Well, these two don’t act very wild. Two  pony-sized horses greet us as we pull into the campground.  They are hanging around the host site like a couple of lost puppies.

It is a bit chilly but we stroll out the marsh trail and make a drive around to scope out the other trails. That’s it for now…we are hoping the rain stops soon and the temperature gets a bit more hospitable.

This place definitely falls into the category of an odd and unusual stop. Glass cases house thousands of hand carved birds.  Early decoys are made of reed or canvas evolved into rough hewn wood and cork painted to resemble the hunted species.  Shapes were adjusted to optimize lifelike floating in calm or choppy water and to simplify deploying and retrieving the decoys.  Carvers created decorative pieces too and there are spectacular specimens in this collection.  The most ornate of the carvings include hand carved individual feathers.  You’d swear these pieces were the actual living creature.

The museum sponsors an annual Wildfowl Carving Competition that still includes a category for actual decoys. They are judged on appearance plus actually floated to prove decoy viability and effectiveness.  Pretty cool.  Artists submit miniatures, species pairs, and stylized wildlife shapes.  Past winners are on display…I’d put any of them in my house.

If you are in the area, Salisbury MD, check it out.

A stroll on a wind swept beach, wild Chincoteague ponies, the view from high atop Assateague Lighthouse, and Island Creamery ice cream; what a great way to spend a Tuesday.

As you might guess by the name, the heart of this small, short lived town was an iron furnace that operated here in the Maryland swamps for just 22 years, 1828 – 1850.   They processed what they referred to as bog ore.  Who knew there are cypress swamps in Maryland?  Not I.

Workers homes were modest but cozy. The blacksmith shop still smells of sulfur laden coal.  A one room school houses a great collection of period items: a slate and slate pencil, the sharpener for those slate pencils, lunch pails, the leather paddle, a dunce cap, rubber stamps used to make “worksheets” of the time, desks sized from the youngest/smallest the mature 6^th grader.  Many essential trades were show-cased in a woodworking shop, the weaving room, a broom makers shop, and the spinning house.  Add a church and garden and I can really imagine what life might have been like those long years ago.  We are missing one big component, the furnace smoke relentlessly blanketing all….I’m glad we are missing that!

Off the pier at Kiptopeke State Park is a jagged, eerie looking breakwater, the decaying hulls of 9 concrete ships that were sunk in the shallows in 1948.  We got a mini history lesson.  The WWII war effort redirected steel supplies, leaving merchant ship builders to seek alternative materials.  Their solution?  Concrete.  24 ships were launched to move cargo and serve as training ships.  After just 4 short years they found their second life as breakwaters and artificial reefs.  That’s re-purposing on a grand scale.

National and State Fish and Wildlife, State parks, and nature conservancies manage nearly all of the Virginia barrier islands and large swathes of the mainland.  Beautiful, wild lands are held in trust as refuges and to serve the natural role as storm buffers.  It wasn’t always that way.

In the NWR upland woodlands and vast coastal prairie have enveloped huge bunkers that once housed the enormous guns of US shoreline defense.  Off-shore stand three “fire towers”.  No, not fire watch tours.  Fire towers, as in three, two, one “FIRE” towers where lookouts stood watch for foreign threats.

It is a better place now as waders feed along the shore and osprey soar above.

We checked out some classic tourist spots.

The Armadillo, more appropriately One World Trade Center Transportation Hub; it is the rebuilt subway station below the new world trade center tower. It is beautiful and bright.  It has an amazing roof design with a long opening that is perfectly aligned with the movement of the sun throughout the day on the anniversary of 9/11.  What a lovely tribute.

Pure escape – a ride on the Central Park Carousel. We strolled much of the park during our stay and thoroughly enjoyed the outdoor time.

The Met. It was an interesting afternoon.  We started out in the Ancient Egyptian art and artifact collection.  There are some magnificent pieces…whenever I see antiquities like this I have to think; who do these really belong to?  Next we explored the American Wing: furniture from the highly ornate to shaker, glass works, china, and more.

Restaurants: Cajun from Sugar Freak in Astoria, Middle Eastern/Iranian from Moustache Pitza, Italian from Gina’s, New York Pizza from Famiglia, Papaya King onion rings and fried pickles, Gyros from the shop next to Orphium Theatre (we ate here 20 years ago with the kids when we came to see Stomp), and Bagels and Brew perfect bagels.

Part of the fabric of New York life it seems.  There were pipe bombs in two neighborhoods and thoughts flew to terrorism.  Presidential candidates were in and out of town along with lots of foreign dignitaries as the United Nations was in session.  Add that all up and there was a pretty high law enforcement presence around town and at the airport.  Just another day in the city I guess.  We paid attention to our surroundings but never felt unsafe.