Author: Jaclyn

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On The Road Again

For years, I’ve had an on-again, off-again relationship with cycling. I love the sport – when you’re spinning along or sailing down a hill, there’s nothing like it. But sometimes it seems like a lot of added complexity (all that equipment – easier to just go for a run, when you really get down to it) or danger (car doors, angry motorists, bike path loiterers, the ever-present fear of a crash). I can go for long stretches in which it seems like just a little bit too much. But when cycling and I are on, we’re really on.

Like in May 2014, when I rode in the Five Boro Bike Tour (forty miles through all five boroughs of New York City) with my dad, brother, and sister-in-law (at the time, she was my brother’s girlfriend). Don’t mind my backwards helmet cover. Why didn’t someone tell me?

That was an epic day! Made even better by the cuteness of our cheering squad:

I can’t even remember Peanut being that small.

A year ago now – at the beginning of the pandemic – I started really encouraging the kids to ride their bikes. Both were on training wheels and we had some good rides on the bike path near our old house in Old Town Alexandria – although I foresaw difficulties ahead with their different natural speeds. Nugget would zoom on ahead while Peanut inched along, talking about cartoons and getting dramatic about every small incline or decline in the trail. There was no way she was moving fast enough to stay upright if she lost the training wheels – hmmmmm.

Nugget did not have the same issues.

Biking buddies!

After a year’s worth of pandemic biking, my parents decided it was time for both kids to drop their training wheels. They were right. I just didn’t have the time or energy to deal with those first two-wheeler lessons. Between working at my old job, interviewing for my new job, administering virtual school, and trying to keep the whole family upright and healthy – I was tapped out. Over Easter weekend, while my parents were visiting, my dad went into the garage and unscrewed the training wheels, then took both kids to a local school parking lot for their first lessons. As I predicted, one kid was a total drama llama, and the other took to it immediately. Three guesses who.

We even had to bring Nugget’s bike to Albany when we visited over the break between my jobs. He can’t be separated from it.

Needless to say, I’m excited to have a biking buddy – but it also occurred to me that I need to get back on the roads, for real, myself. Since we moved out to western Fairfax County, I’ve been paralyzed in the biking department. I was excited to ride out here – when we were looking at houses, I saw plenty of cyclists on the roads and figured that one day soon, that would be me! When it came down to it, though, the narrow lanes and blind curves scared me. I’ve seen how cars fly around corners here, even on my residential street (that’s another story…) and the long stretches of vehicle-free country roads turned out to be a figment of my imagination. The local bike trail wasn’t really convenient to get to, meanwhile, and my neighborhood is made up of a bunch of culs-de-sac (and a few thru roads, including mine, woof) – not great for biking.

People do make road biking happen out here, obviously – like those gaggles of cyclists I saw while house-hunting. But I learned that the bigger bike culture in my town revolves around mountain biking. It makes sense; we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to trails. Everything from straight, flat, easy trails to winding, hilly technical courses is within a few minutes drive. And I also thought that a heavier, slower mountain bike would be a better choice for biking with Nugget (at least for now; he wants a “kids’ road bike” so look out). The problem? I’d gotten rid of my outdated, beat-up twenty-five year old mountain bike – intending to buy an updated model. But with the pandemic, there wasn’t a mountain bike to be had for love or money… until Nugget and I happened to stumble across the very model I’d been researching online.

I think Nugget might have been even more excited than I was – heh. We’ve made good use of our new purchase, heading out for rides on all variety of terrain a few times a week. Together we’ve explored trails at the parks in our town, shred the little hiking trail in our neighborhood, ridden the culs-de-sac near the house, and taken our bikes down to the bike path after I found an access point that was basically a straight shot from our house (much easier!).

I love mountain biking – especially with the little shredder. We can happily explore trails together every weekend – and we are doing that. But somewhere in there, I started getting the itch to make road biking happen too. It may have been discovering that the bike path is more convenient than I originally thought. It might have been three weeks of watching the Tour de France. (Steve now says he wants a road bike, and to recommit to teaching Peanut to ride. YAY! Thanks Tadej Pogacar! Thanks Mark Cavendish! Thanks Team Jumbo-Visma!)

