Ocean City Winter Surfing

Thanks to my new 5/4 wetsuit I now get to surf most of the year, so when the weather forecast called for a sunny day with 50 degree temps we loaded up the car for a day trip to Ocean City, MD. 

The waves were gorgeous, but waaay too big for me, so we just hung out on the beach taking pictures of all the action. Normally OC is pretty quiet in the winter, but when the surf is ripping, surfers appear out of nowhere.

Getting a tiny barrel!

Just look at that wall of water bearing down on the body boarder at the base of the wave!

Beautiful barrel ... I hope one day I can surf like that!

Shooting some spray off the lip.

 Not good when the wave closes out in front of you ...

I love the rainbow where the sun catches the spray!

So much power!

They look a bit like seals with their hoodies on.

It's impossible for me to resist taking pictures of birds.

Can't believe how beautiful these waves are!

By late afternoon I was aching to hit the water myself, so I suited up and rode the soup (white water) until it got dark.

Everything looks magical in the evening sun.

I managed to sneak in a few of the smaller green waves! Yay!

I came in for a quick drink and ended up taking my favorite picture of the day!

 If you squint your eyes you can almost pretend I'm getting barreled.

What a great day! I did not want to come in from the water, but it got kind of dark at the end ...

Until next time ...

Calvert Cliffs

Calvert Cliffs State Park is located on the Chesapeake Bay. There are a number of trails, but the most popular leads to a small beach on the Bay. It's known as one of the best places to find shark's teeth and fossils.

The trail always stays close to a small stream that becomes wider the closer you get to the bay.

Lots of butterflies along the trail.

It's interesting to see the change in the plants as you hike through the different zones. You start out in the woods, then the trail passes along a series of marshes until finally it ends at the bay.

Water lillies:

There used to be a viewing platform about halfway on the trail, but as you can tell from this picture it's very rickety and it was blocked off when we were in the park in August 2010.

Another view of the freshwater marshland:

After you've been walking for a while the trees suddenly disappear and you find yourself on the narrow beach.
Of course, the cliffs are the main attraction! I had to walk into the Bay with my camera to get this shot:

And the cliffs on the other side:

The small streams runs into the bay on the beach. I found a teeny tiny little water snake there. He was only about a foot long.

A pretty blue dragonfly:

The little watersnake never went far from the water.
















As you can tell from this picture the beach really is very narrow and it's not very long either. We've never had a hard time finding a spot to lie down though .. it's a very quiet area. Both ends are "blocked off" where the cliffs start because of the danger of erosion.

The water is very quiet, but there is no lifeguard on duty. The Bay is also known to have some of the most polluted water in the area so swim at your own risk.

If you look to your right after coming onto the beach you'll be able to spot the Cove Point lighthouse in the distance.

We spent several hours sifting through the sand and found a shark's tooth, ray dental plates and several small fossils. Yay! Shark's tooth safely put away it was time to head back to the parking lot.

This little squirrel really wanted to have his picture taken.

I saw this beautiful bird sitting in a dead tree in the marshland. I wish I knew what kind of bird it is ... any ideas?
















I love the contrast of the dead trees against the lush green forest in the background.

The trail on the way back. We saw a long black snake slithering across the path, but unfortunately it disappeared before I had a chance to take its picture.

There's a recycled tire playground next to the parking lot, so if you have little ones with you make sure to set some time aside for them to run around and play on the tires.

Trip summary:

Rating: 8/10
Distance: 50 mi
Time spent: 4 hours
Entrance fees: $5 per car
Trail hiked: red trail - 1.8mi

More information: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/southern/calvertcliffs.asp

Virginia Beach

Time for another visit to Virginia Beach -- although to be honest the beach was just an added bonus: my real reason for traveling to Virginia Beach was to attend the Country Throwdown Tour.

Love Heidi Newfield! This was the first time I got to see her live and it was Amazing!

Little Big Town.

Time to hit the beach ... The weather was fabulous so it wasn't long before I hit the water. What a change from the last time we were here in May! Unfortunately there really weren't any waves so I picked up a pair of kick fins at one of the local surf shops and that helped a lot.

Lots of dolphins that day ... we saw at least 10 of them:

Time for a visit to my favorite pizza place in VA Beach. It's super simple, but it's a nice tradition.

There are many nice murals throughout the area. Keep your eyes peeled and you'll find them

After a nice lunch we head back to the beach. There's a free concert on the beach because of Memorial Day and it's started to get crowded.

The sun's starting to set:

View from one of the hotels. Ours was a few blocks back from the beach so I snuck into the one we stayed at last time and snapped a quick picture from their pool area. 

So who was playing? Hall & Oats! I'd never heard of them, but I actually knew a lot of their songs. Strangely enough they played a lot of their big hits during their warm-up earlier in the day (we were lucky enough to sit near the stage during the afternoon so we heard the whole thing), but not during the show?

We got up early the next morning to watch the sun rise over the ocean.

Isn't it beautiful?!

Rudee Inlet in the early morning hours. There were already a lot of people our with their fishing rods.

One more picture of the sunrise ... it's actually a statue, not real people.

Because I had such a great time watching Heidi Newfield perform and there weren't any real waves, we decided to leave the beach early and catch up with the throwdown tour in Bristow. We'll be back some other time ...


Trip summary:

Rating: 9/10 (what can I say? I love Heidi!)
Distance: 210 mi
Time spent: 2 days
Entrance fees: free
More information:
* http://www.vbfun.com/
* http://heidinewfield.com/
* http://www.countrythrowdown.com/