Beach Camping

After the last/first time we tried and failed at camping at the beach, we thought we'd try again. Unfortunately, Assateague was booked (or closed, can't remember) for the weekend I wanted (conference three-day weekend; Monday was Rosh Hashanah, so all three boys were off school/work), I found another state park up the coast in Delaware: Delaware Seashore State Park.

We left Saturday morning in dreary conditions. Our phones promised us better conditions on the coast, but we still pulled up in rain. Not to be deterred, however, we donned our rain jackets (we remembered them this time!) and headed for the beach. Um, it was wet. And windy. Pretty much everything we had on got soaked. However, it was gorgeous! The wind really whipped up the waves and we watched those and the surfers for a bit. Then we headed back to the scamp and got dry. Before we knew it, the rain stopped and so we packed up and headed back to the beach. From the campground it was a short quarter mile walk under a super cool bridge.


As expected, the boys got right in. Splashing and playing and collecting sea shells. It was adorable. Chuck and I were happy to sit in our chairs and watch them. There were a few people there, so mostly we just watched surfers. Once the boys were done for the day, we headed back and boiled our hot dogs. Delicious. Sadly the boys woke up at 5 a.m. Sunday morning, but what can you do?! Well, we took a walk to the beach to see the sunrise. Although it had been spitting early that morning, by the time we got dressed, it had stopped and never started again! The morning walk was incredible and then we headed back for breakfast. And as soon as we were done eating, we headed right back to the beach.

To everyone's surprise, we lasted until almost 3 p.m.! (Bummer news: I had a training on Monday that I had completely forgotten about, so we had to head home Sunday evening.) The boys were amazing at the beach. Every so often Ollie would complain and say he wanted to go home, but then he'd be distracted by whatever Rhett was doing and forget he wanted to go home.

Having the scamp at the beach was great, especially during rainy times. It really made the difference in how much we enjoyed it. We have a lot to learn about camping near a beach, but we'll do it again. Rhett could not stop saying how much fun he had. Victory! And they slept past 6:30 the next two mornings. Double victory!

Note about camping in October: It's awesome. The beaches are far less crowded, the sun isn't so killer (although you still need sunscreen--note to selves), the heat isn't so intense. The boys still got in the water, and Chuck probably would have had he brought a suit. The downsides are that everything is closed. No snack bars, no rentals, nothing. But hey, the beach is open: I can take care of the rest. Although the campground was pretty busy, it wasn't packed. This is good to know so that maybe another time we don't have to plan and could take advantage of a beautiful weekend in the fall.

Note about the campground: The campground proper was pretty lame. The sites are basically parking spaces in a huge parking lot with a bit of grass and a picnic table for each site. No trees. No individual fire rings. But I knew that we would be spending our time at the beach, not the campsite, so it didn't matter. If you go, please remember that. There was a campfire for the entire campground, so had it not been so drizzly, we could have enjoyed that. And there was a playground, which the boys would have loved to play on, had it not been in a swamp. But again, it was a five-minute walk to the beach. Pretty incredible. I definitely recommend camping on the south side of the inlet, and staying as close as possible to the playground. It has laundry, so you can dry your beach stuff at the end of the day.

And the rest of the pictures...






The bridge was so cool! It created such interesting geometry.




Sunrise!




Our bounty. But now what do we do with it?


I kinda love this picture.


My handiwork. Obviously. Guess how long before Ollie destroyed it?


Foam slippers!


The timing! Look at the water coming through Ollie's arms.


Holes. Always with the holes. He may have bruised the bottoms of his feet jumping into it.