Virginia, Assateague Island, and Beach Camping

Today's my second day of orientation so I'll be spending a decent chunk of my day doing training and listening to mini lectures. I have some morning sessions planned on Friday, but after that Spencer and I are headed to Montreal for the long weekend (very patriotic, I know). With how crazy my schedule can be, I'm sure we won't always have the luxury of taking a trip to celebrate our anniversary, but that makes me treasure these first few even more! 

To continue with pictures from our road trip, these ones were taken all over Virginia and even in Maryland. Ever since I was a little girl I've been OBSESSED with horses. So this trip has been a long time coming, and well worth the wait! We knew we wanted to visit Assateague Island ever since I stumbled upon these incredible photographs earlier this year. Luray Caverns was a later add on, and Chincoteague Island and our drive through the Shenandoah Mountains were completely spontaneous. 

First stop after Baltimore was Luray Caverns. Luray Caverns is one of the most popular caves to visit in the the U.S. It's absolutely enormous and we spent about an hour walking through the cave as part of a tour. It's definitely worth a visit just to see all the beautiful rock formations and marvel at the sheer size of the caverns. 

After our tour we decided to take the road through the Shenandoah Mountains on our way to Assateague. We had perfect weather to drive along with the windows down and just enjoy the views. We stayed in Ocean City that night before heading to Assateague Island to set up our campsite. 

As an aside, this was our first time camping on the beach. Spencer grew up camping, but I'm new to the whole camping life. The closest I got to camping while growing up was spending the night in a tent in our backyard with a mini TV hooked up via extension cord so my friends and I could watch scary movies. The definition of roughing it, I know. Oh, and it inevitably would end up with us all fleeing to the house at the slightest twig snap around two in the morning. I like to think I've gained some courage since then.

This camping trip definitely didn't involve a TV and our campsite had a lot more of a minimalist vibe (apparently showers doesn't always imply heated water...). The sky was clear and the stars beautiful though when we headed to bed. Around two in the morning I woke up to find that the wind had picked up considerably and for the life of me I couldn't fall back asleep, so after waking up Spencer, we walked to the car to catch a few more hours of sleep before the sunrise. I fell asleep almost instantly and the next thing I remember is waking up at 5 in the morning and opening my eyes to see four absolutely gorgeous wild ponies right next to my car. Talk about going from zero to a hundred real quick... I fumbled around for my camera and managed to capture some photos to document something that I can only describe as magical. The morning light was soft at first, slowly gaining warmth and color as I followed the ponies across the dunes. Those incredible moments made the restless night of sleep totally worth it.