Chincoteague Island, Day Three

Not a lot of people in my pics lately. Too much nature around to be fussing with people. 

There's still a little summer color left here on the island. I loved the pink of this flower, especially amidst all the browns around. 

The oatmeal palette. That's what I'm calling it.

The Man and I rented bikes this morning and biked over to Assateague Island. I didn't take my camera. The Man offered to carry it in his backpack but it was so heavy I couldn't ask him to do that. So I left it behind.

Ouch. I missed having it with me.

I'm loving my new lens.

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I call this pony Dubya.

We found a bike trail that led out to the ocean. There was a short walk at the end of the trail that took us out to the beach. As I was walking along I saw something scurrying along the sand. It was moving pretty fast and was the same color as the sand. Upon a little closer inspection, I saw it was a spider. 

Moving fast.

Whoa. I'm outta here. I moved back about twenty paces to give that spider wide berth. When something moves that fast there's a good chance it can also jump. Right onto my face.

{The Man and I watched a horror movie last week, Life. It was about an alien life form that looked a lot like a jellied starfish. It came aboard the space station and started knocking people off one by one. One particular astronaut died because the alien jumped onto his face, wriggled into his mouth, and ate him up from the inside out. Blech.}

Obviously I'm very susceptible to movies and have no problem suspending belief. I was pretty sure that spider was going to jump on my face and then wriggle into my mouth and we all know what happens after that. 

Not me. Not today. I gave it wide berth.

There was no one around when we got to the beach. Empty beaches in both directions.

Just lovely. 

We walked along the beach for a while, collecting shells and driftwood. Lots of horseshoe crabs washed up on shore.

We headed back to the bikes and the Man called me over to see something in the sand. We had been seeing teeny, tiny tracks in the sand and thought they were from birds.

Nope. They were from the sand colored spider moving fast. 

Again.

Only it wasn't a spider. It was a teeny, tiny crab that scuttled along the sand sideways very, very fast. You better watch out, Mr. Crab. An innocent person could mistake you for a spider and step on you to save humanity.

After our bike ride, we ate lunch at The Crab Shack. I had soft shelled crabs for the first time. Evidently you eat the whole crab, shell and all. Soft shelled crabs are crabs that have just molted so their shells are extremely soft.

They were okay. I don't think I would order them again though. There's too many other things I like better. 

But when in Rome, eat as the Romans eat, so I tried them. The Man thinks I'm very brave.

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We saw a blue heron way out in the marsh during our evening drive.

Looks like fall around here for the most part.

Part of the oatmeal palette.

Saw a snowy egret. Actually we saw LOTS of them. They are all over the place but this one was right alongside the road and I was able to get some good shots.

At least I think it's a snowy egret. That's what the Man told me it was. I'll take his word for it since I don't really know birds at all.

This little fellow was so patient while I was taking his picture.

Thank you, sweet little bunny.

A little pop of red amidst a lot of green and brown.