Beach camping (Part II)

Waking up to a clear, late-summer morning on the beach is a glorious thing.  Especially when your earplugs and sparkly Moroccan blanket made for a long and deliciously comfortable night of sleep.
 

Amy kept laughing at all the jingling.  It was a little like Christmastime...

The metal grocery cart is another trapping of my "urban camper" getup. 
It may sound ridiculous, but I was the envy of everyone who saw me carting things to and fro.

While Amy made herself a pot of coffee, I walked out onto the beach, which was resplendent in the morning light.

As I walked along the morning-fresh sand, I started noticing signs of local nightlife.  Tiny footprints everywhere . . .  

Birds

Sand crabs

Me

That's when I noticed just how much higher the beach was than last year when I'd come.  Hurricane Sandy had piled up the sand so that it buried all but the top few inches of the otherwise normal fence designed to help keep the wild horses out of the campsites.  Fortunately Amy had noticed this the night before and remembered to horse-proof everything.

 

I got back to camp and found Amy cheerfully bustling about.  Breakfast consisted of fresh pears, granola bars and an almond danish.  We thought about cooking up some eggs, but the beach beckoned . . .

 

. . . so we struck camp and headed out . . .

. . . to claim a spot amongst the other weekenders. 

What we wanted to be doing:  Eating cheese and crackers while sunbathing.

What we actually did:  work
Amy was reading a reply brief in one of her litigations; I was reading a sports media contract.

Finally the time came to go home.  On our way out of the park we came upon a group of the wild horses fighting on the side of the road.  By the time I stopped to take a picture, they had calmed down and were pretending to be cute and nice (they're not: the park rangers post signs of people who forgot that these are wild animals and were kicked and bitten).

 

And, of course, we timed our return trip perfectly to stop at Jimmy's Grille for dinner. 

 

Fried clams with tartar sauce (white) and cocktail sauce (red)

Chicken cordon bleu, lima beans with dumplings, and cucumbers.

Crab cake

Coconut meringue pie

Amy was brave and ordered the "strawberry pretzel salad"

What a great way to finish the summer!