I spent the past weekend up in Maryland, at Assateague Island hanging out on the beach. I went up with Aleya, one of her climbing partners, and a bunch of their friends. It was a great group of people and we had a good time. We all arrived in the early afternoon on Saturday and spent most of the rest of the afternoon and evening playing in the water and on the beach. Ryan brought a bodyboard, so that got passed around.

There was a quick break in the afternoon to go kayaking. An hour was spent on the bay side of the island, kayaking in probably knee deep water. We saw several of the wild horses for which the island is known, grazing in the marshes. Oddly enough, I somehow managed to leave the island without a single picture of the horses.

We had a good dinner as the sun was going down, followed by s’mores. We took advantage of the copious illumination provided by the moon to walk back to the beach. The stars were out and the group relaxed on the beach while lightning flashed at the distant horizon. I managed a few night shots with the moonlight. Not very conducive to star trails though.

Sunday was quite a nice day as well. The bugs seemed lighter on the bay side, and nonexistent on the sea side. The late morning and early afternoon was spent back on the beach. I nursed a sunburn a bit and did a bit of bodyboarding. An elaborate sand castle was constructed with several sets of walls and moats enclosing a seashell-topped tower. This lasted only for a short time as the rising tide quickly erased all traces, even as we were building.

We left the island in the early afternoon and drove back to DC with the rest of the beachgoers. Fortunately the traffic wasn’t too bad.

Pictures are available here: Assateague Island on flickr