Chincoteague Island

Last Friday (Oct 7) my wife and me took a car and drove towards the East coast. The plan was to spend the night and next half day on Chincoteague island, Virginia. Then drive North to Ocean City, Maryland, where Route 528 runs into Delaware.

To get a break from city life, we found that Chincoteague island would be the ideal travel destination. Seeing the ocean, miles of sand beaches and - for my wife the biggest reason - some of the 300 wild ponies living on the neighboring Assateague Island. Our drive started as usual much later than planned and we hit the rush hour at Annapolis. Stop and go traffic lasted about 50 minutes during which we managed to "drive" 3 miles closer to our destination. Then we drove through the night and arrived at the Inn around 9pm. After checking we searched a seafood restaurant. Unfortunately all kitchens closed at 9pm and we ended up in a very typical American diner with the menu card listing mostly deep-fried dishes, macaroni & cheese and spaghetti&meatballs. We took the left overs "to-go" and decided to have seafood on Saturday night.

Breakfast next morning meant getting vouchers for the very same American diner, where a everything-deep-fried buffet was available. Mary Jo, our waitress, was really nice and was sorry for not having any low-fat milk to offer. She came up with chocolate milk which had no fat. I tasted some and quickly learned that no fat does in fact not mean no sugar. Almost choked on the first sip, which was also the last one :) Looking really hard, we found some fruits to finish breakfast. It was a no-brainer to skip lunch besides some bananas and Friday's left-overs.

The pony-cruise we booked started at 10.30 and we hurried to the dock. It was a nice two hours on a small boat with 30 other pony-watchers. The nature and animals were a great experience and we forgot all about life at campus near DC. Back on safe land, we took the car and drove to Assateague island which was open for traffic during autumn. The island is very beautiful, I'll put the panorama picture below, so you get an idea. Where the sand beach began, lots of cars were parked. Many people to the opportunity to be lazy at the beach with perfect summer weather. Sun, no clouds, little wind and about 28C.

It was not easy to leave the island as all seemed so perfect. But we had to be back home at night, so we continued our trip to Ocean City. It was quite a disappointment to see that OC wasn't as pretty as we hoped. The buildings were just put in any way and resembled no real entity. Not sure how to explain it. There was simply no overall design picture behind it. Very commercially focused. Almost a copy of Atlantic City. The boardwalk in OC was nice and we strolled around and watched the impressive waves hitting the shore. In Northern Finland I'm used to 5-8 cm waves on a windy day, so the one meter waves here were gigantic :)

The coastal highway was our next mission, trying to find a good spot for the sunset. The highway is built on a few hundred meter wide sand strip, the Atlantic ocean on the East and a bay on the West. To get there we had to leave Ocean City which was difficult due to the annual Endless Summer Cruisin', held on that weekend. All kind of hot-rod cars and oldtimers were out jamming the streets. Hundreds of spectators filled up the sidewalks with their chairs.

Finally we reached the highway and found a quiet beach were we watched the colorful sky right after sunset. In hindsight we should have visited Ocean City first or not at all. After seeing the nature and animals it didn't feel right to be in a busy city. A seafood dinner in Bethany Beach, Delaware (worth a visit in daytime) rounded up the day plus the three hour drive home to College Park.

View towards Assateague Island

Wild ponies on Assateague Island

Assateague Island

Beach on Assateague Island

Beach on Assateague Island

Endless Summer Cruisin', Ocean City

Sunset in Delaware

Safety overdose

There was no sign of Europe while I tried to look really hard towards East, strolling at the white sand beach of Atlantic City. That was about the only thing I didn't see or hear during my 1 day + 2 night stay. The taxi driver who took me to the hotel was from Czechoslovakia and came to the US some 40 years ago. I asked him in which country is home town in Europe is located, but he refused to chose between Slovakia and Czech Republic. Nice fellow though.

Staying in the Taj Mahal Hotel and seeing the first US casino was quite an experience. People were sitting (some probably still do) for hours and hours at the thousands slot machines, blackjack and poker tables trying to beat the games. It was interesting to see that all kind of persons were there, any legal age, of any origin, any size and some had made changes to their voices and looks.

