After getting lost in DC one last time, we finally found our way to the right Southbound highway. True to form, we misread a GPS instruction, and ended up cruising about 45 minutes through DelMarVa Penninsula forestland before finding our way back to Virginia Highway 13...an agreeable detour. After a bit longer drive than we'd hoped for, we ended up on Chincoteague Island.
After a quick perusal of a "Four t shirts for $10 emporium", we headed to Chincoteague Harbor (tiny...smaller than many marinas I've seen). We took an *awesome* guided boat tour, just the four of us, Captain Jay, and his apparently new squeeze, Chrissie. $25 a head for about 2.5 hours cruising around Chincoteague, Assateague, and distant views of the Wallops launch facilities! Best value we've gotten for our money for *anything* on this trip so far. At our request, we motored out to the last channel marker, the one that demarcates, for all intents and purposes, the end of the Chincoteague Channel and the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean. You could literally tell the difference between the relatively sheltered channel area and the ever-opening seaway. The winds were much higher, and two foot swells rocked us solidly up and down.
At one point, Cap'n Jay idled us up next to a friend's oyster and clam operation, and then told us the guy also had a restaurant on the island. Needless to say, that's where we had a magnificent, locally produced seafood dinner. Fresh New England clam chowder, home made rolls, locally grown salad, and an assorted fried seafood platter as the main course - scallops, clams, oysters, flounder and shrimp. The breading was barely there...thin and perfect, so that there was no unnecessary retention of the cooking oil. The entire meal was so lightly seasoned as to almost not be there, so confident in the quality of the seafood was the proprietor. Not only the best seafood meal I've ever had, but one of the best meals I've *ever* had.
Despite Chincoteague clearly being a touristy place, it retains its authenticity, right down to it's little barrier island core. I'm sure that it is crammed and irritating during the height of tourist season (I don't even want to think about what it must be like when 50,000 people descend upon it for the pony swim), but today, despite absolutely flawless weather, there were very few tourists besides ourselves in evidence. If you'd ever told me I'd be cruising Chincoteague Channel in a 20 foot pontoon boat in October, I'd have said you were nuts, but it couldn't have been any more superb. We watched cormorants and other birds diving and feeding all afternoon long, egrets stalking the marshy shorelines and sand bars. We saw the path taken during the legendary pony roundup each July, and even got to see the last few yearlings that didn't sell at auction still being kept in the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Service's pen.
We left just after sunset, and headed to the bitter end of the DelMarva, and across Chesapeake Bay via the extraordinary construct known as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, and landed in Virginia Beach. And here I sit now, comfortably ensconced in a beachfront, but cheapass ($70 for four people!) Travelodge. In the morning, we'll get up and do a bit of beachcombing, then head West, seeing what we can along the way.
I promise to share more nerdgasm pics when I get home and have time, but in the meantime, enjoy these two from today. Sunset across Chincoteague Channel, and your intrepid travelers, with The
Assateague Light in the background.
