where the wild ponies roam...

last weekend bobs and i decided to go away for our last weekend of the summer before his nursing school started. we went to about my favorite place in the whole world, the beach. we went backcountry camping to Assateague Island National Park in Maryland. It's this beautiful island known for being the home to 145 wild ponies who frolic as they please along its coast and grassy bay.

besides entertaining the elements like my aching calves from hiking in the sand, learning why no locals camp there in the summer because of the mean "green head" bugs, horse flies and ruthless mosquitoes that choose us as a meal for supper, waking up in the night after little to no sleep by bobcat saying to me, "you know i don't think we're being bitten by new bugs right now...i think it's just our old bites itching and the sand falling from our bodies," to which i replied, "ACTUALLLLLLY.....i think we for sure are being eaten by new bugs because i hear one in my ear right now and i have been feeling my new "welts" throughout the evening...like remember my buns had one half of one cheek eaten? well, now the other is as well." to this bobs sat upright and turned on the flashlight. there were literally about a hundred bugs all over the ceiling of the tent. thankfully, i am about blind and was spared this eye crawling site. i rolled over and let him handle the situation. the next event sent and still sends me into guttural laughter, bobs stomach contractions. "ahhhhhhHHH! why does this have to happen NOW!" he groaned in angst knowing how vicious the bugs were, there was no way he was about the leave the safety of the tent for more flesh wounds. don't ask me why his pain made me laugh so hard, i think its something to do with growing up my brothers. besides these entertaining events, the beach was pretty chill.

i got to fall asleep several times to the sun shining down on me with my toes nestled in the sand. we got to wake up and have the ocean to ourselves-and the crabs-for a morning dip in the waves.

we got to swim and feel the undertow of the powerful mother ocean herself, swooshing us at her mercy with her own delight. we got to see the full range of sea emotions from sun up to sun down, when she beacons softly and when she is ready for mid day play.





the beach is sheer magical. it sizes you up and leaves you naked for who you really are a tiny specimen among billions of others. i lay amongst
the sand and shells so vividly aware of so much life and deceased life around me. it felt as loud as the sea. when we stepped out of our tent there were delicate little tracks encircling our tent made by some tiny critter running around our tent suspiciously in the night. we encountered beautiful brown and white wild horses, deer, sea birds, and tons of crabs that looked like
historic armored weapons from the dark ages. we saw so many crabs i felt at times like i stepped into a special crab graveyard and perhaps should not be stepping where i was treading.


i love the way boobs and i can meet in a moment. he likes to be shower clean and wash the sand from his body before he gets into his car. i like to smell like i have been at the beach all day, taste salty from head to toe, look frazzled as my hair truly is after being knocked around in the waves all day, and let the sand roll off when it so chooses. after we have both been driving each other nuts wondering how we can be so different, he’ll stop and look right at me…and i will fold myself into his chest and we know. he carried all the heavy things on the return because my shoulders are pampered princess’ which never carry anything so my tender clavicles ache from any strain of weight. we talk about how we could live at the beach and never be sick of it and i beg to live beside it someday-but i am guilty of asking for a new place to live about every three seconds-.

on the sad drive away from the beach-i can't bear to leave the ocean-he turns the car around and lets me take a picture of a wild pony which i forgot to do while we were there. i look at him, truly thankful for this husband of mine. we drive away stopping to pick up peaches at a local stand, a peach pie since i have been on a endless pie eating streak for the entire summer, and some coconut cake because its the best. we go to a famous local clam house for dinner. the kind where you open the door and the scent of the creatures of the sea pours out at you, kinda like little mermaids an my worst nightmare but we go so bobs can fill his chops on all the flesh we have just played with. i eat a baked potato and sweet corn and most of his salad while he gets a crab ball appetizer and a stuffed shrimpies entree and other things that make me squirm. when we are stuffed where food should not be stuffed anymore, we leave giving our waiter a fatty tip and a compliment on the way out.

boobsie drives while i pick tunes and try to stay awake although my head is hitting the seat which means i’ll be out in about fifteen minutes if i fight it really hard. we stop for donuts and gas because they go so perfectly together and when i wake pretending not to have fallen asleep at the shot gun post, i ask, "is there is a bathroom?" even though we are only ten minutes from the house. after trying three different places because they are all already closed being midnight or some frightful hour, we find one. i run in with my hobbled aching calves and shortly after see bobby there standing guard making sure nothing “happens” to me. we arrive home and i slumber in to crash in bed while bobby carries the equipment and asks if i want to bathe first. he gets the are you crazy look and i roll over. “okay, but we’re washing the sheets tomorrow after church,” he says and steps in the shower.