Happy New Year! To celebrate the holiday, Catherine, Libby and I took off south to visit Maryland for a couple days. We first went to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park. This park included a new, large visitor's center that serves as an orientation center and gateway to the Underground Railroad Scenic Byway. From the website: "The woods and wetlands of Maryland's Eastern Shore shaped Harriet Tubman's early life in slavery, and using her skills as an outdoorswoman, Tubman was able to navigate the landscape for multiple return journeys to bring friends and family north to freedom." There were well constructed educational displays that shared information about Harriet Tubman's like and work. Very engaging and a terrific example of effective museum education.
Next we drove east to Assateague Island National Seashore. We stopped at the Assateague Island Visitor Center which is on the mainland before crossing the bridge. This was very informative with beautiful views and educational displays. Great way to get acquainted with the area.
Next we waited in line to enter the park, drove south to find a spot to leave our car, and saw a pony by the side of the road. We were ridiculously excited because we knew it was a long shot to see them. We then took a terrific hike on the Life of the Dunes Trail. This went through dune habitat, and shrub thicket. We know this habitat well, of course, but we still learned a lot from the educational signs along the way. The weather was surprisingly warm for January and beautiful for being on the beach.
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We had planned to go to the Virginia end of the park in the morning, but I ended up not feeling well and we went back home - turned out I had Covid, so I was glad we left. We'll have to keep the VA part of the park on our bucket list! 