Janes Island

Six miles of empty, undisturbed beach on an uninhabited island only accessible by boat.

A variety of calm and more exciting waters to explore by kayak.

More seabirds (and more kinds of seabirds!) than you can shake a stick at.

(Also, chiggers, blackflies, poison ivy and stinging jellies, but you know, they're kind of interesting too).

We went to Janes Island State Park in Maryland for a couple days last week, and spent the time kayaking, watching the mama osprey feed her baby, and sitting by the canal watching the sunset over the bay. It was lovely.



To get to the beach, you kayak across the canal, and follow the trails through the marsh till you get to a narrow spit of beach - about 10 feet of sand wide - that divides the marshy side of the Chesapeake from the bay side. Either way, the water is basically the Atlantic at this point, and you can't see across the bay. Lovely, quiet, undisturbed beaches...

This picture and the one above were taken from the same spot. That's the narrow beach we landed at, and then there's a bit of sand, and then there's the Atlantic.
The post is supporting a large osprey nest, and you can see the nearly-full-grown baby leaning out over the side, crying pitifully for his mother to come back and feed him. He was also testing his wings pretty frequently- flapping, and taking off for a few inches before crashing back into the nest. Poor guy, he must be frustrated up there.
That would be the stinging jellies that got both of us - Jim's ankle and my thighs. I swelled up pretty nicely, but it wasn't too bad, all things considered.

We found this unfortunately deceased blue crab (a male) near the swamp - pretty colors, though! Lots of people were crabbing and fishing at the state park.


We also found turtle eggs! They were right on the side of the beach, it looks like the waves may have washed away the top layer of sand.



This laughing gull was very bothered by our presence... makes me wish we had a better camera for pics like this. One day! I love the pattern of the water and the sand.

Right as we were getting ready to leave, we came across another lady who was kind enough to take a picture for us!

We also saw a fox and lots of fiddler crabs - it was a pretty awesome place.


I miss the beach already...

Some favorites from this weekend

We had a wonderful, amazing weekend. Fun, relaxing, rejuvenating and heartening. Some favorite pics:


Baby's first ocean experience! He LOVED it.

Boston's 4th of July fireworks!


Listening to the Pops by the Charles River

Jim sharing the news of his *NEW JOB* with his family at the campsite

Evy and I hiked here. It was beautiful and far away and we were the only people on the entire lake.

World cup fans...

Picnicking at Tanglewood

Hiking through 'moose country' along a creek

The NYC Public Library

Bachelor Camping Trip!

Last weekend Scott, my best man, organized a weekend camping trip to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania as a last hurrah for my bachelor-dom. It was a lot of fun (despite some torrential downpours), and I'm really grateful to Scott for putting it together!


This is the Grand Canyon itself...try to imagine it without trees (like it was when it was named) and it might look more canyony.


This is Scott during one of the weekend's downpours looking out over the gorge. There's two parks, on opposite sides. One had lots of guiderails and railings...the other left you more to your own devices.



The rain had some advantages, though, especially after it cleared up...



There were some good wildlife sightings. There's a large porcupine perched in the top of the hemlock tree in this picture (take my word for it).



Guess which one's a plant and which one's a fungus! I love hiking with entomologist/biologists.



And the required bug pick...this one died of fungus!



And the aftermath...after a weekend of mountain pies, honey roasted peanuts, cookies, and dutch-oven cobbler, this is what I ate for the next two days :)