{Ocean City & Assateague Island}

We found a great hotel right on the beach in Ocean City and we got it for a great price.  That was most likely due to the fact that it was in the off season and cold.  It was cold, but fun nonetheless.  After we visited Annapolis, we drove straight to Ocean City and got checked into the hotel.  We then headed off to find dinner and then enjoyed the indoor pool before we headed to bed.  The next morning we ate breakfast, and then went to Assateague Island, which was just a few miles away.  Assateague Island is known for it's wild ponies and of course with a horse lover among us we couldn't not go to see them for ourselves.  Meysa, I believe has watched the movie Misty about a billion times.  The movie is about the wild ponies on Chincoteague Island which is the Virginia side of Assateague Island.  We got lucky and the horses were out grazing a lot that day.  The Park Ranger said that they would be because they sensed the storm that was coming and so they would be getting their bellies full to tide them over through the storm.  The kids loved spotting them and naming them.  The brown and white one in the picture below they named Florida because it's white paint looks like Florida.  We are pretty original around here.  There are some short hikes on the island that you can take and so we did one of those and then headed to the beach to check out the ocean.  We came away from the ocean with tons of sand in our shoes, shells in our pockets and wind blown hair.  I laughed when I thought of us traipsing around the beach bundled up in our winter coats, freezing.  We were supposed to be getting snow and rain, starting that evening and throughout the next day.  So we tried to make the most of the one day that wouldn't be nasty weather.  The kids thought it was neat that they have now been to the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans!!  We had a great time on the Island and actually plan to be back when it is warmer and we can really enjoy the beach!!

That night after we found a wonderful place to eat some local, fresh seafood and had an amazing black raspberry shake, we headed back to the hotel.  We were all a little too cold for a swim in the pool, since it wasn't the warmest water.  So we improvised.  The kids could all fit into the jacuzzi tub that we had in our bathroom.  We started up the jets and let them play for a while.  They had fun, it was like our own mini hot tub!!