Somewhere in there, I discovered that the local bike club hosts multiple weekly rides – including a few that are women-only and very supportive. Figuring that my fear of riding on the roads out here might be mitigated if I was with a big group, I pulled out my road bike and signed up for one of the Monday evening rides – one that left from one of the (several!) local bike shops, and promised no drops and a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. It turned out to be just what I needed. Women of all ages gathered at the bike shop – I was probably the youngest, or no more than the second youngest, in the group; everyone brought their own excitement and their own hopes. The ride leader, Kelley, shouted safety tips and road-sharing instructions; sang aloud while riding; left no one behind; and called out encouragement to both the women in the group and the little girls we saw out on their bikes and scooters as we went screaming down the hills in the local neighborhoods. I rode next to another woman, Erin, who spent the whole time telling me that she hosts a women’s ride out of another bike shop on Saturdays and she could really use me “to help show the newbies how to shift gears.” Color me flattered!

Actually, color me beet-red (and disheveled) after fifteen hilly miles through the local streets, bike path sections, and a couple of major thoroughfares. I have Monday night commitments for the next few weeks, but I’ll definitely be back. With clipless pedals next time. I’m ready to ditch the fear.

Do you bike on the roads? Any tips for dealing with the (healthy) fear of cars and blind curves?

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Themed Reads: A Literal Summer Reading List

My reading may slow down in the summer months, but that doesn’t mean I stop reading altogether! I still love turning pages, and I love reading seasonally. In the summer months, books about birds and gardens give way to narratives of long hot days and summer adventures. And sometimes the easiest way to find the next summer read is to pick up a book with the promise right there in the title. Here are three that are on my reading list this season:

The Swiss Summer, by Stella Gibbons – I bought this back in the winter (when it was first reprinted by Dean Street Press) and it’s been on my shelf waiting for a long hot day ever since! I’m trying to decide whether to bring it with me to the Adirondacks (since it seems like a good summer mountain reading choice) or save it for the dog days of August.

Mrs. Lorimer’s Quiet Summer, by Molly Clavering – Another new release from Dean Street Press (actually even newer than The Swiss Summer; this one just landed on my doorstep last week), this seems like an enchanting and funny family comedy of errors. I’ve never read anything by Molly Clavering before, but Mrs. Lorimer’s Quiet Summer is reputedly loosely based on her friendship with her next door neighbor, D.E. Stevenson – of whom I am a big fan. So I’m excited about this one.

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (Cider With Rosie #2), by Laurie Lee – Speaking of being a big fan, I’ve loved Laurie Lee’s writing for years. His most famous book, Cider with Rosie, is a lightly burnished account of his childhood in the English Midlands before and after World War I. The sequel, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, follows Lee through his young adulthood – when he literally walks out of his hometown, one midsummer morning, and spends the next several years wandering in Spain (by way of London, for a little while). Slightly Foxed recently republished this, and it was the perfect excuse to pick up a book I’ve been meaning to read for ages.

Three books with summer right in the title – how can you beat that? Honorable mention to British Summer Time Begins, which I read and loved last month, to my current read, Noel Streatfeild’s Holiday Stories (holiday as in vacation, of course) and to two other summer reads also on my list: The Summer of the Royal Visit, by Isabel Colegate, and The Greengage Summer, by Rumer Godden. It’s going to be a good season of reading.

What are your favorite summer reads?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 19, 2021)

Happy Monday, folks! And happy day-after-National-Ice-Cream-Day. Did you get some ice cream yesterday? I didn’t, which does seem like a waste, but I got a big kick out of President Biden’s national message on social media.

Anyway, in addition to not eating ice cream, it was an okay weekend but not the best. We were supposed to go camping with friends – a trip I’d been looking forward to for months – but got rained out, which was a HUGE bummer. I spent most of Saturday moping and wallowing in disappointment. (Keeping it real.) Sunday dawned sunny, beautiful, and cooler than the last few weeks and I really wished we were waking up at our campsite. To make myself feel better, I went out to my favorite local reservoir with my paddleboard; got in a good 40 minutes even though it was crazy windy. (I was glad I didn’t bring Nugget this time; it was almost too windy for me alone and there is no way I could have taken him out. I almost turned back myself, but I’d spent thirty minutes getting my board inflated.) When I got home, the kids were ready and waiting for a hike at one of our local spots – it was a good one; although a short loop, there were wild black raspberry bushes every few feet along the trail. The kids gorged themselves and it took us nearly an hour to hike a mile. Worth it, though, because they had so much fun picking and eating the black raspberries along the way. On the way home, we stopped by one of my favorite local wineries and shared a flight – a consolation prize for not camping.

Reading. Another kinda-slow reading week; what can I say? Over the first half of the week, I wrapped up my remaining library book, Tokyo Ever After. The description (“The Princess Diaries in Japan”) is pretty much spot on. It was cute, and I enjoyed it! Moved on to a much-anticipated new release, Subpar Parks. More in the loving section, below – this was just as great as I expected, and worth every second of the wait for release day! Finally turned to Noel Streatfeild’s Holiday Stories (holiday as in vacation, my fellow Americans) for some cozy summer stories. I’m about halfway through and most of the stories don’t actually seem to involve the summer vacation, but they’re still good – no regrets.

