The First of Three: Sandy Point

Of the twenty-four Maryland state parks participating in this year's Park Quest, Sandy Point is the closest to us.  We tried to make it our first quest back in June, but the park had filled to capacity.  This happens most summer weekends and we didn't try again.

Until Friday. 

This time, I had a plan.  I left work early and met the boys at the bus stop.  Our car and day pack were ready to go.  We arrived at the gates for Sandy Point by 3:30 and had no trouble entering the park.  Instead of cars lining the road and beach umbrellas covering the sand, we saw a handful of fishermen, a family with small children and flocks of seagulls.

Definitely, not filled to capacity!

It helped that the sky was overcast with low hanging clouds--the outermost bands of Hurricane Earl as he scooted north in the Atlantic.  It was muggy and warm, but walking barefoot across the sand was all we needed to put the work/school week behind us.

The Sandy Point quest made use of one of our favorite quest formats:  the clue directed hike.  We had to find nine blue crab signs located along the trail and answer questions related to each stop on a worksheet.

We took our time.  Matt chased seagulls.  Gabe said hello to a heron.

I sat in the sand and watched boats sail past the lighthouse.

We giggled and wiggled our toes in the water.

We found nine blue crab signs and turned our car towards quest number two of the weekend.