The Chincoteague Oyster Festival

The Chincoteague Oyster Festival was magnificent! Extremely well organized. Wonderful surroundings in a parklike setting. There were young ones and old folk alike. It was very much like a church ice cream social. Everyone was very polite.

In addition the food was fantastic. You can see some of the choices on our handy Chincoteague carrying trays. There were steamed oysters, oysters on the half shell, oyster fritters, fried oysters, large bowls of crab, clam fritters, oyster stew, hot dogs, soda pop, coffee, and a few other things that I can't remember.

Immediately to our left was a small Jewish family from Long Island with two very active twins that played in the sand all afternoon. They were very busy and had a very rigorous schedule of digging and moving sand all over the place. On our right side were two older people that obviously had been through this many times before. They were very systematic with their crab shell excavation. They had all the right tools and stayed on task the whole afternoon. Not much time for socializing.

After three and a half hours at the festival, we headed back for one last time at the National Park on Assateague Island. Rode bikes through marshlands, wooded spots and wonderful trails all the way to the beach. If you "click" the picture of Marlene, you can appreciate the fine stitching detail of the jean jacket she purchased for $4 in a small church second hand store in Berlin, MD.

We hiked the beach and spent some time just sitting there on the shore and admiring all the things to see ... waves, terns, gulls, washed ashore shells and sailboats on the horizon. This picture was taken at exactly 3:26 in the afternoon.

What a wonderful way to end a wonderful vacation. We even stopped at Ray's Shanty on the way back for a scallop take out dinner.