Chincoteague is a small community on Chincoteague Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore. We've been visiting there for around 25 years. We've always preferred it to the hustle and bustle of other beach towns. Our girls were teenagers before they even learned what a boardwalk is. The arcade was small but had air hockey. There was a miniature golf course. Life was good.
Its
easy to think of Chincoteague as the gateway to Assateague Island but it
deserves more credit. It truly is a small town near a beach rather than
what you expect in an East Coast beach resort. Short on bars and
entertainment, its long on simply being a pleasant, relaxing place to visit.
The girls don't go with us these days but we still visit 3 or 4 times a year. We enjoy walking to dinner and walking around town to recover from dinner. We always feel safe, even at night. We've always enjoyed meeting the people in town. At one point, we talked about buying a house there. It seems now that we waited too long. Its gotten very pricey.
We've
seen things come and go. Probably more than I can remember.
McDonalds opened and you could get
breakfast in under an hour. The Beachway Restaurant closed.
Castaway's closed. The Comfort Inn and Hampton Inn opened. Don's
didn't change at all that I can tell.
Chincoteague is the home of the annual Pony Swim and Pony Auction. The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department uses this to raise money to support themselves for the year. It happens the last Wednesday and Thursday of July. In 2003, we finally went to see the swim and auction. From Kayaks it was a lot of fun to watch.
We used
to enjoy buying seafood at the local seafood stores on the south end of Main
Street. They're pretty much gone
now. We used to enjoy Mason's.
We recently stayed
at the Waterside Motor Inn. I commented to the lady behind the desk that
we hadn't stayed there before because we were upset that the seafood place was
replaced by the hotel. She turned out to be the owner of the hotel and
said that was a long time to hold a grudge. Turned out she was Donna Mason
and owned both the seafood place and the hotel. I guess they did what they
had to do. In any event all is forgiven. We also had very nice
stay there. The picture is the view from our room.
Chincoteague
is now undergoing serious changes. The Landmark Crab House and all
associated shops in the plaza have been sold. Captain Fish's and the
Chincoteague Inn are sold. The Maddox Family Campground was in
negotiations to be sold but they fell through. All to be torn down and
replaced with condos. That's three popular restaurants that are gone.
Hopefully the campground will remain a while longer. All to be replaced
with high end condos and people with no sense of the history of Chincoteague.
I'm afraid we've lost a Landmark in more ways
than one.
As an update, the Landmark Crab House is still gone but the shops will apparently still be around for a couple of years. We were told that people were being offered a one year lease with an option on a second year. Work has started in the area near the Chincoteague Inn. Both it and Captain Fish's are still open but site prep work has started. They won't be around much past this year.
Bill's Restaurant and AJ's are still around and providing good meals. I suppose there are ones coming to replace them but we'll miss the Chincoteague Inn.
None the less, we'll keep coming back and we'll keep enjoying it.