Watching. We finished the Tour de France last night! Between Tadej Pogacar’s commanding victory, Wout van Aert’s ride over Mont Ventoux, Sepp Kuss’s hair-raising descent into Andorra, Mark Cavendish’s success story (side note; it’s a pet peeve of mine when a 36-year-old athlete is constantly portrayed as ancient and doddering, even if that’s kind of true in the world of their particular sport! – the commentators couldn’t help themselves, although at least he escaped another cyclist’s fate of being referred to as “poor old Ben O’Connor”) – and so many other exciting moments – it was a great tour.

Listening. Same old usual – podcasts (a few episodes of The Mom Hour and Shedunnit while walking) and the occasional musical interlude, still via my summer playlist.

Making. Erhm, nothing much. Last week was a busy week at work; I know I cooked but other than a quick curry, I can’t remember what I made. I made a lot of work emails, and a week’s worth of soccer camp snacks. ‘Tis the season.

Moving. A bit of a lighter week – three (or four?) runs, a short hike that was mostly black raspberry picking, and a morning with my paddleboard. That was actually quite a workout, thanks to the wind! I found a sheltered place to tool around, but even so, the wind put up a lot of resistance.

Blogging. A fun Themed Reads for Wednesday, and then a post about cycling on Friday. Check in with me then!

Loving. I’ve been a fan of Amber Share’s work – which she creates and posts regularly on social media – for over a year now. Share created “Subpar Parks,” a series of hand-lettered illustrations in a travel poster style, featuring iconic images of our national parks and other beautiful wild places, embedded under choice quotes from their one-star Yelp reviews. (Some of my favorites: “No cell service & terrible wi-fi” for Isle Royale National Park; “Too orange, too spiky” for Pinnacles National Park; “Too many mountains, trees, snow, etc.” for North Cascades National Park.) I have the Shenandoah print (“Not a lot to offer unless you want to hike”) in my upstairs hallway, the calendar in my kitchen – currently displaying Mount Rainier for July (“I’ve seen bigger mountains”) – and the Joshua Tree sticker on my Pelican case (“The only thing to do here is walk around the desert”). Needless to say, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the book, and it was every bit as pithy and engaging as I’d hoped. Share combines the illustrations from her original project with new parks (so there is new material in the book; it’s not just a re-hashing of her Instagram) and for each park, she includes a summary of the historical, cultural, and natural wonders that make each place so special. And on a philosophical note, she explains that the project has helped her deal with criticism, because if someone can hate on the Grand Canyon (“A hole. A very, very large hole.”) then there are just some people who will never be happy no matter what you do, and you shouldn’t beat yourself up. I love that. Warning, though: your travel bucket list will explode.

Asking. Don’t you hate it when people hashtag their own social media posts “couplegoals”? It’s one of my pet peeves. Please don’t do this. Also, what are you reading?

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Pony-Watching on Assateague Island

Planning our weekend trip to Chincoteague, I spent an hour or so tooling around on TripAdvisor, looking for activities to do that would take us out of the campground. I knew that we would want to get in a good few hours at the Assateague Island National Seashore beach, and beyond that I wasn’t really sure but I was hoping to see the famous wild ponies. (Which are actually ponies – not horses.) So Saltwater Pony Tours, with it’s 750+ rave reviews on TripAdvisor, caught my attention right away.

Saltwater Pony Tours is just one of several pony-viewing boat tour companies operating out of Chincoteague, but was by far the highest rated. As a concession to COVID-19, they’ve implemented a new policy – at least temporarily – of one family/group (plus the guide) per boat, meaning you automatically get a private tour for your family. Between that policy, the reasonable price, and the piles of outstanding reviews, I was sold. Luckily, there were several available time slots, and I booked us in for a two hour tour starting at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. We rolled into Chincoteague around lunchtime, grabbed some snacks at a waterfront restaurant, got the kids ice cream, and then headed to the marina. Our guide/captain, Casey, met us at the dock and escorted us onto the boat – a large, beautiful pontoon that we had all to ourselves. Steaming out of the harbor, Casey oriented us to the geography of the islands and pointed out wildlife, including pelicans diving for their happy hour.

