Chincoteague

For Mother's Day, we did something a little different this year: field trip!

My family's celebration of this day to honor Mom is usually expressed with brunch at our hometown country club -- shrimp and grits, eggs benedict topped with crab meat are not only to die for but also tell me I'm home. But Saturday we loaded up Dad's truck and headed down to Chincoteague, Virginia for a change of pace.

Where I'm from on the Eastern Shore, Chincoteague is slated as a gorgeous, quiet beach getaway -- you non-shore natives may have heard of the children's book "Misty of Chincoteague?" Same place, and yes there are wild horses down there. It was indeed very beautiful, but I was struck by how small, and for the most part beach-less, the community was. I could definitely see how staying at a local B&B or just walking the quiet streets would be very relaxing though.

Side note: NASA has a HUGE facility down in this area and as we're driving past it, my parents told me they almost sent me to space camp here when I was a kid, but decided to send me to Bible camp instead. Whaaa?! A monologue of something along the lines of "I could have been a contender" comes to mind.

Our purpose for making the drive was my mom had a few artist friends who were showing their paintings, jewelry and photography at the Chincoteague Mother (Earth) Day festival (I guess combining Mother's Day and Earth Day?).

Although it was a gorgeous sunny day, 30-40 mph wind gusts made it difficult to browse (and for the artists to keep things on their tables), but I managed to pick up a few things. This handmade gold ring for one...

And these paintings, which were FREE, frames included. Amazing, right!?

The incredibly talented artist who did them, Dawn Tarr, said she was cleaning out her garage and was trying to get rid of "some junk." I couldn't believe she was just giving them away. Although most of her free paintings were of near-naked men or topless mermaids, I found these nonsexual framed ones and I thought they would fit nicely in current and future dwellings. I know, how prude of me, almost Pottery Barn like, but they're so pretty! I think I'll put the peas in my kitchen and daisies in my bathroom.

The best event of the art show was this woodcarver who used a chain saw to carve lawn statues out of tree trunks.

This wooden flamingo was about six feet tall. My dad tried everything to convince my mom we needed it for the backyard -- he was not successful.

We wrapped up the day at Bill's restaurant around the corner from the festival before heading home, where I then laid out by my parents' pool and then watched movies all night on pay-per-view until I fell asleep at 10:30 pm. It felt awesome.