Back to school

Well, this is Ericka's last "first day of school" in high school.  It is also Dwight's first year in high school and Devan's first year in middle school.  Everyone seemed ready to go back....though they would never say so.  It was just a year ago that Renae & Devan both were "sick" and stayed home the 3rd day of school.  They have adjusted well since then.

They are standing by the old van affectionately named "the kidney bean".  At approx. 230,000 miles, we are hoping it will give us another 12,000 miles to get us through this school year.

Cherrystone Campground, VA

After several years of talking about doing this, it finally worked out for us to spend some time with friends at Cherrystone.  It is a big campground located right on the Chesapeake Bay about 3 1/2 hrs. south of Dover on the Delmarva Pennisula just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.  This is not the "roughing it" type of camping.  There is an activity to suit just about everyone including 4 fishing piers, a pond with paddleboats, 5 swimming pools with a splash zone, putt-putt, tennis courts and several playgrounds all free with your reservation.  There is also a nice place to clam at low tide and swim in the bay too if you prefer that.  Kayaks and small boats can be rented as well.  We borrowed 3 kayaks from Lyn's sister, Maryann, which got a lot of use.

Ryan and Dwight

We tried crabbing and fishing off the piers......

....but had minimal success.

On the pier

Renae & Mary

Cody, Devan & Josh

We ended up putting our 10 crab pots out away from the piers and used the kayaks to check them.  We had much better success and we took turns checking them all day long.  By night we had about 3/4 of a bushel.

Yummmm

We also enjoyed going out at low tide looking for clams.  After the first night, we got smart and took all the nets with us the next evening and netted some crabs as we looked for clams.  The water was clear and we also saw puffer fish and stingrays.

The pictures just never do justice but the sunsets over the water were spectacular.

It was a long drive and lots of packing for 3 nights and 2 days, but nice to be able hang out with 4 families from church.