Assateague Island National Seashore

When a good friend who, since you've known her, has lived as close by as Southern California, and as far away as South Africa, moves to your very same coast, you get a little giddy. Although she had moved to North Carolina and I was in Connecticut, I was able to convince her to drive up for a visit. If you know your North American geography or have access to a map, you know that that's still a long ass way. So last weekend we split the difference, which turned out to be Assateague Island, a barrier island off Maryland's coast, known for its wild horses. I didn't care much about where we met, I just wanted to see Jen and camp.

So it was a pleasant surprise that Assateague Island was a very interesting place. I figured the wild horses would be like moose in northern forests: you get all excited when you see the yellow moose crossing highway signs, and then, bupkus. Not so! We saw our first band within a mile after entering the park, and frequently thereafter. On the bike trail:

There was a lot of wildlife in general. White-tailed deer, elk-like sikas, and itty bitty wabbits wandered through our campsite, and from our bikes we saw egrets, herons, and pipers. And whenever the wind died down, which was most of the time, legions of ravenous mosquitoes, wholly unimpressed by the DEET we applied with regularity. Jen's amazing photo of an egret taking off:


You can't have horses without lots of processed saltmeadow hay and beach grass:

Sorry to end with a picture of poop. This made me think of my colleagues, who are endlessly trying to find the flower (or in this case, the delicious mushrooms!) in life's manure. Does that make it any better?