Day 3: Tangier

Somehow the responsibility for the Day 3 blog has fallen off the children onto me, so sit back and relax while I spin you a tale from Tangier.

First off, a little lesson: In case you don’t know, Tangier is the most remote island on the bay, and one of the most isolated areas left in our country. The people (about 400) of the island still speak in a vernacular similar to Elizabethan English, and most of them are named Pruitt, Dise, Crockett, or Evans, after the founding families. The main forms of transportation are golf cart and moped, and

Our transit today was the longest ever attempted in CTY history—62 miles from Taylor’s Island to Tangier. The kids did a bang-up job. We got the boat a little stuck pulling into dock, but with some help from our newfound 8-year-old friend, who could operate his own skiff and who acted as our bowhand, we made it in safely. It was late in the afternoon, and after some disgustingly adorable encounters with a litter of kittens, we set out to explore the main street and see what we could see. We stopped in a number of shops, checked out the museum, talked to the locals (one of whom, in response to being asked what they thought of the crabbing industry, replied “what’s a crab?” This confused our students. It was funny for me.)

After dinner, and on the way to walk to camp, we stopped in “Spanky’s 50’s-style Ice Cream Parlor” for a refreshing treat. Then we made the long, arduous hike to the beach—another CTY first, as none of our trips have ever camped their before. We carried all our bags, pads, tents and everything else we needed for the night over the roads, across the marsh, through the mud, and over the dunes. Your kids are going to have some muscles when they get home.

The beach was absolutely beautiful. Silent except for the chirping frogs and crickets, almost pitch black once the sun went down, soft sand and warm water and a friendly breeze that kept the mosquitoes and horseflies at bay. We could see every star in the sky, including a few shooting ones. Cygnus, Draco, Ursa Major and Minor, Hercules, and the milky edge of our galaxy watched over us as we slept, our gently billowing tents making a line just below the windswept dunes. The next morning, we woke up to the sunrise and swam in the brackish water before making our way back to the boat for breakfast and a new day.

Thanks & come back soon,

Jordan