1) The sign says fishing, how come there aren't any here. Said by a fellow camper last summer. 2) It never rains, only when we decide to go camping. Said by me all the time. 3) Will it take as long to put the fire out that it took to start it. DUH!!! Fellow camper remarked. 4) I only ate some of the smores, the rest is for the big black bears, it is their best dessert. Said the little (about 7 yr old) girl a few years ago camping in Maine. It was so cute. Lynda

I think Nita was originally planned to be here in Charlottesville yesterday, but it had slipped my mind over the weekend as I was working on the rental duplex all day. I put the tools away and started home around 9:00 P.M. when the following song came on the radio, which could be Nita's theme song for the summer. My House by Kacey Musgrave

I have camped on Assateague many times - tent camping when my kids were young. It’s beautiful but the sun can be brutal and the biting bugs relentless. There are lots of “ponies” but they can be a bit frightening. I have watched them rip tents to shreds and break through barriers to get to the beach (I think to get into the wind to escape the bugs.) They are prettier from afar! As Cyn wrote, tourists are not supposed to go near them but they DO. Many people who visit the park just do a drive through. Some pull over (or just stop in the middle of the road) and try to lure the ponies to their car with food. The ponies have become more aggressive, hanging out near the roads where they have been hit by cars. Sorry for the rant but this makes me so mad! Chincoteaque is very nice, but there’s not much around there (of interest to me, at least). You could decide if you wanted to combine your visit with a beach vacation (Ocean City or Virginia Beach) or head inland to Williamsburg area or to Washington DC or Baltimore. Annapolis is beautiful. I like Ocean City; I went there almost every summer as a kid. I still go occasionally in the off-season for old times’ sake. It is crowded in June and traffic could be bad so you may want to stay on the southern end of the island, closer to Asssateague. I loved the books too and was tickled that the kids had the same names as my younger brother and I.

Depends on what you like. I'm a garden fanatic and I'd fill the space between the house and the walk with plants, and equal size bed on the other side from where the walk turns. Small blooming magnolia in the front yard somewhere if my husband was willing to mow around it (thank goodness mine is!). But if you don't like to garden, you're going to want to go with structural dwarf kinds of shrubs for the front, minimal and call it a day. Heck you could even do a rose climbing up between the windows to fill that space if you're not too far south . . . (otherwise something like jasmine or bouganvilla or a fragrant climbing honeysuckle. It has to be hardy to heat because the brick is going to give off a lot of heat to the plant in the summer, although your eastern exposure will help). You could also without too much kitsch, put up some picket fencing to serve as a backdrop for something. On the plus side for your kitchen, at least you have a fairly long expanse of uninterrupted counter space. My last three living spaces did not have that and I sure miss that! I love those old galley style kitchens, lots of counter space and room for two butts in two different areas!