To The Beach!

This is a few weeks old.  Sorry faithful reader(s) for the delay...

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After another long week in D.C., we decided to make a quick escape to the beach. Upon Ben's mom's recommendation, we headed to  Assateague and Chincoteague Islands on the eastern shore. We left early on Saturday and made it past the Chesapeake Bay Bridge without much traffic. The 4.5 mile bridge was an experience in itself. By far the tallest and longest bridge we had ever traveled across and probably the highest toll ($4) for such a relatively short stretch of road.

We made it to Chincoteague island just in time to grab lunch at Woody's Beachside BBQ. It was a great setup with several little shacks offering a variety of BBQ. The pulled pork sandwich was defiantly above average and worthy of a visit if you ever in the area.

We made the short drive onto Assateague island for some beach time. Assateague is a long barrier island off the Atlantic coast. There is no development on the island and is also a wildlife preserve. 

After taking a long walk on the beach, we found a private section with no other patrons for a few hundred yards or so.

A unique feature of Assateague is the wild ponies that roam the island. We were able to track down a few while we did some exploring.

After a big day, it was time to head home.

Ben was scheduled to work at the Nationals games for the long Friday to Monday home stand, so Kelly took the opportunity to make a trip back to Sparta to visit the family. She hadn't been home since Christmas and was unlikely to get back until the holidays so it was a great last minute development.

She started the visit off on a good note with a trip to Doreen's for a milkshake.

She also got some serious twin time as she helped her mom babysit while Abbey was coaching/working during the week. The babies seemingly doubled both in size and energy in just a few short months. Kelly spent most of the weekend chasing after Layla, who is most definitely her mother's child!

Another motivation for the trip home was to see Abbey's first volleyball game as head coach. It was weird to see my dad sitting in the crowd and Abbey at the end of the bench coaching the team and her two kids running wild on the concourse. It seems like yesterday Abbey and I were both on the floor and dad was coaching/yelling at us from the bench. Circle of life.

 

Kelly got back to town on Wednesday with several surprises for Ben. 1. grandma's homemade cookies. While it was not easy carrying around a box of some of the most delicious cookies known to man, I believe somewhere in our wedding vows it mentioned a similar situation.  2. A bag a Twizzlers that Kelly's mom had given her for the trip back. A random gift, but still appreciated at the Holatch home. 3. Best of all, she brought back a box of Ray's doughnuts from our favorite bakery in U City(St.Louis). On the way to the airport Kelly and her parents stopped by for a treat and she was able to smuggle a box through security and all the way back to D.C.

Ben had worked four games in a row, including two rain delays and two extra innings games. With the assistance of large amounts of caffeine, he made it through the week. We decided to take the weekend as an opportunity to catch up on some much needed rest.  Since we both work in the election profession, our jobs have kicked into full gear and stretched our time thinner than we prefer.