Beach #2

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In the morning, there was sunshine between thin lines of clouds. Hooray! We opened all the blinds and let the light in! It was cheerful and bright! We decided to walk to the Ranger Station and sign up for another night. It is promising to be a good day so we don't want to leave yet. There were two dry horses by the side of the road. A professional photographer was walking all around them and taking pictures. When we stopped to take a picture of the local lifeboat rescue station, two little girls on bicycles stopped to pet Daisy. We talked to their grandfather. He said that they had seen horses and deer and that the girls had been petting both! Yah! We told them there were two horses around the corner. They yelled with joy, jumped on their bikes, rode furiously, and zipped around the corner, jumping off and running up right behind the ponies to pet them! We were holding our breath. Nothing happened. We gaped. Maybe they are less wild than we thought. When we were almost at the Ranger Station, it started to rain! When we got there, we double-checked our information about the ponies. They have adapted, after three hundred years, to eating the marsh grass. It has a high salt content, so they have to drink a lot of water. They get bloated from the salt. Since their food is nutrient-poor marsh grass and saltmeadow hay, they don't grow very tall, but they are tough little guys. Instead of selling the foals each year to control the size of the herd, in Maryland, the mares have one foal and then are given a shot to prevent having any more. Vets give other shots and check the ponies' health three times a year. We asked about the dead whale and the Ranger said that they had hauled it off the beach. We left in the rain to walk on the beach back to our trailer. We strolled along the beach and Daisy raced around. Would we be strolling happily in the rain at home? We doubt it! The seagulls were all in a big group on the beach - not a good day for surfing, I guess. Back at the camper, we read while it continued to rain. After a while, we went for a drive. We didn't see any new horses, but we saw several deer. We watched some kiteboarders out on the bay for awhile. That looks like so much fun! You must have to be very strong to do it, though. We saw some Sika deer with radio collars. We decided to walk the marsh nature trail. It was very peaceful. We added two gulls to our bird list here.
After dinner, of course we walked on the beach again. The moon was out and there were only a few clouds. Oh, my gosh. The moon was at just the right angle to make the tops of the curling waves look like silver fire. Sometimes, the silver fire ran down the entire curl of the wave before it broke. A few waves caught the silver far out from the beach, but mostly, the wave closest to the beach was the awesome one. It was so magical and mesmerizing! This is what awestruck means! Oceans on fire, doused by the crashing waves spilling snow white curls upon them. Magic in the eve of the night. A special spectral display for young lovers on the beach. We were the lovers on the beach and we will never forget the glory. Unbelievable. I only wish we could have photographed it and shared with you. We went back out a couple of hours later and the magical silver fire was gone.
You can imagine what we were remembering as we fell asleep that night!

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Photos

Hello!
This shows the size of the ponies.

Family
The same mare and foal, only drier

Sika deer (elk)
In the middle of the campground!