Oh My, Vacation Happenings!

I am still on vacation, and in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, sitting in the trailer on a very cool day (feels like Heaven to me!) waiting for my husband to get back with the rental car.  We were supposed to be driving half-way home today.  You won't believe what's been happening! 

Mike and I left Mount Juliet, TN, on August 29, to vacation at several different campgrounds in our 5th wheel trailer and truck.  We drove for about 5 hours that first day, and stopped at Misty Mountain Campground, in Virginia.  The second day we drove about 4 hours to Putuxant Naval Air Station on the Putuxant River in Virginia, and stayed in their "FamCamp" since Mike is a 21-year retired veteran of the Air Force.  This is on the coast of the Atlantic and the photo shows the humungous pine trees that stood all around and over our trailer in the campground.  It was beautiful there, but hot, and we forgot our swimsuits!  But, that's OK, because there were warning signs that the beaches were closed due to jellyfish infestations!  Yes, jellyfish infestations!  We walked from the campsite about 100 yards to the Potomac River (looked like an ocean to me!) across the street, and out onto a T-shaped dock where about 100 seagulls were sitting.  Amidst their squawking protests of being uprooted from their poop-covered perches, we went to the end of both sides of the dock.  Looking over the side, we saw nothing but green water, then we saw some really long skinny fish with pointed noses swimming against the current in one place.  Mike said they were Alligator Gar.  I said they were ugly!  We saw some shiny slivers of silver occasionally, and I thought someone had thrown some steel or aluminum foil into the water, but then they'd shine somewhere else.  We realized that the sun was glinting on the shiny scales (or skin) of some very quick and large schools of fish that were swimming by.  We watched for a little bit, and all of a sudden the whole school came to the top of the water in a feeding frenzy.  The water looked like it was boiling!  Then they were gone.  We saw some small, really soft looking stuff floating by with the current, and then we saw a large transparent jellyfish outlined in white, with long white tentacles, opening and closing to transport itself, but still floating along on the current.  Looking closer at the water, we saw that there were hundreds of thousands of the small, soft looking circles which were immature jellyfish just lazily floating along.  Everywhere we went that was on the water, we saw them, so we were glad we forgot our suits!  We saw blue crabs, and other fish too, not to mention the birdlife.  Next stop on the tour is Washington, DC, and boy, did I screw up there up!  Next issue...