Our attitude whenever we are out for a wildlife-viewing adventure is: nature gonna nature. We know wildlife is wild (that’s the appeal, right?) and that there’s no guarantee of any sightings. Worst case scenario, we spend two hours on a boat on a beautiful day. Can’t really beat that, even if we don’t see any animals.

As luck would have it, though, within a few minutes of pushing off the dock, Captain Casey got a radio call – ponies! One of his colleagues from the tour company was reporting that there was a group congregating in an area called Black Duck Gut, which is pretty much inaccessible (thanks to tides, wind, and shifting sands) unless you really know what you’re doing. Fortunately for us, we seemed to have the best and most skillful navigator in the islands driving our boat.

Casey expertly steered us through the channels and within minutes – there they were, the famous wild ponies of Chincoteague (actually Assateague)!

My small horse fangirl was entranced. She has read Misty of Chincoteague (I haven’t – must correct that) and she and Captain Casey spent the ride over discussing the book (he’s a teacher in his regular, non-summer life) – at least until we got to the ponies, and then she just stared starry-eyed.

In fairness, though, we were all doing that.

Thanks to Casey’s expert navigation, we were able to get up close to the ponies – within 50 yards! – and bob around watching them for over an hour from the boat. (He explained that they consider the boats as just “part of nature” but if they were ever approached on foot, it would be a different story.) Between the excellent viewing spot and my sick zoom lens, I was in wildlife photography heaven.

The highlight was seeing all the adorable foals – especially this wee one, who Casey told us was only four or five days old!

We actually got to see it nursing! Totally unforgettable.

After the baby had been nursing for awhile, Casey predicted: “He’s gonna lay down in a milk coma soon.” Sure enough…

Down he flopped.

Casey explained that ponies and horses only lay down when they are feeling really comfortable and safe. Our pontoon (and one other that made it into the channel) clearly was not bothering them at all.

The new baby was adorable, but he or she wasn’t the only foal in the group. This one was born in the spring sometime.

And still enough of a baby to need Mama’s milk.

We watched the ponies graze on the short salt grass for over an hour, completely transfixed, and then reluctantly turned away and headed back to civilization.

On the way back to the dock, Casey showed us the spot where the famous annual pony swim takes place, and regaled us with an insider’s view of the action. Then – because over an hour of close-up pony watching in Black Duck Gut wasn’t enough and we had more treats in store – we spotted another band of ponies on the other side of the island.

Casey explained that the ponies tend to congregate in bands of mostly females with one dominant male. The group we had been watching on the other side of the island was led by a male named Riptide, who had been king of the islands for years. This band was following a much younger – three years old – male named Norm. Riptide would never let Norm near his ladies, so Norm has to make his own destiny.

Seems like Norm is doing just fine.

It was an absolutely magical two hours, and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience! Casey’s knowledge of the waters around the islands and the ponies themselves made for the perfect pony-viewing tour. We felt incredibly lucky to have gotten to see these beautiful creatures wild and free in their natural habitat.

After the pony tour, we were all walking on air – but Assateague wasn’t done with us yet! The next day, driving back to camp from the beach, we got lucky enough to see ponies for a third time – grazing on salt grass right by the side of the main road! Steve pulled over and I darted out with my big camera.

Hey, look, it’s our old buddy Riptide! (He’s the brown pony with the blond mane – an unusual combination, making him easy to spot.) Riptide and his ladies were accompanied by a gaggle of cattle egrets.

Totally amazing to see this majesty right off the side of the road!

Throughout the pony tour, I kept using the word “magical” – which is what this experience was. Seeing the famous ponies up close was definitely one of the wildlife-viewing highlights of my life. We were very conscious of how lucky we were to be sharing space with them. I hope we return to Chincoteague and Assateague and see the ponies again someday (soon), and I hope that this experience stays with Peanut and Nugget forever.

Have you ever been to Assateague?

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Instead of Reading

It’s summer, and I sometimes feel like the only bookish person for whom “summer reading season” isn’t really a thing. (If this is you, too, please tell me so I feel less alone!) I will happily read steadily through the winter and spring, and generally the fall too – but when summer comes my reading slows way down. Not for me the hours of paging through a book at the beach; before kids, I preferred to spend every second I could soaking up ocean views, and these days I’m usually knee deep in water making sure no one gets drilled too hard during wave-jumping activities, or squatting in the sand making drip castles. I still make my way through books, slowly and steadily, but more than any other part of the year, summer is the season I do things instead of reading.

Instead of long afternoons of lounging with a book and a cup of tea, weekend afternoons are spent on the river and the lakes, with a paddle in hand instead of a paperback.

