europe.

Reception Room. The National Historic Site website says: “Eighteenth-century-style French salons were a typical feature of Gilded Age mansions. Though infrequently occupied or used, they nonetheless were essential in the display of wealth and worldliness.“

I took this photo of the ceiling in one of the rooms. I think it was the Reception Room.

This is on the second floor where you can look down to the first …

…or up to the skylight.

Mrs. Vanderbilt’s bedroom modeled after those of 18th century French royalty. The railing around the bed was typical of royal bed chambers. I don’t remember if this was determined to be true, but the tour guide told us one theory that there may be observers when a Queen gives birth so there is no question about who is the true heir. I just found this on the National Historic Site website: “The railing around Mrs. Vanderbilt’s bed is an architectural convention borrowed from many European royal palaces. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it served both practical and symbolic purposes related to royal births and ceremonies that occured daily when the king or queen woke up. At Hyde Park, the railing serves no purpose other than to reference the architecture of Europe’s finest royal houses.”

I don’t remember what this room is but looking at the map I think it is probably the Boudoir.

We took the stairway to the Servant’s Basement.

This is the view from below. There are four floors (including the basement), 54 rooms and 21 fireplaces. The third floor is closed to visitors and we were told that it is not as it originally was, being used to house Secret Service agents at some point in the history of Hyde Park. There is much more information to be found on the referenced website.

Change of scene… We stopped at the Eveready Diner in Hyde Park for lunch and met up with California friend, Siobhan, here. I didn’t drive during this whole trip and kept losing track of which town we were near. We stayed outside Tivoli, New York and drove to Rhinebeck, only 11 miles south. Hyde Park is only another 10 miles south of Rhinebeck. So we were back and forth on that same corridor for the whole trip.

On the way home (to our AirB&B) we took a side road to see some of the countryside.

Fall colors in evidence.

To be continued…

New York Adventure – Day 2

Posted on October 25, 2023 by Robin

I thought that It would be great to come home all caught up with my blog posts. That didn’t happen–partly because it’s not as easy to work on the iPad as on my computer and partly because I spent time with my friends every evening and didn’t focus on other things.

On the second day in New York we drove to Hyde Park where there are three National Historic Sites we intended to visit. We started at this one.

We signed up for a tour of FDR’s house. This is the stable where we gathered.

FDR was born in this house in 1882. After he was married and the family grew there were additions to the house There are also adaptations for wheelchair access since he was unable to walk unaided after contracting polio in 1921. I was surprised to learn the extent to which that fact was hidden from the public throughout his life.

There is a ramp to this room, but when Roosevelt was alive the ramp would be concealed once he was in the room and awaiting his guests.

I took this photo because that desk is almost identical to the one that I used while I was a kid and through high school. It belonged to my grandmother who had lived in New York. I always liked the “secret” cubbyholes that were those fancy columns on either side of the door at the center of the upright part. My granddaughter has this desk now.

We had started at the FDR Presidential Library but had only a half hour before our tour of the house. There was so much to see here that we came back. I thought that a Presidential LIbrary would be full of books, but this is a museum. It is very well presented and there is an overwhelming amount of information here. This is the first Presidential Library and I assume that maybe others are modeled after this one. This one opened in 1941, and of course it would have been very different than what it is today.

I knew the bare basics of this era but this exhibit pulls it all together in a very informative and organized way. The exhibits are all set up in order so that you move through Roosevelt’s story from before he became President to his death during his fourth term.

It starts with the Depression when Hoover was President.

When Roosevelt was elected he jumped right in and tackled the major problems facing the country.

I am of course familiar with all of these programs now because they are part of our way of life, but I have never thought about the time when they were developed.

Eleanor is included in this museum as well. There is another National Historic Site at her home but we didn’t have time to go there. This letter is of interest to me because she recognized, way back in 1939, that California’s redwood forests were worthy of protection (second paragraph). There was a lot here about Eleanor’s influence and political activist. The FBI had quite a large file on her activities!

This is a working office used by Roosevelt during his presidency as is told in the photo below.

