Though all love originates in God and is for that reason God's own love, yet we are permitted to catch and reflect back that love in such manner that it becomes our love indeed, in much the same way that sunlight reflected from the moon becomes moonlight. - A.W. Tozer

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Field Trips Galore

We don't always hang around the camp doing school and cleaning. We've been able to visit several places in the area, sometimes for a few minutes, and once for a whole weekend. Some of the pictures below have been posted previously, but here are all our little side trips in one big post.

After we had been in Maryland for a few weeks, we were invited to stay in the guest home of a new-found volunteer friend in Lewes, DE. It was a fantastic weekend, if a little cold. At nearby Cape Henlopen we saw the actual Atlantic Ocean, as opposed to some part of the Chesapeake Bay, and toured the old WWII gun installations and look-out tower. The town of Lewes itself is a great place to visit, and I would love to go back someday in the summer.

WWII Watchtower
The Atlantic Ocean - Brrr!
An Actual Icebox

In Pocomoke City, MD, we visited a tiny one-room schoolhouse called the Sturgis One Room School. It was used for 37 years by African-American children in Worcester county. We enjoyed walking through a 100 year old school, which had been filled with authentic desks, books and such. There was also a tiny share-cropper's cabin next door with furnishings that might have been found in houses of the time.



Textbooks for a Previous Generation
Mr. Reuben Gave us a Tour


That same day we went out to Chincoteague and Assateague islands. The kids were very excited to see the actual Atlantic Ocean again, and although we saw only the backside of a few distant ponies, it was still neat to just be there in the area, remembering my history lessons as a kid. We visited a nature center, as is our wont, and heard more about water birds than ponies.

Eagle's Have Gigantic Nests!
Pocomoke City also has the Delmarva Discovery Center .  (For my Okie and MO frinds, Delmarva is what this peninsula is called. Can you guess why?) The kids and I went to visit it yesterday, and we were very impressed. They had quite a few displays about the native tribes that inhabited the peninsula before the Europeans, and then a lot of information and well-made displays about the animal life of the area. There's a section about industry through the years, with two model steam ships, a pit where kids can try to tong for oysters, and a little shack for making duck decoys, among other things. NASA's Wallops Island has an exhibit too, with space flight information, model rockets, and some activities.

What Kid Wouldn't Like a Beaver Puppet?
Meet Cornelius
Since we were the only visitors on a brisk Friday morning, we had the place to ourselves, and we were very impressed by all the workers there. Everyone was so friendly, bringing out a snake for the kids to meet (He's a corn snake. His name is Cornelius.), and inviting us into the back room to see all the water-life that would normally be out in the aquarium, but had been moved for remodeling. I think it was even more fun to see them back in their tanks in the work-room than it would've been standing in front of their huge tanks.

There are local things we've enjoyed as well, like the docks near our camp, and the marina downtown, where someone made a Christmas tree out of crab traps.
Wind and Water

If Life Gives you Crab Traps...


There are a lot of historical sites around the area, and when you stop at a historical marker in Maryland, it's generally worth it, like the two churches from 1700 that I mentioned in a previous post. I'm still so impressed by how old this grave is that I'm going to post the picture again.

Died in 1748!


 I'm sure there's a lot left to see, and we hope to take some time on our way back home this spring to visit some of the bigger historic and natural sites out here in "the east", but for now we're enjoying the things in the area and enjoying all the field trip opportunities that I couldn't have imagined a year ago.







3 comments:

  1. Delaware/Maryland/Virginia? Or maybe from del mar (va) means "it goes by the sea"

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  2. That's right. Delaware/Maryland/Virginia are the three states that make up the peninsula.

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  3. How funny- Delmarva! Sounds like the mish-mash names of some of my Southern relatives, haha! Glad to see you having fun, the area looks so interesting. The 10 year old horse-lover in me is a little jealous of your trip to Chincoteague! ;-)

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