A spontaneous car trip with Mila yesterday, to give Marie some rest and space to get home projects done on her day off from work, began with me asking Mila if she wanted to go to the Inner Harbor. My first priority was to get Mila down for a nap, so as we approached the harbor area I asked Mila if she wanted to go to Annapolis and see the Chesapeake Bay. Holding her red stuffed crab, she agreed, with the added suggestion that we get something to eat there. Mila fell asleep as we turned onto I-695 and I decided to keep driving toward the ocean and see for how long she would nap. On Sunday I had taught a make-up class at MICA and I still had a few days before I had to teach another class, so I was feeling very free with my schedule for the day. I crossed the Bay Bridge, followed highway 50 eastward, and was nearly to Salisbury before Mila woke up.
I talked to Marie on the phone as we stopped at a grocery store just before the bridge to Assateague Island. She requested that I call when I see some wild horses. We had hardly been driving on the island for a half mile when we encountered three small horses grazing along the side of the road, including what looked like a yearling. Mila wanted to go say hi to the "baby horse", but I had to explain that these were not pets or zoo animals, but wild animals. She eventually got the idea that they "might kick", but was still interested in getting closer. Carrying Mila on my shoulders about five feet away from a horse was as close as we got. It was an incredible experience. I tried my best to describe it to Marie on the phone. (A day pass to the National Seashore turned out to be a 7-day pass as well, so I am hoping to bring the whole family back to Assateague Island next weekend.)
Mila and I spent a long time on the beach, and had the place virtually to ourselves. Mila's favorite activity, aside from digging with a shell, was throwing sand on my back and chasing me with her hands full of it. An outdoors potty adventure turned into quite the lesson for Mila in the use of primitive tools and available resources, such as scooping with shells and washing with water from the ocean. It is still March and a tad chilly in the North Atlantic...
Driving further southward on the island, I navigated the car slowly through a herd of wild horses, stopping once in awhile for a horse to poke its head into the car. This was a hit with Mila, as you might imagine. We parked the car at the head of a trail called "Life Of The Dunes", and hiked in the midst of a Dr. Seuss-like landscape of scrub pine, flowers, and undulating sand. Mila enjoyed walking along what looked like intermittent strips of exposed rock, although it was black and sandy to the touch. Later we found a sign that explained that this had been Baltimore Boulevard, a road built in the 1950's (along with some 900 structures on the island) that had been destroyed by a "northeaster" storm in 1962 before the area had been protected as a National Seashore. At the far end of the loop trail, we spotted two small deer. We looked at the picture on one sign that showed the diversity of animal life on the island, and Mila became determined to find a fox mama and baby. We walked back slowly as the sun set and the stars came out, laughing at the chatter of birds in the bushes.
After finding dinner along the strip of resort hotels north of Ocean City, feeling like a ghost town at this time of year and in the present economy (desperate sign on one bank along the road advertised "Still Strong, Still Lending"), we headed back to Baltimore in the dark. Mila slept while I sipped gas station coffee. Of course I hadn't brought my camera on this day. One day I'll figure out how to get the pictures off my cell phone.
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