There was so much to see at this library that I could easily go back if I ever get to this part of the country again.

We drove to the Vanderbilt home only a few miles away. We would have had to wait a couple of hours for space in a tour so we decided to come back the next day.

We wandered through the gardens before we left to go “home”.

I don’t have many photos of the AirB&B where we stayed. This is from the driveway.

I stayed in this bedroom.

The bathroom that was shared by two bedrooms. The third upstairs bedroom had it’s own bathroom in a totally different style. We figured out with Google and other clues in the home that the owner is an architect with an office in Brooklyn.

This living room and the kitchen are where we spent most of the time. As much as we looked forward to exploring this part of the country and going to the fiber show, some of the most enjoyable time was spent sitting here and around the kitchen table.

New York Adventure – Day 1

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Robin

For now I’m skipping over the time between Lambtown and the current adventure, but I may backtrack later.

Do you remember in 2019 when I had a major accident? This is the BlogPost about that. (I just reread that post and see all the typos—that was because my hand still wasn’t working very well and I didn’t catch all the mistakes.) In 2019 a group of friends and I had planned to go to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, New York. Until I talked to these friends a couple of days ago I didn’t realize that the accident was only two days before our planned trip. My skull was repaired in February 2020 but that was just before the pandemic started. So now in 2023 we resurrected that trip we missed in 2019. It’s the same group minus one.

Landing in Chicago where we changed planes.

Kathleen and Mary and me in the airport waiting for the next flight. We were going to meet up with Chris who had already been exploring NY for a week with her husband and other friends.

We landed in Albany around 10 p.m., picked up a rental car, and found the nearby hotel we had booked. The next morning we had breakfast with Chris and got on the road. Kathleen wanted to find an apple cider donut and an apple farm was our first stop.

This farm was near Vischer Ferry and had you-pick apples as well as a fully stocked gift shop and bakery. There were apples of all varieties.

We each chose apples of different varieties. I like that this one says “Very firm with a loud crunch”.

How about this one that says “monster crunch, two-napkin juicy”?

We continued on towards our AirBnB near the small town of Tivoli, but wanted to explore some of the country. We saw the Erie Canal on the map and decided to stop at the Erie Canalway Trail near Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve. According to signs the canal opened in 1825 to facilitate transportation between Buffalo and Albany and was enlarged in the 1840s. It was abandoned in 1917.

This is the canal today.

There was parking near this bridge which was originally over another part of the canal. It had been moved in 1917 to a private farm and in 1997 was brought to the canal where there had been a similar bridge.

Kathleen and I chose to walk the trail for awhile.

Kathleen was looking for birds while I kept getting sidetracked by all the plants that are different from what I’m used to. White berries on this one.

Yellow berries here.

Red berries here. I loaded this photo into a plant ID app on my phone and it was identified as winterberry holly.

Berries are the fruit of the tree or bush and contain the seeds. We saw lots of other interesting mechanisms of seed dispersal, but I don’t have ID on any of these plants.

Another unknown.

Gorgeous colors.

We could see the other side of the canal from the trail. I assume that this is the original rock wall. But I don’t really know enough about it.

It’s larger here—maybe part of an old bridge or where there was a lock??

We drove on to explore Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk River.

It was fascinating to see the original cotton mill buildings in the town and to read about how they were powered by the river water. Many of the old mill buildings are still here but have been converted into apartments.

Here is how it looks today.

This is the outlet of the fish transport pipe as described in the sign below.

To be continued….

Maryland 2018 – Day 2

Posted on May 6, 2018 by Robin

The second day of the trip began at the fairgrounds where I met up with Andy who had hauled my sheep from California.

I got them situated near the other Jacob sheep and hung my newly made sign (that includes my location). I delivered my entries in the fiber and photo contests (a whole suitcase full–it’s a good thing that Southwest allows two free bags). Then I went exploring.

I was looking for somewhere that I could do some hiking and get a feel for the country. I found a destination on the map called Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area. It was about a half hour away. On the way there I saw a sign for Patapsco Valley State Park so I stopped there first.

