Why are the ponies so fat?

Happy Monday!

Hopefully I have you all scratching your head and waiting with baited breath from the title of my second post. Rest assured, the answer is just moments away....

I spent this past weekend with Mr.President in Chincoteague Island, VA

Mr.President's Aunt and Uncle own a place there and it is only about 3 hours away from us, so we decided to spend one last weekend relishing in summer before saying hello to fall. We left Friday night around 8:30 (and luckily beat all the traffic). We woke up Saturday morning, and despite the forecast of chilly rain showers, it was a beautiful morning - sun shining, warm temperatures, PERFECT! After sleeping in a bit, we got ready and headed off to breakfast (my most favorite meal of the day) at a little place called Bill's.

Mr.President begrudingly standing for a photo-op in front of Bill's

Bill's was just what you would expect from this small town - very rustic, and quaint with waitresses who couldn't be more southern. Once our waitress handed me the menu my eyes lit up - PUMPKIN pancakes were the special. Well I needed no further time to think, I knew those pancakes were going to be in my belly.

Pumpkin Pancakes

After savoring (devouring) these yummy hotcakes, we were off to ride our bikes to the beach. This all sounds fine and dandy until we realized one of the bikes had a flat tire. I of course chock this up to being a simple fix, however Mr. President assures me that it is not such a quick fix when the bike pump is broken.

Mr.President hard at work "fixing" the tire

After about 45 minutes of pumping air into the tire, Mr.President asks if we can switch bikes (since I am lighter and won't be affected by the slightly flat tire apparently). Before we know it we are off. Now I say off...but that once again means there was a wrench in our plan. Mr.President swore - even after my repeated chatter of "are you sure this is the right way?" - that he knew (a) how to get to the beach (b) that in fact we were going the right way. Well, about 45 minutes into our bike ride, it dawns on him that in fact we are not going the right way at all. (clearly I was right to second guess him the 12 times I did). So we got on the phone and called his Aunt and found out we were heading in the exact wrong direction...ugh!

Once we turned around and started peddling the right direction, it set in just how far out of our way we had gone...and let me tell you my bottom certainly felt it. These bikes look lovely and have that rustic beachy feeling to them, but they are not built for long, wrong way trips!

After a not so short ride, we eventually ended up at the beach - which was a bit windy, but lovely nonetheless. It was nice to stick my toes in the sand and enjoy one last taste of summer.

The highlight of the trip though - and why I sincerely recommend you make a trip to Chincoteague were the ponies. They were so pretty and it was just so cool to see them so close.



The only minor draw back is that we were not adequately warned about the terrible, horse fly mosquitos that are all over the island, and we of course had no bug spray to speak of. Luckily we stumpled upon two nice women who were willing to share (which both me and Mr.President's leg's were grateful for).

Overall it was a wonderful ode goodbye to summer - one last view of the ocean, one last wiff of the salt water in the air, and one last dip for my tootsies in the ocean.

Now onto the real reason you read this far...why are the ponies so fat?

"Because the ponies graze on the salty marsh grasses--saltmarsh cordgrass and American beachgrass in particular--they drink much more than other horses and usually appear to be bloated or fat".