The boardwalk is a pedestrian area next to the sand beach. Each morning the beach was nearly empty and it was really nice to walk and stare at the waves letting my mind wander. The vast ocean always fascinated me, it's those moments when I feel very little and wonder how great this planet is with so many beautiful places.
With my mind back at the beach I noticed a couple with a metal detector. While some tried to make a fortune in the gaming area, these two were looking for coins and other treasures at the beach. They were kind enough to let me take a picture.

At the boardwalk itself were dozens of shops selling any tourist item you can imagine, even extra large iguanas which seemed quite unhappy in their little glass terrarium. It took me a while to get used to the having beautiful beach and ocean on one side and the huge casino towers on the other. For those interested in beach life and a quiet dinner in a restaurant patio with the family, Atlantic City might not be the right place.

I read beforehand that being outside alone when it's dark may not be the best idea. Call me a chicken, but I felt quite happy to stay inside. Especially after overhearing some conversion in the hotel next morning. A person was being followed by four guys and got eventually robbed. This might be just a random case but still..

As for my time there, I had a good time and the hotel room was fine. Well, besides some misfortune in the last night when trying to go to sleep. The room had a safety latch, which could be locked only from inside. Using my key card the room door unlocked, but I couldn't open the door. The safety latch prevented that. So I went down to the lobby to ask the guard for help. She couldn't help laughing at me, thanks a bunch! A supervisor came up to my room and he pushed the door open, using just a bit more power than I did. He didn't laugh - at least not - in my presence, thanks mate! Oh, and thank YOU very much as well... ;-)

Atlantic City, boardwalk

Atlantic City, Taj Mahal

Easy money?

Atlantic ocean

Towards New Jersey

I'm just stting in the Greyhound bus from Silver Springs to Atlantic City, three more hours to go. Having eaten a banana, and a cereal bar, I wanted to continue reading 'The Abbey' on my kindle. This bus has wi-fi, so I try it out if its possible to update my blog.

This is my first trip without my wife. It feels strange to leave her back in College Park, but it is only a two day trip and she has been in AC before. Curious to see the sand beach of the Atlantic ocean coast looking towards Europe and - of course - also to experience a bit the crazyness with all the casinos around.

Now I'll try to publish this post. Wish me luck!

Go Terps!

Saturday afternoon we went with our group to see a football match. Maryland Terrapins played Towson. The Terps, as they are called, are the team of the University of Maryland (UMD) here in College Park. Mascot of UMD is a turtle, the diamondback terrapin, living the Chesapeake Bay region nearby.

This was my first football match, so I put on my red UMD hoodie. The Byrd Stadium on campus has a capacity for 54,000 and was perhaps 60-70% filled. Coming from Europe, I expected a college/university league game and stadium to be much smaller. But it's big here. Despite the weather (50F/12C and rainy) the atmosphere was really good and both teams fans and brass orchestras gave their best to support their own team. During half-time they stepped onto the field and played some marches and formed the border of the USA. Only Florida came out short, in my opinion.. :)

During the first quarter I had no idea why the spectators would cheer or be in agony. So I 'interviewed' one of our hosts regarding the rules, as football (American..) was a complete mystery for me. It took a while to get the hang of it, but eventually I understood more and followed the spectacle with interest.

To test and ensure my new-found knowledge, I really should see another game during this autumn. However, I try to see also at least one hockey, baseball and basketball match.

Regarding the turtle mascot, I asked why the giant blown-up turtle looks so mad. The answer was, that it has to look scary, it's just a turtle.

Fear the turtle!

Byrd Stadium, view from entrance

UMD orchestras

Byrd Stadium, view from our seats

Half-time, band members lining up as map of USA

Fear the turtle!

Some action!

Georgetown

After hearing so much about Georgetown, DC, my wife and I went finally there to check it out. Using the metros green and orange line we managed to get to Foggy Bottom. From there we took a bus to Georgetown and got off at corner Wisconsin/R-Street. 

We planned to take a suggested walk all around Georgetown, but we ended up seeing only Wisconsin Ave and M Street. There were so many nice looking building, little shops and restaurants. I just couldn’t put my camera down.

The cars here appeared bigger, shinier and more expensive compared to what we saw in College Park. It seems upper-class DC residents call Georgetown their home.