And I always pick up steam on my running, as I start thinking about fall race season. October is the biggest race month of the year in D.C., with the Marine Corps Marathon weekend (I’ve run the 10K a few times, but the full 26.2 is on my bucket list – someday). So instead of a slow, leisurely morning with my coffee and latest read, most summer mornings find me out pounding the pavement in the neighborhood or on the bike path – and frequently dealing with digestive pyrotechnics, darn my weak stomach. As for the evenings, well, there are all those Garmin stats to comb through from earlier in the day.

This is new for 2021, but biking is back on the agenda! Another morning/afternoon weekend activity drawing time from books, and on Monday I did my first group ride (with, I hope, more to come).

Kid sports have started taking up time, too. Tee-ball wasn’t too demanding, but we’re into the season of baseball and soccer camps, and fall will bring Nugget’s first season of house soccer and swim lessons for both of the kids – so summer is about getting ready for all that. This is all about to take over my life in a big way – I can see it coming.

Honestly, I don’t worry about it. There was a time, a few years ago, when I would stress over my reading speed and book totals taking a nosedive for several months out of the year, but not anymore. Instead, I just soak up the summer sunshine, ocean views and salt air, and easygoing river afternoons. Fall will come before I know it, bringing dark evenings and yellow pencils, and books will be there. In the meantime, you can find me by the water.

Do you have a season when your reading always slows down?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 12, 2021)

Gooooooood Monday morning to you, friends, and happy new week! I’m exhausted, but in a nice way; it was one of those busy weekends that I love so much. In fact, when I sat down to write this post I had to think for a minute in order to remember all the way back to Saturday morning – we’ve been all over the place.

Anyway! On Saturday morning I was up early to squeeze in a couple of miles in my running shoes before the day really got started. I’m in the middle of a few challenges that have me running a lot, and I love it. (I’ve read that the more you run, the more you want to run, and the less you run, the less you want to run – and I definitely think that’s true. I’m on a streak of running 5+ days per week, which is definitely too much, but I am enjoying it so much that I don’t want to stop.) I got home with just enough time to shower and throw on real clothes, and then Peanut and I headed out to a play date with her BFF, S. S and her family recently (well, not that recently – a year ago, so “pandemic recently”) moved into an adorable house in Arlington, and we hadn’t seen it yet, so Saturday was the day. We spent several hours there – the girls rushed off to play Barbies and watch “Gamer Girl,” while S’s mom – my pal Rachel – led me on a tour of the house (while I gasped at everything; it is an absolutely beautiful house!), after which we caught up over La Croix and broccoli quiche. Peanut is definitely old enough that I could just drop her off, but I never will. I think Rachel and I may have had more fun than the girls, which is saying something. Anyway – we reluctantly tore ourselves away mid-afternoon and met back up with our boys for kayaking. Nugget is into racing right now, which I hate. He spends the whole time yelling at me to paddle faster.

Sunday was supposed to be “productivity day.” The weather forecast wasn’t as good as it has been recently, and the house is trashed, so we decided that we were going to spend the day cleaning up all of the camping gear from last weekend, giving the house a major overhaul, building my new desk – all that good grown-up stuff. To get my steps in, I snuck out for four miles on the local bike path first thing in the morning, and came back ready to work. Unfortunately (for my productivity agenda) Nugget was at the door when I got home, whining to be taken on a bike ride. I know I shouldn’t respond to whining, but, honestly, biking sounded more fun than building an IKEA desk. So… I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Six miles on our new favorite trail, followed by climbing on a W&OD railroad caboose because why not? I did put in a few hours of work around the house when we got back – got the laundry folded and some of the camping gear cleaned up and stowed, so that’s better than nothing, right?

Reading. With two weeks of reading to recap, you’d think I would have more to report, but – I don’t. More about this on Wednesday, but summer is my slowest reading season and you can tell. I finished up Landscape in Sunlight on July 5, and started James A. Michener’s Chesapeake the same day – while camping on Chincoteague; it felt appropriate. As with all Michener, it’s hella long, and I’ve had to set it aside to tend to some library deadlines. First up – Arsenic and Adobo, which is a fun mystery about a Filipino family who are suspected of murdering a food critic who’d recently written vicious reviews of their restaurant. I’m nearly done as of press time, and then I’ll turn to my other library checkout, Tokyo Ever After (both Arsenic and Tokyo are non-renewable and due back soon) and then I’ll have to decide whether to turn back to Chesapeake or read through some of my summer stack and save Chesapeake (on my kindle) for travel later in the season. I haven’t made up my mind yet, so if you have an opinion do share.

