
Back in February, my cousin Adam bid on a beach house (see above pic) for a week on Chincoteague Island in Virginia. He got the house in an auction benefiting his nonprofit agency, and for the past several months he's been inviting friends and family to come out for vacation. Well, long story short, I was able to join the group on Friday through Sunday. During our time there, we stayed right on the marsh lands (that means there were tons of mosquitos), in a three-bedroom, three-bathroom vacation home. It was merely a brief trip down the Chincoteague strip - complete with mini-golf courses, ice cream shops, and veritable cornucopia of t-shirt shops - and then we were at the Chicoteague National Wildlife Refuge. There we found bike trails, ranger programs, and a fantastic beach. Mostly, we just did the beach thing :)
Some interesting information about Chincoteague... It's an island off the Virginia/Maryland coasts. Actually, the states literally split it in half. As well, Chincoteague is the populated island, and it's sister island, Assateague, houses the wildlife refuge. The refuge itself is predominantly notable for one thing: wild ponies. No one is quite sure how wild ponies (slightly smaller than average horses) wound up on the islands, but they are jointly cared for by the fire department on Chincoteague and the park service. Clearly, I was ecstatic to see ponies! In fact, the famous, annual pony swim (where the herd of 200 ponies is driven across the Assateague Channel to Chincoteague; some ponies are then auctioned off to benefit the fire dept.) occurred the the two days before I arrived. Anyway, each time we drove onto the refuge, we saw the wild ponies - sometimes close up, but mostly from a distance.
Another awesome experience also occurred at the beach. My aunt, cousin's girlfriend, and I went out in the early evening on day to sit on the beach, and we saw a girl catch a ray (a flat fish, closely related to sharks; most people have heard of stingrays or manta rays) while fishing. She eventually let it go, but it was very neat to see up close while it was on the hook.

That unparalleled experience was a great end to the weekend. Sun, fun, relaxing, and memorable.
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