|| A slow vacation

五月最后的长周末，开车到北卡的山城Asheville，空气带着深山特有的清利，车路在浓密的森林里九转十回，偶尔在瞭望台停息，一缕缕青烟环绕连绵的山群。







六月的第一个星期，夏季的开始，我重新回到Chincoteague，一边对着Chesapeake湾区，另一边是水和天 都无边的大西洋，珍稀的海鸟，塘鸭，神鹿，细长脖颈的天鹅，野马在大片的沼泽地里和平的生存。我最喜欢的还是静静的坐在阳台上，在以前住过的汽车旅馆，喝 冰镇的凉茶，看夕阳落下，听海鸟扑打水面，在紧靠长堤的水池游泳。

Main website: http://www.chincoteague.com/

Lodging

• I stayed at: http://www.watersidemotorinn.com/, and I like it very much. It only offers a side view as it sits vertically with the bay, when you reserve rooms, you should look out for 3rd floor (unfortunately kids under 12 not allowed on 3rd floor), and the one closer to the river. It has the wooden pier extended into the water that I walk everyday. I returned in the following year in 2007, wasn't able to book anything for the memorial day weekend, but was lucky enough to have a room withe gorgeous views in the weekend right before the summer seasons. The people were the same friendly and they added a warm waffle cooker for the morning breakfast.
  
• Island motor inn and comfort inn or suites are situated better with the water front views, but they do not offer the pier into the water, and the pool is facing the road not the river.
• There has been much more construction along the waterfront since my first visit, but I am becoming interested in the alternative of a Refuge Inn which interfaces the swamp right outside the bird refuge area. I wish it offers a good price 'cause it is pretty hard for me to abandon the waters and wooden piers at the Waterside Motor Inn.
  
  

Restaurants

• My favorite is the Captain Fish's Steaming Wharf at Main Street, Chincoteague, Va (757.336.5528). Order from the "Raw Bar" menu for steamed blue crabs, raw oysters, clams, and shrimp. It has outdoor tables on the deck where you see the sunset, sea birds and shrimp boats. I was almost heart broken when I found the restaurant locale turned into an odd color motor construction site. The restaurant is moving to somewhere close to the old theater place.
  
• The Chincoteague Inn is right beside the Captain Fish, and has live bands, but is very crowded with people.
• I had to call half dozen restaurants to make sure that they have seafood cooked or uncooked as what I would want. Bob's Seafood is an affordable place where it has raw clams (small) and steamed crabs, maybe a one trip to the salad bar. On Saturdays, Bob's Seafood garage has quite a few vendors selling fresh veggies, cookies and clams (medium), but they do not come back on Sundays.
  
• Mister Wippy's on the Maddox street has the best ice-cream in town.
• Maria's restaurant, closer to the seaside of the island, has a decent lunch menu.
• Stay away from AJ on the creek. The waiters look too professional and too cold to be in this beautiful place, and the cooking was horrible, not worth my dollars. As a matter of fact, we should've ordered crabs and clams back to the motel. The shop actually has steaming service and would even add spice to it if you prefer that way, duh?!

Activities

• If you like ponies/horses, you should take the tour bus to the restricted natural preservation lands. Tickets are sold at the visitor's center, and buses usually take off 10 or 11am or 4pm.
• Hiking on foot, hiking by bikes, hiking in car. The place has a lot of swamps and loops and trails, the exercise is usually tolerable, not excessive. A restricted area is open to cars only after 3 or 3:30pm, there are couple of trails along the driveway, and very good in terms of finding the birds, ducks and other wild animals.
  
• Crabbing and fishing are all very popular.
• Driving/biking along the main street, as far as it takes you, very different scenes at different sights.
• Get up early around 5am to the sea, sun rise.

|| Taking portraits

This summer feels like a long vacation, when will it end, maybe a chainsaw will change everything, but it would be bloody, tearful. There has been a picture that resonates me the past few years, partly because I looked up from my work place and I saw the broken body parts and it sickened me. It was black and white, couldn't tell whether it came from photography or carbon paintings, but they were apparently not pretty to be seen. The body parts, you don't imagine that they could happen to people, but in real life, the real bad news never kills slowly. Why should I think of body parts? If I am somehow broken into pieces, I may be better being pulled up again but as a better person. Needless to say, I had been completely taken over by stupidity. I have no brain, and now everything drains.

The heat was relatively mild, and in the middle of it, I paid a long overdue visit to a friend in Maryland. The elderly couple always had big smiles, along with the younger ones. I often say that simplicity yields more satisfaction, but often times, we make things difficult for ourselves. There are people who simplify the unevenness and the darkness, there are others who complicate the easiness and never let go things that are really undeserving. One way or the other, focus on the today and the tomorrow.

I was forced to sit for portraits in the basement studio, and these are precious memories of friends and families.