Island Bliss

This article was originally published on May 31, 2012 on my old blog

We began our vacation travel by crossing over the Tennessee Valley, up the Appalachian Mountains, down & across the Chesapeake Bay, arriving on the most beautiful, non-commercialized, friendly, and natural Island.
This vacation was a learning experience for many reasons & I praise God for It.

This is where we crossed several items off our bucket list, including:

 1. See a beach on the east coast of the US
2. Walk on sand barefoot
4. See a sun set at a beach on the east coast
74. Swim in the ocean.
81. Drive underwater while having lunch in a car
83. Have a picnic on a grassy green medium in the middle of 2 roads.
88. Travel to & spend the night on an island
117. See a lighthouse up close, touch it, climb it
118. Wear a bathing suit in public

As on any island or shore line, Assateague Island has a Lighthouse. It's the pretty red spiral one I kept pictures of for many years. I never would've dreamed that I would travel & really see it :-) Seeing wasn't enough, I touched it too. :-) On the climb up, there are wide spaces made passable for 2-way traffic. Windows adorned those platform areas, each holding a piece of history & an independently gorgeous view. We paid a very small fee & climbed 198 steps to reach the top. Nick & Josh conquered a nervous fear of heights on that day as they made it to the top proudly. We received a sticker for our bravery & were awarded a lovely view of both islands. Wild ponies prance in the marsh pastures below and the birds shared their air space with us in the sky. Peace-tranquility-faith-honor-happiness flooded my being.

90% of the people we met were "back home" friendly. It was as though our southern hospitality followed us, yet the people were much nicer than back home in Tennessee. Every islander had a smile to share & was genuinely happy to see the new visitors in their home town (even on a holiday weekend). Amazing!!

The ocean was gentle and the beach was clean. Even the vast array of crabs were friendly, each one politely moving aside to allow sun seekers a place to lay their towel or step their foot where they trod. I had been warned about the sea gulls & how they would swoop down and borrow any sandwich in sight. But, even they were gentle & polite. They flew overhead & landed several feet away, watching for dropped food or discarded leftovers. From time to time they would get tired of food staring and take flight again, proclaiming "mine, mine, mine"! I was experiencing heaven on earth :-)

It seemed as though everyone had an Attitude of Gratitude for the serene setting on these two islands and I was very impressed by the honesty all over. Families of all sizes, back grounds, and states were present. Even though the beach seemed to fill up, there was still at least 25ft of space per family available each day & some days even more!

I absolutely loved Chincoteague & Assateague Islands!