Archive for the Category »Virginia «

Hurricane Earl on its way

Of all the natural disasters there are in the world, nothing scares the pee terrifies me more than hurricanes, especially living on Chincoteague Island.  We’ve weathered more tropical depressions than I care to remember (love the one last year where my house turned into a houseboat) and I’ve only been here a few years.  Do I remember it being so bad in earlier years?

We’ve been tracking Hurricane Earl (now I hear there are 3 more out there waiting to descend on the east coast) since yesterday.

Hurricane EarlLooks like this storm is going to do some powerful damage before it’s all said and done, but we’ve decided to batten down the hatches and weather it out unless we’re evacuated.

I’ve got to run into town to find some hurricane candles in case the electricity goes out and some doggie food (thank god for hand can openers), stop off at the bank and fill my gas tank up.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to hit the Outer Banks and we’ll know more what we’re dealing with.  In the morning, my daughter and I are heading out to the store before everyone else does to stock up on some food.  The only fear I have is that the electricity goes out so we’ll have to stock up on stuff that can be eaten without cooking, too.

According to what I can figure out, rain should start Thursday night and Friday morning, it’ll be upon us.  The eye is supposed to stay out in the Atlantic thanks to that wonderful trough that’s going to keep it out there (so we’re hoping).

If we don’t get evacuated, I’ll be taking pictures and video as it passes over.

Wish us good luck and safety!
Until next time, wavinghand

Island Chick

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Chincoteague: One of ‘America’s Best Little Beach Towns’

I’m happy to announce Chincoteague made the list for America’s Best Little Beach Towns in Yahoo Travel today and AOL Travel gave it the #1 spot!  Oh Lord I can hear the pitter patter of tourists’ feet now.  Seriously, it’s the tourists that keep this place alive so I shouldn’t complain, should I?

Island Chick - SunsetSunset over the Chincoteague channel

As a year round resident, I’ve seen the seasons come and go.  Spring it starts getting alive, summer it’s crazy, fall is bird watcher season and winter is downright almost dead thanks to those frigid winds coming off the channel and the Atlantic.  Brr..makes me shiver just to think about it.

But Chincoteague has been my fulltime home for the last three years.  Has my opinion changed of it?  Not all all despite the tourists and the winters, it’s still paradise.  My only irks are the scooters and sightseeing tourists who don’t think about the residents having to get to work for example and they’ll be plodding around at 10 m.p.h. and you can’t pass them or they’ll give you a ticket faster than you can say “God give me Labor Day.”

All joking aside, as one of my neighbors put it after I asked him how was he managing with the noise from next door, “It comes with the territory.”

Yep, we choose to live in a resort town and we’ve got to suck it up.

One good thing?  You can run around with no make-up, bed hair and pajamas and everyone just thinks you’re a tourist and don’t pay you any mind.  Ahhh…the advantages of living in one of America’s best little beach towns.
Until next time, wavinghand

Island Chick

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Tree Art in Blacksburg, Virginia

I’ve had somewhat bad news.  We’re waiting on the results from blood work to come back for one of our pooches, Skylar.  The doctor found a mass on her spleen yesterday.  It’s my daughter’s dog, but I’m just as close to her.  Please pray for her!

I’ve not posted in a few days because I’ve had to put a lot of muscle into my online business, although I have got good news – I’ve got a trip to Lancaster, PA, coming up!  I’ll tell you all about it as it gets closer, but I wanted to share a picture with you I found the other day.  Here it is:

CIMG0251I’m not sure if you can make this out, but is this the craziest tree art you’ve ever seen?  We were traveling to the Smokies and this was taken at a hotel somewhere on the Interstate in Blacksburg, Virginia.  These two trees are actually nailed to this brick wall and are thriving!  All of the branches are nailed, too.  It was the neatest but craziest thing I’ve ever seen.

And here’s a picture of Skylar who went with us and who ended up loving the media room in our cabin but I’m jumping ahead of the story.  Tomorrow…our first trip to the Smokies!

CIMG0277

Until next time, wavinghand

Island Chick

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The Natural Bridge in Natural Bridge, Virginia

What started out as a beautiful day on the island has now turned to windy and rainy – ych.  The best thing you can do at this point is to kick back and dream of where you want to go on your next vacation.

So what is higher than the Niagara Falls and one of the seven natural wonders of the world?

