My family & I just spent another wonderful week on Chincoteague Island & enjoyed the Assateague Island National Seashore. I love it here! Life moves at a slow pace & the native islanders embrace their wildlife with care. It’s truly amazing how much peace and serenity can be found on the Virginia side of Assateague.

Family and friends alike questioned us about why we would make such a long drive just to come to a beach. The trip took us over 16hrs from east Tennessee. The most popular beach destination for most east Tennesseeans is Myrtle Beach (a 6hr drive). Here’s why we drive so far for so long:

1. Commercialization – there is very little on Chincoteague! There are no skyscraper hotels, condos, or timeshare on the beach. There is no boardwalk consisting of stores & restaurants repeating themselves for miles.

2. Chaos – there is none here!

3. The best hotel on the small island is the Best Western where they cook a mean breakfast each morning!

4. I’ve only seen 3 franchise establishments! Ledo’s, McDonald’s, and Sunsation. That’s it! Everything else is mom & pop 🙂

5. It’s clean

6. My husband has no cell phone service (which means he can’t work).

7. The wildlife is abundant & protected.

8. The whole town shuts down by 10pm. There are no worries of loud noises late at night.

9. It’s peaceful

10. There’s no pressure or stress. There’s no crowded beach!

We did experience a tad of excitement two days while at the beach while the bomb squad detonated bombs that appeared on shore on the Maryland side of Assateague. My husband & I discussed what the large booms could be. Later in the evening, we discovered it wasn’t a sonic boom, but bombs!! You can read about it here

What can I say? Adventure tends to follow us 😉