AP Features, March 5th, 2007
We took our boys to see the Chincoteague ponies a few years ago, but despite a photo on our refrigerator showing them standing 3 feet away from the critters, they claim to have no memories of the experience whatsoever. (If they tell me in a few years that they don't remember going to the Eiffel Tower and Disneyland, I'm getting out of the family vacation business altogether.)
Fortunately Assateague Island, where the ponies live, is only a few hours' drive from our house, so we decided to head down for a couple of days. The island is just off the coast of Virginia and Maryland, and winter's not a bad time of year to go - it's offseason in nearby Ocean City, so hotels are cheap and there are no crowds. The boardwalk attractions aren't open this time of year, but we figured hiking around Assateague looking for wildlife would be diversion enough, especially when combined with the hotel pool.
We did find the ponies, fat and shaggy, munching on shore grass in the dunes and marshes and by the side of the road. We also saw herons and egrets everywhere, a gaggle of swans, trees filled with blackbirds, a family of turtles sitting on a log. We wore our winter coats, but the weather was mild, sunny and pleasant, and so warm one day that we took our shoes off, rolled up our pants, ran our toes through the sand and stuck our feet in the ocean. We took pictures, got a lot of fresh air, and considering that my kids profess to hate hiking, we had a good time. (They actually don't mind hiking as long as you don't call it that - a "10-minute walk" is usually how I bill the outings, even when they're going to be longer - and as long as there is a good payoff along the way. Pony sightings rank as incentive enough.)
Then we headed down to Washington, D.C., to see the National Aquarium, where a friend works. We've been to the zoo in Washington many times but never to this place. Since we live right near a big aquarium in Coney Island, Brooklyn, with whales and walruses and penguins, I wasn't sure how this one - located inside the Department of Commerce buildings, with no outdoor facilities - would rate. But we decided to give it a try.
Personally, I could watch the sea horses all day, but the star of our visit was definitely the octopus. While we were there, she was given a toy to play with - a clear plastic container with holes that she could put her tentacles in. Inside the box was a toy and food; taking the cover off the box was octopus recreation as well.
Normally visiting an octopus in an aquarium is about as thrilling as watching grass grow. You often find them squished into the corners of their tanks, barely mobile, so mushed up that you have no idea if they have one leg or eight. But once she was given the toy, her legs were everywhere, coiling and undulating all over the tank. Usually it takes about 30 seconds for my kids to say "Let's go" when we're looking at something that lives in a box, but this time they stood there for so long we had to make them move aside so other kids could get a good look too.
Driving home I asked them what the best part of the trip was. For me, it was the sight of the horses, with the wild birds a close runner-up. But they agreed that watching the octopus play had been their favorite part.
So much for hiking around the beach in winter, looking for animals in the wild. Sometimes creatures are just more interesting close up, even if all you're doing is peering into a glass tank, watching them play with a piece of plastic.
This week's advice: For information on visiting the wild ponies on Assateague Island, go to http://www.nps.gov/asis/. For information about visiting the National Aquarium in Washington, D.C., go to http://www.nationalaquarium.com/
If you have a question, comment or a story to share, e-mail bharpaz@ap.org.