This was a pretty area. It was “mixed use” including developed playground and lawn areas, but I stuck to the trails. I was not dressed for the weather. According to the news it was 90 degrees on this day and we haven’t been that hot at home yet. Too bad I hadn’t brought shorts…although the ticks that I found later made me think that maybe jeans were better anyway.

Dogwood. That’s one flower that I knew.

There were flowers (and a bird*) that I didn’t identify, but I’m not obsessing over that. *ID by a blog reader: Chipping Sparrow / ID by another reader: lower flowers look like Summer Snowflake, Leucojum aestivum, a naturalized species native to Europe. More of the trail.

After leaving that area I drove on to the original destination. No one knows for sure why this place is called Soldiers Delight but the purpose for preserving it is the unique geology and ecosystem. From Wikipedia: “The site is designated both a Maryland Wildland (1,526 acres) and a Natural Environmental Area(1,900 acres) … The site’s protected status is due to the presence of serpentine soil and over 39 rare, threatened, or endangered plant species along with rare insects, rocks and minerals.”“Weathered serpentinite is dissolved rock, transformed into thin, sand and clay poor soil which is easily eroded. This creates a land surface which is stony, unfertile and sparsely vegetated and is the reason that the term “serpentine barren” is used to describe these areas.

Signs explained that “the serpentine grasslands and oak savanna systems are now imperiled due mainly to the lack of American Indian and lightning fires which are critical to this fire-dependent ecosystem…The oak savanna ecosystem is one of the rarest communities in Maryland.” Over 90% of the less than 1000 remaining acres lies within Soldier’s Delight NEA.

The white flower is the endangered Serpentine Chickweed. I think the purple one is a Phlox species.

Blackjack oaks, post oaks, and black oaks are here. Praire warbler.

I hiked the 2-1/2 mile trail around the grassland area and came back up to the main road. I decided to take another trail that went to the chromite mines. Half way through this one I started to think that maybe I should have brought water…and food. I realized how hungry and thirsty I was. It was already about 3:30. Did I say that it was very hot? I started to have visions of having to be rescued. Or not–how would anyone know where I was? I also found a tick on my hand. Then I started to feel like there must be ticks everywhere. Forget those mind games. I was still enjoying the new landscapes. I happened to look up and saw this. Here is a closer view. Along the way I found the Choate mine that operated from 1818 to 1888 and for a brief period during WWI. I had expected something bigger when I read the sign pointing to a pit mine (picture the massive mines I’ve seen in the west). It’s hard to imagine that it was a few holes like this produced the world’s supply of chromium. This is one of the other mines. I did make it back to civilization without mishap (and only one other tick).

I got back to the fairgrounds in time to meet up with friends and go to dinner in Frederick. Stay tuned for the main event!

Maryland 2018 – Day 1

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Robin

I left the house at 3:30 a.m. to get to the airport for a flight to Maryland. Yes! I was on my way to MSWF (Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival). Friends and I went to this event last year and ever since I wanted to go again. It was only at the last minute before sheep entries were due that I found that I could get a ride for my sheep (to be shown and are going to PA with a new owner) so I booked a flight for myself.

I got here on Thursday afternoon and wanted to make the most of my time to see some of the country. I checked into the hotel and then got back in the car heading toward the Potomac River and the C & O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal.

I didn’t want to take the main highways because I love seeing the farm country. I pulled over in a couple of places just long enough to get photos with my phone. You can’t tell from this photos but that tractor is big enough that the car I’m driving could have almost gone right under it. I don’t know what crop that is for. Crossing the Potomac River. I crossed a couple of times before I found the parking area for the National Historical Park at a place called Point of Rocks. (Actually I parked elsewhere and finally found this when I started walking toward the river.) The C & O Canal follows the Potomac River for 184 miles and was used for about 100 years as a way of transporting lumber, coal, and agricultural products. The bridge from below. I walked along the towpath for an hour or so. Pawpaw Here is a tree I haven’t seen before. Flowers on the pawpaw tree. I don’t know what kind of insect this is but it is a big one. There are some lock houses still standing along the canal. These were houses provided to the locktenders who would be available to operate that lock 24 hours a day. This house, built in 1837, has been fixed up and is available for rent.

