One Year Later

There's been plenty written about the anniversary of the week when the WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic and the world suddenly changed. It's been strange to think back on the last 365 days - how much we didn't know at the beginning, my naive assumptions that things would look more normal much faster, and the sheer exhaustion and blur of it all.

Back in December, I started drafting a "year in review" type post, but obviously never got around to finishing it. I am thankful to have the draft to go back and look at though since it contains some details I would not otherwise remember. The post is broken up into 1-3 month segments, and for March I wrote, "went camping on Assateague after cancelling our trip to AZ at the last minute," and "started walking around the neighborhood...a lot."

This year, we didn't think for a moment we'd be able to celebrate my mom's birthday with her in person in Arizona. Instead, we celebrated her passion for birding by taking ourselves and our new binoculars to the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge for an afternoon of exploring. We saw and identified (!!!) at least 11 species of birds, which I don't think is too shabby for newbies not willing to get up at the crack of dawn.

I'm also going to take the opportunity to finally post the photos from last year's, last minute, local adventure: camping in Assateague. I had really been looking forward to a trip home and desperately needed a change of scenery. After cancelling our flights, I moped for a day and then decided we should check off a local bucket list item instead.

That early in the spring, campsites were plentiful, and spending time by the water and staring into the fire at night were a much needed break from work and thoughts of cancelled plans. 

As you can see, we got lucky with the weather and it's amazing to me that after a longer, wetter winter, we have almost the same weather this weekend as we did then - brilliantly sunny, but with a steady breeze that makes it feel cold in the shade.

The view when we arrived after the ~3 hour drive. As we drove, we listened to the news and promises of corporate America setting up testing centers in every neighborhood.

Exploring the next morning. Sunny skies and fairly quiet before the day users arrived.

We didn't bring bikes, so we ended up walking about 10 miles exploring the park on Saturday. We saw 6-8 wild ponies, including accidentally getting a bit too close to one at night.

It was only a 20-30 minute drive to get provisions and do an indoor beer tasting that would be our last one for a long time. 

Barring any unforeseen events, we'll be back camping by the beach again over Easter weekend, replicating a different trip that was cancelled by the pandemic last year. Hopefully we get repeat weather (60 degrees and sunny) for this one too!