~ down by the bay ~

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We have camped every month since February, 

(of course, I have neglected to post pictures)

and for July,

we made the long drive up to Virginia to 

First Landing State Park.

First Landing State Park is in Virginia Beach,

and sits at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

So this is the mouth of the bay, 

and most of the time the water is more like a lake than the ocean.

 ~ crooked horizons vs. using photoshop ~ 

In the photograph below, 

there are several interesting things to note.

One is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (very faint)

which is a spectacular drive, spanning 20 miles

with two tunnels that are each a mile long.

The ships in the picture are the reason for the tunnels:

the Hampton Roads area is a major port area.

To the right is large fish net, 

where pelicans line each post,

orienting themselves in the exact same way.

I once watched a kayaker paddle out there to successfully rescue a pelican in the nets!

I could say so much about this wonderful place.

First Landing State Park protects a rare ecosystem: the maritime forest.

Just a few hundred yards from the Bay is the freshwater cypress swamp,

where Spanish moss dangles from the bald cypress trees.

If I'm not mistaken, this micro-climate is considered to be sub-tropical,

hosting species normally found hundreds of miles to the south.

This is the perfect beach for young children.

Wide, gentle and uncrowded.

This park holds a special place in our hearts, 

as it was here we lived when Lela was born.

 

 ~ oh, this photograph makes me so happy!
this is uncropped, but my banner i did crop just a bit ~

I have approximately 3.2 gazillion pictures from our beach trip,

and from June's camping trip to Edisto Beach State Park.

I believe that I get caught up in deciding which pictures to share,

and end up not sharing anything

In February we made a pact to camp each month until it was too cold.

It doesn't feel right that I haven't shared our Camping Every Month Challenge,

so maybe I'll go back and chronicle them.  

I hope we can get back to the shore one.more.time before the Autumn arrives.

We may try to sneak in a September camping trip right after Labor Day,

and splash in the ocean once more.

(For August I imagine we'll be fleeing for the cooler mountains!)

Hope you're having a lovely Summer.

~carrie~

~ ocean ~

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Earlier this month, 

we camped at Huntington Beach State Park 

in South Carolina.

The very first morning,

I took Liv and Lela to watch 

the Sun rise over the Atlantic.

We had a full day on the beach,

and with plenty of natural, marine-safe sunblock,

no one was burned.

Laurel enjoyed the more shallow spots.

Lela had the greatest time!

 I promise that,

even though not represented in these pictures,

we did have Olivia with us.  

I got some cute ones of her 

that I'll share later.

I felt like I was doing good to get these up.

~carrie~

~ trip to va - visit with grandma ~

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The summer started off slow, but has picked up steam!

We weren't back from camping but a few days

when we hit the road again, this time for Virginia.

We just returned from six days, sans Daddy, visiting family there.

The first day, we had a great visit with Grandma.

There's never enough time to spend with family,

but I'm always amazed by the connections 

that are made in such a short span of time.

We had lunch together and did some shoe shopping.

During lunch, she told the girls funny stories 

about when their Daddy was a little boy.

The girls are fascinated by all the little "special things" 

around Grandma's house.  

We hope that Grandma can come stay with us soon!

Back tomorrow with our second day - the epic nature walk! 

Hope to get our camping pictures featured here....

......before we leave to camp again this weekend!

Happy in Summer adventure bliss,

~carrie~

Beach Trip: Day 5 and 6 (Tuesday and Wednesday)

OOPS - I accidentally uploaded 2 days worth of photos. So this post is quite large, but worth looking at I hope.

Day 5 - Tuesday

Monday night Mike went to the grocery store and stocked up on food for us. So on Tuesday morning, we were anxious to pack a lunch and head to the beach! The waves were too rough for any kind of swimming, but there was lots of time for jumping waves and building a magical castle for the mermaids and sand faeries.

After our nice picnic lunch and lots of play, we went back to our room and read stories for a while. Then we hit the kiddie pool for lots of swimming and splashing.

Day 6 - Wednesday

This was a great day! We went to Jockey's Ridge State Park in Kittyhawk. It is the largest natural sand dune system on the east coast. The largest dune is between 90 and 110 feet tall, depending on winds.

On top of the first dune, Lela shields Liv's eyes from the blowing sand.

Source of fresh water - vernal pool where rare toads breed.

We had the highest kite on the dunes that day.

The wind was very strong - 30mph - so I had to hold the kite. The girls were not capable of holding onto it! We had nearly 500 feet of line out at one point!

Green tree frog

Amazing! We found this little gal hopping around one of the two small tree and vine tussocks in the middle of the dunes. She was about 150meters away from the vernal pool shown in the previous picture.

We put her on a nice leaf and shared some of our water with her, to clean her up and rehydrate her delicate skin. In gratitude, she posed for some pictures.

Black and white photo series - playing in the dune grasses.

Racing up the dunes!

Lela and Liv climbing the biggest dune at Jockey's Ridge.

My favorite picture from Jockey's Ridge.

In the afternoon, we went to the Nags Head Nature Preserve. It is an globally rare ecosystem - maritime forest. Where we lived in Virginia Beach, at First Landing State Park, is also an globally rare ecosystem. So it felt just like home. Beautiful forested dunes, plants that are usually found in the piedmont and mountains, freshwater swamps and marshes.

We only got to walk two short trails, totaling 1 mile, but enjoyed every minute of it. Here are some highlights:

Tiny, tiny mushroom growing beside a fruiting partridge berry.

Partridge berry is normally found in the mountains and some parts of the piedmont.) For reference, the berry is a bit smaller than a dogwood berry. We had a great time imaging what faeries made this sweet little mushroom their home.

Stunning yellow mushroom.

After all the rain on Monday, the mycological life was quite abundant.

And as if seeing ONE green tree frog in a day weren't special enough - here is a second!

Not quite so glamourous, living in a PVC pipe in the middle of a maritime forest. Only a couple miles away from the green tree frog living in the middle of the largest sand dune system on the east coast. When we peeked inside, there was another tree frog down there. It was too dark to identify though.

Forested dunes.

Imagine that the shore used to be just on the other side of those dunes, but over time land was created and colonized. We lived between sand dunes just like these in Virginia Beach.

Posing on a float dock at a little freshwater pond.

These sources of freshwater, if you remember, are vitally important to all life on the Outer Banks. Including people, since are not visitors in nature, we are a part of nature. We felt very grateful to visit this special place.