One warm Sunday in November I drove to Assateague Island with a friend. My friend had not been to the island in years. We stopped at the visitors center to check in, I purchased some post cards and we browsed around the exhibits. We got back in the car and drove over the bridge. I asked my friend if we could drive the road briefly looking for ponies. He did not mind and I was not disappointed. Ponies were blocking the road and some people were impatient to get by them to get to the national park section of the park. We took pictures of the ponies and then turned around to head back to the state park portion of the island.

We got out and there were maybe ten cars in the lot. I figure there were fifty people total on the island that day. We were definitely outnumbered by the ponies. My friend and I got out of the car and my friend asked again if I minded if he got out his metal detector thing to look for coins and the such on the beach. I told him it did not bother me. I went to read the signs to make sure he could use the detector as every so often unexploded ordinance is found on the island. They post helpful pictures prior to going on the beach in case you do locate one. Obviously don’t touch and call 911. We found out in addition to dogs being allowed on the beach now my friend could use his detector. We headed up on the dunes and then to the beach, we turned north and started walking. We walked and talked for the next two and a half hours. I had no idea the beach went on as far as it did and we still never reached the end nor did we even touch a little bit of the southern portion. The horseshoe crabs and piping plovers were cool. My friend had never seen a plover before. It was a lovely warm day with a nice wind blowing off the ocean. I could feel stresses blowing away as my friend dug at various places in the sand for different things. We has walked so far up the beach that no one was around. It took us almost an hour twenty minutes to get back to people and there were only about eight people on the beach. Some sitting watching the waves, some flying kites and some walking.

It has been a long time since I have been with someone that I felt comfortable enough to walk with and not feel a need to fill every moment with speech-silence was lovely. I did not feel fear being so isolated from people when we walked the beach. On two sides of us there was no civilization for sixty miles and then of course the Atlantic Ocean separates us from people in Great Britain and Europe. Yet I felt at home, not lonely, not afraid and just at peace. I’d like to think my friend was too. He did ask if we could go again. I said anytime but in the summer.

Have you seen Venus on the sky after sunset? How about Jupiter a little later just to the left of Orion. Sadly comet ison did not survive it’s trip around the sun so no big comet show in December.

Have a great week and stay warm and safe. Cold weather is marching across the US and Canada. Today where I live it was sixty but I know cold is coming and it is unstoppable. Find beauty all around. Blessings to all!