We’ve traveled lots of places (the main reason I started this blog) but I was kicking back, looking through pictures and I came upon a few pictures of The Natural Bridge in which my family and I visited on our way back from the Smokies a couple of years ago.

The Natural Bridge is unique in that it’s 20 stories of solid rock carved by nature.  It’s really awesome to see.

According to Wikipedia, The Natural Bridge (located at Natural Bridge, Virginia) was a sacred site of the Native American Monacan tribe, who believed it to be the site of a major victory over pursuing Powhatans centuries before the arrival of the white people in Virginia.  What’s really neat is that it is believed to be a fact that George Washington visited as a surveyor.  In 1927, they found a stone engraved with “G.W.” and a surveyors cross and so they accepted that as proof that he indeed surveyed the bridge.

Hundreds upon thousands visit The Natural Bridge every year.  We hadn’t planned on stopping actually because we had so far to travel, but you know how it is on the way home, you want to get in as many sights of interest as you can despite the fact you’re tired and weary from whatever you’ve been doing in the last few days or week or whatever, but somehow adrenalin or something kicked in because we had a blast.

Natural Bridge

Here is moi standing at the entrance.  Tickets include admission to Natural Bridge, Cedar Creek Nature Trail and Monacan Village, Wax & Toy Museums and Drama of Creation Show (dusk) are $18 for adults and $10 for children 5 – 12.  You can buy advance tickets online here.

The Natural Bridge 2

And here are my babies…

The Natural Bridge 3

You actually start out by purchasing tickets in a big brick building then veer off to your right coming out and begin the trail.  It’s almost as much fun getting to it than being there.  Lots and lots and lots and lots of steps.  That’s my son who refuses to keep up with a woman who insists on taking pictures of every single thing.  But it was a beautiful walk.

The Natural Bridge 4

And here it is in all its splendor.

Related Videos:

To find out more about The Natural Bridge, click here!

Until next time, wavinghand

Island Chick

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Chincoteague’s Best Kept Secret – The Doggie Park

If one were to travel to Chincoteague with their doggie friend in tow, as a lot of people do, it’s really no problem finding a place for them to do their multi-daily constitutional.  Most bring bags (the city folks) and then there are some who let Fido go do their thing by the millions of pine trees scattered all over the island.

And let’s just say they want to give Fido a little walk?  Anyone traveling down Main Street can catch a glimpse of dog walkers even in winter.  They. Are. Everywhere.  Small doggies.  Big Doggies.  Cute doggies.  Ugly doggies.  Doggies you want to jump out of your car and sqeeze and doggies you think only a mother could love.

But…there are many places closed to dogs.  The beach and the one park are always closed to dogs.

So what if you thought this wasn’t really fair as Fido really enjoys those nature spots as much as you do?

There’s a little known place here on the island that I refer to as ‘The Doggie Park.’

Although I’ve only lived here three years, I’ve lived not far from here almost all my life and I never even knew this place existed.  There’s a good reason for this.  The locals don’t want you to know about it.  Every summer, the locals are bombarded by tourists invading all the hot spots leaving the locals counting down to the day when it’s too cold for them to come and that’s a shame because then it’s too cold for them to do anything either.

This doggie park was revealed to me by a friend of my daughter’s.  One day we checked it out.  O.M.G.  It’s maybe a half mile walk around a loop through pines and other Chincoteague native trees and bushes.  There are benches along the way.  There are covered trash cans along the way (for the city slickers to get rid of their doggie doo bags I’m presuming), there’s a bridge and there’s a pond you pass as you make your way to the same spot you began.

And on top of that…it’s the most quiet and serene place I know of.

Here’s a picture of what it’s like inside:

Doggie Park

This is a picture of my daughter on one of the trees that must have gotten knocked down during a bad storm.

Doggie Park 2

Now this picture is of moi walking one of our doggies, Skylar.  This is the footbridge I was talking about.

Doggie Park 3

Notice how the path is paved which is nice for joggers, too.  But also notice – where are the people?  This is summer!  Where are the tourists???  Not here.

Doggie Park 4

In the famous words of Vanessa Williams, I’ve “saved the best for last.”

So I guess you are going to ask where this place is.  Where on the whole island of Chincoteague can you go for some peaceful jogging or quiet dog walking that has like zero population on a good day?