Getting closer to the corner to M Street, my wife started to be very hungry. Finding a nice but noisy local restaurant called serendipity, we lined up outside for a table to two.

After finishing our well-deserved dinner, we left Georgetown (we’ll be back!) and made our way towards Dupont Circle. There, a brass band was playing some jazzy music. We stuck around a while before returning home.

Wisconsin Ave, Georgetown, DC

Wisconsin Ave, Georgetown, DC

Wisconsin Ave, Georgetown, DC

Wisconsin Ave, Georgetown, DC

Less shoe, more you :)

Corner Wisconsin Ave & M Street, Georgetown, DC

 

Rude awakening for the "au-pair"

Yesterday the plans for this day seemed quite relaxed. While my wife would spend the day visiting a local high school, I'd take care of some au-pair duties. Dishes, grocery shopping and IT-support. So I spent half the night at our laptop trying to figure out to create the perfect panorama picture combining several pictures. As it sometimes happens, when investing a lot of time into a subject, expectations go up and mediocre results are not satisfying anymore. At 3am I finally gave up and used the program I tried out second..... A wonderful eight hours of well-deserved sleep began...

...until I heard a long beep and a voice:
"May I have your attention please. An emergency has been reported in the building. While this report is being verified, please leave the building using the exit stairway. Do not use the elevators. BEEP. May I have..."

Quite annoyed I checked the time, 8.20am. Staying inside and having possibly a fire in the house would make me even more unhappy. So I got dressed, got up and went downstairs to go outside. There were a few people, including our room-mates from India. Some electrical wire installation went wrong in the building; a few wires were mixed up. Back in the apartment, all sleep was gone and I stayed up, having breakfast and starting my au-pair day.

Dinner was prepared by our Indian room-mates with adjusted levels of chili for us, yummy!

For today nothing else happened besides 10-15 more so-called fire-alarms, version 1.2. I had one addition from the guy in the reception: "Please disregard all fire alarms". Hopefully they don't work in night shifts.

As for last couple of days, we stayed mostly in College Park, once shopping to the outlet center in Hagerstown. Our aparment building is called the Varsity. My wife gave me a tour on Sunday and in the evening we went for a walk on the Paint Branch Trail which led us to lake Artemesia. There, the evening sun was shining so nicely, that I decided to take several pictures for creating a panorama picture later...

the Varsity, College Park

Lobby inside

Gaming room

Cardio room

View from the cardio room

Lake Artemesia

In Hagerstown, not the outlet

Arrival + first visit to DC

Last Friday I arrived in College Park, Maryland, after a 21 hour trip. To pass through US customs was easier than I thought - apart from the 1 hour waiting line. A welcome announcement caught my interest. Through the loudspeakers one could hear "Welcome, US citizens, we welcome you back to your home country". So I was waiting for the welcoming of non-US citizens. And I was waiting and waiting. Finally after some 5 minutes I heard again "Welcome, US citizens...". No welcome for the aliens, it seems.
I considered to bring this up with the customs clerk, but remembered my friends telling me to keep the conversation at customs simple. Although I was tempted, I kept quiet.. :)

For the first day my plan was only to relax and recover. Due to the time difference I was actually awake before 7am. Afternoon plans changed accordingly and my wife and me decided to go and have a look to Washington, D.C. We went there via university bus and metro (green line). We got off at the Navy Memorial and strolled over the Plaza.

After that we sat in a Starbucks (corner Indiana/7th) and enjoyed the street life in D.C. with the view towards the National Mall. We were heading there after sharing a double-chocolate brownie. The National Book Festival was held at the National Mall, located between Capitol Hill and Washington Monument (the obelisk). The festival can be recognized from the white tents in the picture :)

To rest our mind from many books and state presentations, we went to the sculpture garden, next to the National Gallery of Art. Enjoying the weather and water fountains, we sat there for quite a while until a park (or garden..?) ranger blew the whistle to get everybody out by 5.30pm. Shopping and dinner rounded up a great first day.

Archives from Navy Memorial Plaza

Navy Memorial Plaza - bronze reliefs

Navy Memorial Plaza

View from Starbucks

View to Capitol Hill

Sculpture garden

Water fountains in sculpture garden