Watching. It’s been all sports, all the time around here – and mostly cycling, between nights with the Tour de France (I was on the edge of my seat watching Sepp Kuss in Andorra, holy hairpin turns Batman!) and highlights of the Giro d’Italia Donne on my phone during the day. (My all-time favorite cycling team, Team SD Worx, swept the podium! YESSSSSSS!) We did take a break from cycling to watch the end of England’s heartbreaking football loss. That was devastating. Thank goodness for Kuss in Andorra that same evening, or we would have gone to bed depressed.

Listening. I’ve been bouncing back and forth between podcasts (all my favorites – The Mom Hour, Tea or Books?, Shedunnit – have been in my ears this week during evening walks) and my summer music playlist, of which I am unreasonably proud. I’ve covered the true summer classics – Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic”, Simon & Garfunkel’s “America” – detoured to the ’80s with R.E.M. (“Gardening at Night”; “Letter Never Sent”) and Nena (“99 Luftballons”, obv), I have my high school summer fave Rusted Root represented (“Back to the Earth”), made sure to include that messed-up classic of early 2000s hilarity, “Stacy’s Mom”, and so much more. It’s a work of art, really.

Making. Well, not much cooking – I’ve made a lot of salads, does that count? – but I made a good amount of work product last week; things are getting busy, which I love! And I made progress on getting the house in order, but it’s still a long ways to go. My goal is to have it completely clean and organized before summer travel.

Moving. All the moving! According to Garmin, in the last seven days I have logged four runs, three walks, two bike rides, and one “other” activity (that would be Saturday’s kayak “race” on the Potomac). I feel like I ran more, but Garmin doesn’t lie. Also, apparently I make a smirking face when I run? Who knew.

Blogging. I teased this above, but on Wednesday I’ll have a post about summer reading – or not-reading, in my case. And on Friday, the promised Chincoteague pony photo dump! Check in with me then.

Loving. It really is a little soon to declare victory, but so far I am absolutely loving my new job. It’s getting busy, but it’s the kind of busy that I find really engaging – lots of problem-solving and helping people. A friend recently DMed me on Facebook (about something else) and congratulated me again on the new job, and I gushed to him: “I love it! I had no idea it was possible to be this happy!” and I said something similar to my manager during our weekly one-on-one videoconference. Her response, in addition to being delighted that I was so happy with my new role and with the company, was to note that when she tries to explain to lawyers in private practice what this job is like, no one really understands, because they are miserable and hating life but can’t imagine it any other way. But – “For the right person, who likes being busy, this is the best life ever.” I’m only about two months in, but I feel like I have a whole new lease on life. I’m sure there will be stressful moments, as there are with any job, but I can’t imagine ever going back to private practice or ever wanting to leave my current company, I am so blissfully happy – finally – and at peace.

Asking. What are you reading this week?

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Camping on Chincoteague

After more than a year of going basically nowhere, we were all stir-crazy and itching to get out of the house and do basically anything other than hike our local trails (as nice as they are). But I don’t really have the ability to take a weeklong vacation right now – having just started a new job – and there was almost nothing available in the way of beach houses anyway. After spending several hours scrolling Airbnb and VRBO unsuccessfully, I hit on the idea of a camping trip. Even the campgrounds were mostly booked, but I found a KOA with availability on Chincoteague Island, about three-and-a-half hours from D.C., and leapt on it. So in the late morning last Saturday, we shoved off for Chincoteague.

We rolled into Chincoteague around lunchtime and after a quick snack at a waterfront restaurant (crab legs for me – I had to share every other bite with Nugget) we hopped aboard a boat for a tour with Saltwater Pony Tours. It was a magical experience that deserves its own blog post (so that will be next Friday) but – spoiler alert above, we saw the famous ponies and spent more than an hour observing them up close. Totally incredible.

Still reeling from the incredible pony-watching experience, we made our way to the campground and staked out a spot for our tent. I’d booked us one of the “primitive” tent sites, which were already crowded by the time we got there – but we found a little nook near the marsh where no one else had set up. Steve suggested that people might have avoided it on the theory that it would be buggy but after a few layers of bug spray, the mosquitos weren’t too bothersome. And I pointed out that there was standing water all over the campground – there must have been a storm – so if they were avoiding this spot because of fear of bugs, the joke was on them because our site was the driest one I saw all weekend, and it had an amazing view.

The Assateague Island Light, right across the marshy creek!

Dinner the first night was shrimp boil foil packets, which Peanut helped me assemble – followed by s’mores, obviously. The Hershey bars I packed for the purpose had inexplicably melted and turned into liquid goo (how? nothing else melted?) but I rigged up a squirting system and it ended up being kind of amazing. Not that I will be melting all s’mores chocolate going forward.