Sorry, guys…if I told you, then I’d break the secret bond that we locals share.  We finally have a place all to our very own.

Until next time, wavinghand

Island Chick

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Biking on Chincoteague: The Loop

When we first moved to Chincoteague Island almost three years ago today, I remember it being the most windiest place I’d ever seen.  March is horrible on the island as far as wind goes but we do have our moments (today is supposed to be almost 60 and nary a drop of wind at this point anyway so I guess we’re having our moment) when the day is just right for bicycling.

That’s. All. The. Tourists. Do. Here.

Of course, I was all caught up in the moment and declared I was going to buy two bicycles and do what I couldn’t do the last place we lived.  Oh. The. Joy.

There are scads of places to ride your bike and “the loop” was one of the biggest challenges for me (besides the 10 mile ride my son and I did that summer going from here to the beach).

But let me tell you about this loop.  When you go through the wildlife refuge on the way to the beach, it’ll be on one of those side turnoffs after you go through the toll that allows you on the refuge ($5 for cars; free for bikes).

Chincoteague Loop

So here we are and here are my shiny new Walmart special custom bikes.  Mine is the purple; my son’s is the red.  Because we didn’t want to ride the bikes all the way from home to the refuge, we stashed them in the back of the truck to save us some energy for the long ride around the loop.

Chincoteague - The Loop 2

And this is the scenery – or some of it.  As soon as you enter the loop, nothing but wildlife, wildlife, wildlife.  Certain times of the year, the loop is closed so that migrating birds can have sanctuary or breed or whatever it is they do there *must make note to find out what exactly they do do there*.  But whatever it is, it makes for the most peaceful ride.  No sounds but nature sounds.

Chincoteague - The Loop 3

And this is what it likes going around the first half of the loop.  Wide open spaces…a car every now and then…and plenty of bikers.  Makes me miss that warm weather.  BTW, Chincoteague is known for its huge mosquito population.  A word of advice would be to do this sometime early afternoon and before 4 p.m. if you’re planning on doing it in the summer or those pesky varmints will carry you out alive.

Chincoteague - The Loop 4

On the first go around on the loop, there’s a road off to your side that allows bikes (some are marked off for people who drive you nuts by not letting you take the most scenic routes authorized vehicles).  This is a picture of my son down one of them.

Chincoteague - The Loop 5

And here’s the best part.  Be prepared to go to the beach!  Only for bikers is a turnoff, halfway around the loop, where you can park your bike and go lay out on a beach that has about 1/8 of the traffic the main beach has.  I never even knew this was there and I wouldn’t have even found it if not on bike.

Makes me wish for those warm weather days!

Until next time, wavinghand

Island Chick

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Historic Lighthouses: Assateague Lighthouse

One of the things I find so incredibly wonderful about living on Chincoteague Island is the fact it’s right next door to Assateague.  The story goes there were people living on Assateague many years ago but due to everyone moving to Chincoteague, living conditions got pretty bad over there.  They never had electricity but Chincoteague did and that was one of the reasons for moving.  Today, Assateague is home to the wildlife refuge, the once beautiful Assateague Beach (we had a couple of bad storms this past winter and it took away much of the beach but they’re trying to restore it before the 2010 summer season) and this wonderful old lighthouse that was built back in 1867.  The story goes there was a lightkeeper that had to lug heavy containers of kerosene (remember no lights) every single day up to the top of the lighthouse to keep the light burning.  Today it is preserved and maintained by the Coast Guard.  The picture below was taken in the summer of 2009.

Assateague Lighthouse

Photo courtesy of Dorothy Thompson

The lighthouse is only available for tours from March to November.  Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for children under 12.  Proceeds go for restoration.

Assateague Lighthouse 2

Photo courtesy of Dorothy Thompson

This is a picture of my daughter standing in front of it last spring.  And here’s one as she sits down for a bite to eat.

Assateague Lighthouse 3

Photo courtesy of Dorothy Thompson

One word of advice – make sure you go early early spring or wear plenty of mosquito spray if you are brave enough to make the hike to the lighthouse in the middle of the summer.  We hit it around the end of April or beginning of May which was perfect.  We brought repellent but didn’t need it.

If you’re a lighthouse lover like I am, you’ll love to stop off at the Assateague Lighthouse for it’s qaintness and historical charm.

Until next time, wavinghand

Island Chick

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