A view of the lock.

This photos shows the scale and proximity of the house, the canal and the railroad. Point of Rocks is famous because it is where the battle for the transportation rights played out. The mountain on one side and the river on the other left a narrow strip of land. “Both the C&O and B&O [railroad] fought in court for primary access to this “point of rocks.” The C&O won but the two companies compromised, sharing the narrow passage from here to Harpers Ferry.

There is plenty more history to learn and sites to see but I’m going to be spending the next couple of days with sheep. I will get back to this on Monday.

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD – Day 7 Continued – The End

Posted on June 3, 2017 by Robin

That last post was really long but I have so many photos that I wanted to include. The day wasn’t over when we left Assateague Island. We had a mission ahead of us.

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Dona took this photo before we left California. You pass this sign on Highway 50 entering Sacramento from the west. We figured that if there was a sign for Maryland at this end of Highway 50 then there would be a sign at the other end too, so we drove to Ocean City.

We parked and started walking to find our sign. The beach and the Atlantic Ocean are just past the Boardwalk, so we have to go the other direction.

We were on the right track. We hadn’t seen any sign coming into town, but it didn’t take us too long to realize that we’d been facing the wrong direction to notice a sign meant for west-bound travelers.

A sign of interest, but not the one we were looking for.

A gorgeous old building.

We found it!

Mission accomplished.

We still had time in the parking meter so walked back to the Boardwalk. Do you remember the photo in the last post of this area 10 miles to the north of the Assateague National Seashore? What a far cry from the beach and the dunes. The beach here is just to the right of those light poles.

We stopped at a memorial to fire fighters…

…and reflected on the world. Then it was time for ice cream.

We found Dumser’s Dairyland. It was late in the day and we didn’t need to eat another meal out. We had plenty of food to use up back at the house because we weren’t going to be able to take it with us. But before heading to the house we drove a few miles south to the town of Snow Hill. Kathleen had heard that it was an interesting place to see. Snow Hill was founded in 1642 (you can’t say that on the West Coast) on the Pocomoke River. Although there was a disastrous fire in 1893 there are still pre-Revolutionary War structures in the town. We did not search out the various buildings but did a random, meandering tour through the old part of town and I found references to some of the ones I photographed later.

The Governor John Walter Smith House, a Queen Anne Victorian, built about 1889.

United Presbyterian Church, build in 1889.

River House Inn, built in the 1860’s.

That was it for adventure. Back to our house, clean up, pack up, and get ready to leave for home in the morning.

This is the house were we stayed the last couple of nights in Maryland.

We got on the road and I was navigating. Oops! Delaware? Right, I hadn’t paid attention that we’d be entering another state. I don’t think you get to count it as a visit unless you actually get out of the car though.

The rest of this is rather anti-climactic after this fabulous trip. Just photos taken while ~~driving~~ riding. Beautiful rural countryside.

Big round bales. You don’t see those around here.

More big barns.

There’s a Maryland sign that I don’t think I got when entering the first time…at least not from the plane.

That’s it. Back to California. We had an adventure to be remembered for a long time. We didn’t do any one thing that was all that adventurous, but Actually Doing It was the important thing. And spending this time with each other was a treasure.

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD – Day 7 – Ponies!

Posted on June 2, 2017 by Robin

It’s been almost a month since we embarked on this trip so I guess I’ve had extended enjoyment while organizing photos and thinking about the blog posts. I don’t know how many people really read my posts, but there have been some who have asked “what about the ponies?”

Day 6 was spent learning about Fort McHenry and exploring Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad. We spent a comfortable night at our AirB&B in Berlin and got on the road in time to get to the Assateague Island National Seashore…

…when the Visitor Center opened. The area is managed jointly by the National Park Service and Maryland Park Service.