Home sweet home – from left to right, Peanut’s sleeping bag, Steve’s, mine, Nugget’s. Notes on the sleeping arrangements: Nugget was obviously delighted to have Mommy next to him all night; Peanut brought five stuffed animals; Steve’s air mattress got punctured by a tack that stowed away in Peanut’s backpack (“YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE TACKS!” … “I DIDN’T KNOW, IT WAS STUCK TO MY BOXCAR CHILDREN BOOK!”).

On Sunday morning, after a mostly decent night’s sleep, considering the arrangements, we drank our coffee with a view of the Assateague Light – not too shabby. And then headed out for the one must-do activity of the day…

The beach! We were a ten minute drive from the Assateague Island National Seashore beach. (I had actually wanted to camp on Assateague, but turned my sights to Chincoteague when Assateague was – unsurprisingly – booked solid for the Fourth of July.) But it was a convenient drive and we sailed through the check-in thanks to our America the Beautiful pass (seriously, best purchase).

We were on the sand by 9:00 a.m., which was perfect timing. The beach wasn’t too crowded yet, we got a money parking spot, and it was fairly cool with a refreshing morning breeze. We didn’t plan to get there that early, but after drinking our coffee and having breakfast at the campsite, we figured we might as well go to the beach early since there was nothing else to do – it ended up being totally the right call. (By the time we left at around 1:30, the cars were parked along the road a mile back, and there was a massive line to get into the park.)

It was a gorgeous beach! I grew up going to Cape Hatteras every summer, so I have a deep affection for the National Seashore system as it is, and Assateague was every bit as beautiful as Hatteras.

Assateague National Seashore was a perfect place to spend the Fourth of July – I always want to be around water, but we usually do a lake day. The beach was a fun way to mix it up, and we all had a fabulous time. I showed the kids how to build drip castles (“That looks like poop!” ~Nugget), Steve took a nap in the beach chair, and we spent hours wading in the surf and jumping over the waves.

Perfect!

After we had thoroughly doused ourselves in ocean water, we meandered to a trail with a “pony overlook.” I did see the ponies again, but only through the viewfinder of my gigantic zoom lens, and I couldn’t get a good picture – plus there were armies of mosquitos that were intent on eating us alive, bug spray be damned. (They were near the road heading out of the park, so I got some good pictures on the way out – stay tuned next week.) So we didn’t stay long and headed for the opposite of the National Seashore…

Maui Jack’s Waterpark. Had to happen! It was right at the entrance to the KOA campground, so naturally the kids noticed it immediately. Nugget had a fabulous time – he was too short for the really big waterslides, but he bounced back from that disappointment and did the lazy river three times, got dumped on by the gigantic bucket in the little ones’ area, and hit the smaller waterslides dozens of times. Peanut spent the entire time pouting on a lounge chair; we couldn’t figure out what her problem was. Can’t win ’em all.

Fourth of July dinner at the campsite – campfire nachos for the whole family (delicious, but would have been better if a third of the jar of salsa hadn’t ended up in Nugget’s tummy before I got the chance to put it in the nachos) and hot dogs for the kids, cooked over the fire with their telescoping toasting forks that I bought because I’m a soft touch. And then we crashed pretty much as soon as the sun set, and continued our grand family tradition of somehow missing the fireworks.

On Monday morning, we planned to hike before heading out of town. The idea was to hit the Lighthouse Trail and then the Wildlife Loop on Assateague. Lighthouse Trail first – it was a short hop through the woods to the Assateague Island Light.

The woods were swarming with mosquitos – you could tell they were bad because they were even biting me (and my bitter blood is usually disgusting to insects, it’s a gift). So we didn’t stay long – just long enough for me to snap a couple of pictures, declare “Another lighthouse for Mommy’s collection!” and flee back to the car. No one wanted to do the Wildlife Loop after being eaten alive on the Lighthouse Trail, so we packed it in and headed to the Chincoteague Diner for breakfast, and then home to warm showers.

It was the best kind of weekend, though! Entirely outdoors, mostly unplugged, with some beach and some wildlife and some hiking, and we all ended up exhausted and filthy at the end. Can’t complain about any of that!

How was your Fourth of July?

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Books, a Beastly Complication

Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, uncle-in-law to Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire

I have got to page 652 in C and there are only 741, what shall I do when it’s finished, I really never will read any more beastly books they are only an extra complication to one’s pathetic life.

