Ocean City: Rehoboth and Bethany Beaches

Sam by the dolphin at Rehoboth Beach, DE
Very nice Main Street area!  Lots of really nice shops and not crowded at all.  In general, it was much less commercialized than Ocean City.  

Lunch on the beach
What a face!

Keeping an eye out for hungry seagulls

Rehoboth Beach

Seagulls lurking...

Isaiah chasing them away :)

Eating their candy necklaces from Candy Kitchen.  I should have gotten a shot of the chocolate chip and peanut butter chip covered chocolate covered pretzels Dan and I ate.  Yes you read that right. :)

Bethany Beach was also very nice.  I can see how some people would prefer them to the relative craziness of Ocean City.  But Ocean City is nice, too, because anything you could want is within a few blocks.

All the boys really wanted to do, of course, it swim in the indoor pool.  So they swam until dinner, after which Dan (aka the energizer bunny) got in a 5 mile run while the boys and I watched a movie.

Only two more days of vacation! :O

Ocean City: Assateague Island

Assateague Island (North end, in MD)
Dan's family vacationed in this area when he was younger, and I 've heard so many stories of the "poopin ponies" that I was so excited to see them for myself.  It really is amazing, how they roam free all over the island.  

When we paid to enter the wildlife refuge, we were handed brochures warning to stay a bus length away from the ponies and that they can be aggressive and even bite.  We had actually just gotten in the car after about a 1/4 mile trail walk, when we jumped back out to see these ponies approaching.  As soon as I took this picture, the dark brown one starting coming right at the boys!  So I shooed them into the car.  The ponies are fascinating and slightly frightening at the same time.  

On the beach

I'm going to squeeze you!

I'm going to squeeze you harder!

Ponies on the beach
It's one thing to see them wandering near the road, but to see them on the beach, right near the water, was so amazing.  

The brown and white one near the water was a foal.  

We found a heart on the beach and had to get our picture by it :)

We stopped for lunch on the hour-long drive from the north end of the island to the south end.  We realized while waiting for our food that this little diner in Berlin, MD was apparently used in the movie Runaway Bride.  Now I'm going to have to watch the movie again!  

View of the Assateague Lighthouse (south end of the island in VA)  from the bottom

Boys by the Lighthouse

Lots of wetlands everywhere you look

Ocean City: Day at the Beach

Walking over to the beach.  It was actually hot today!  In the 80s!  

They played in the sand for hours...

Little boy footprint

The boys went in and out of the water all afternoon

Ocean City 2012!!

Shoes

Forget sandcastles... They made a sand city :)

Sam digging the moat

Ocean City: Playground and Getting Wet

Playing at the park across the street from our condo

Hanging from the trees at the park 

We were "just going to stick our feet in for a minute."  

Swimming with Dad :)

We've arrived!

at Ocean City, MD!  Not our typical get-away-in-the-mountains kind of vacation.  :)  But we're looking forward to great weather, lots of geocaching, and possibly days at Rehoboth Beach and Assateague Island.  We had a great trip here with no car trouble!! Check back for photos and other updates throughout the week.