7/10/10 (Saturday):  We had a wonderful time yesterday.  We toured the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Assateague Island.  We saw four bands of wild ponies and two bucks (white tail deer).  Also lots of birds.

Chincoteague is an island, bordered by the the mainland of Virginia/Maryland on the west and Assateague Island on the east.  See this map.  It has a history going back to a tribe of Native Americans who lived here.  The will of one of them, dated in 1656, is on file in a local courthouse.

Yes, they're wild and free--they just choose to line up along the road.

Katelyn and I named this horse "Oreo" because her front end is white and her back end chocolate.

 This stallion smelled the band of horses on the other side of the marsh.  He wasn't making a noise, just smelling with his mouth as well as his nose.

 

 I named this mare "Gold Dust" because in the light her coat glittered like gold.

We also stopped at the Visitor Center, where we went through the museum and walked around the lighthouse.  The lighthouse is open for tours on weekends, but was closed while we were there.

Katelyn liked "Cigar Daisy's" kayak.  He was a poacher who sneaked around in this homemade kayak.  He was finally caught when his cigar butts were found at the scene of the crime.

We ended the day with a visit to the carnival that the fire department puts on to help support their care of the ponies.  Katelyn won a humongous stuffed parrot!










Tomorrow we leave for the Baltimore area, where we'll tour the harbor area.  Hope you're enjoying this secondhand visit to a beautiful and historic part of our great country.