~ Deborah Cavendish, later the Duchess of Devonshire, in a 1944 letter to her sister Nancy Mitford.

Oh Debo. Girl. Don’t I know it? Books – they are an absolutely beastly complication to one’s pathetic life, and yet… we can’t stop reading them. Can we.

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Reading Round-Up: June 2021

Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby. I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book. Here are my reads for June, 2021.

A Thousand Ships, by Natalie Haynes – I absolutely loved this retelling of The Iliad and The Odyssey from the perspective of all the women who hover in the background. Not just Penelope (who did receive her own starring role in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, of course – which I also loved), but also Briseis, Chryseis, Cassandra, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia, Hecabe, Andromache, Penthesileia – and more. It was beautifully written, engaging, tragic and totally captivating.

The Kitchen Front, by Jennifer Ryan – Having read and enjoyed The Chilbury Ladies Choir when it first came out, I figured I’d like another World War II home front competition novel from the same author – and I did. The Kitchen Front follows four women vying for a spot as co-host on a BBC radio show about cooking, through the vehicle of a food competition. It was a sweet, lovely story; I found myself rooting for all four of the women, and I was sad when it ended.

Slightly Foxed No. 9: Tusker’s Last Stand, ed. Gail Pirkis and Hazel Wood – Continuing my slow journey through the back issues of Slightly Foxed. The highlight was an article about Gwen Raverat’s wood engravings, which I have loved for years.

Ready Player Two (Ready Player One #2), by Ernest Cline – I enjoyed the follow-up to Cline’s Ready Player One, but wasn’t as blown away by it as by the first. Wade Watts (a.k.a. Sir Parzival) has officially taken the reins of the Oasis after winning founder James Halliday’s contest, but life isn’t as great as he thought it would be. Then another mysterious contest begins, and a new rival rises, even more dangerous than the nefarious Sixers. The pop culture, eighties, and nerd references still abound, but since it’s basically the same plot as its predecessor, it didn’t feel as fresh and creative. That said, if there is ever a Ready Player Three, you know I’ll read it.

The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennet – I’ve been waiting months for this on the library holds list, and I finally got my hands on a copy! Desiree and Stella Vignes are twin sisters growing up in the Jim Crow South. Although they are both Black, they live in a town that prizes light skin – until one day, they do the unthinkable and, shoulder to shoulder, walk out of town. Years later, Desiree returns, escaping a toxic marriage, with a very dark-skinned daughter in tow; the town isn’t sure what to make of this deveclopment. Meanwhile, Stella is halfway across the country, passing for white, and her family has no idea where she is – until Stella’s and Desiree’s daughters meet, threatening to upend the entire fictional basis of Stella’s life. So – this was powerful, gorgeously written, and wildly compelling. I loved it.

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, by Katherine May – Seems like an odd choice for sweltering June in the mid-Atlantic, but again: library timing dictated. May writes with depth and sensitivity about winter as a time in one’s life – when difficulties arise, as they periodically do – and, well, as the subtitle says, “the power of rest and retreat.” May’s musings take her to the far Arctic north and to her own local beach. We have all had winters – times when nothing seems to go right, and the only thing to do is hunker down. I’m not in one at the moment, thankfully, but when my turn comes again I will take to heart May’s advice to be gentle with myself.

British Summer Time Begins: The School Summer Holidays 1930-1980, by Ysenda Maxtone Graham – I just love Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s charming social histories. After reading Mr Tibbets’s Catholic School and Terms and Conditions, both from Slightly Foxed, I knew I wanted a copy of British Summer Time Begins, and it was just as informative and charming as Graham’s other work. She skillfully melds together reminiscences of hundreds of Britons across the social spectrum, about everything from rolling in cousin gangs to freezing on Scottish fishing trips between 1930 and 1980. I enjoyed it immensely.

Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro – A new Kazuo Ishiguro novel is always an event. Klara and the Sun, his latest, follows an exceptionally observant Artificial Friend (a.k.a. lifelike robot) as she is absorbed into a family and concocts a plan to save the life of the ill daughter of the house. It had a very Never Let Me Go vibe, which had me worried, but (spoiler) it does end slightly better than that downer. Klara was sweet and poignant and quite, quite weird.

June was a library heavy month for me! It just happened that a bunch of holds hit at once – it’s been over a year since I’ve had that situation, goodness – and other than the back issue of Slightly Foxed and British Summer Time Begins, it was all library for me. Brit Bennet is always going to be a highlight, and I’m glad I finally got to Wintering, after so many friends have raved about it. That said, I am looking forward to getting back to my own shelves in July.

What did you read in June?