Assateague Island is a barrier island that is 37 miles long and separated from the mainland by Chincoteague Bay and Sinepuxent Bay. The northern two thirds is in Maryland and the southern one third is part of Virginia. If you were a horse-crazy girl once then what you know about these islands is that there are wild ponies living there, made famous by Marguerite Henry’s book, Misty of Chincoteague. We had come to find the ponies.

Only part of the island is accessible on a paved road that connects campgrounds and trails. We hadn’t gone far when we found them. Ponies!

Just pretend that you don’t know that they were in a parking lot near the bathrooms. Signs everywhere warn people to leave the ponies alone and don’t offer food. It’s the same kind of warnings that you read in Yellowstone about not feeding bears and packing food away. People are kicked and bitten by ponies and the ponies are hit by cars when they get used to people offering food.

These ponies didn’t seem to be going anywhere soon…

…so we walked to the beach.

We had made it to the Atlantic.

That is Ocean City, about 10 miles north. Can you see the ferris wheel and the amusement park in the middle of the photo? What a contrast when looking from the National Seashore.

The barrier islands are “among the most dynamic landforms on earth”. There is constant change. Assateague Island is moving west, at an accelerated rate after jetties were constructed near Ocean City in the 1930s. At one time Assateague Island was to be developed, and in the 1950s a 15-mile road was created on the Maryland side of the island. A hurricane in 1962 wiped out structures and covered the road, and legislation in 1965 created the National Seashore.

The ponies are most likely descendants of horses that were brought to the island 300 years ago by farmers who took advantage of the natural “corral” made of water. Farmers were required to pay taxes on their livestock and by turning them loose on the island, they could avoid the tax. I usually try to be scientifically accurate about what I write, but there is some artistic license here. The documentation from the Park Service says that genetically these are HORSES, not PONIES. The small stature is a result of years of adaptation to a diet of abundant, but nutrient-poor salt-marsh grasses.

Sorry. I will continue to call them ponies while I’m talking about our visit. They are used to paparazzi. We were lucky to be visiting in the off-season and on a weekday. There were very few people around. It would have been a very different scene if the parking lots and roads were full.

The ponies wandered off and we drove on to find more.

This looked like a very old pony at an empty campground. The Maryland ponies are managed as wildlife are. From the brochure, “While action may be taken to end the suffering of a gravely ill, seriously injured, or dying horse, no measure are taken to prolong the lives of Maryland’s wild horses. As with other species of Assateague wildlife, horses that are sick or weak do not survive.” The population is controlled using a non-hormonal, non-invasive vaccine, administered by a dart, to prevent pregnancy. With this method the birth rate has been lowered to fewer than ten foals each year which maintains the population at under 125 horses.

A fence that separates the Maryland and Virginia herds. The Virginia herd is privately owned and produces 60-90 foals each year. The foals are sold at auction after the annual swim from Assateague Island to Chincoteague Island and the proceeds go to veterinary care, the fire department, and various charities. There are week-long festivities around this event and you can see videos at this link.

There are three nature walk trails through the marsh, the forest, and the dunes. We started with the marsh trail.

We spotted this osprey that had caught a fish.

We watched for quite awhile while it circled, still carrying it’s fish.

Diamondback terrapins.

American Oystercatcher-Laughing Gull

Two laughing gulls and an American oystercatcher…

American Oystercatcher-Laughing Gull

…who was not welcome.

Short billed dowitcher

Short-billed dowitcher.

We drove down another road…

…where we saw a group of people gathered. From my Yellowstone experience (people stopping in the road when wildlife is spotted), I figured that that meant Ponies!

This group was a little more picturesque, being “in the wild” instead of “in the parking lot”.

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There was a Pony Patrol volunteer with that group of people answering questions and making sure that ponies aren’t harassed.

We drove to the next trail–the forest nature trail.

Loblolly pines are the dominate forest species.

Poison ivy.

At the end of that trail we saw the same group of ponies, but from a different view. Notice the paddle-boarders in the marsh. What a great way to see the marsh and the ponies.

One more interesting pony fact: “The Assateague horses drink over twice the amount of water that domesticated horses will due to their salty food supply. All that drinking combined with a high salt diet contributes to their bloated appearance.”