Uprooted Photographer | Eastern NC Photography

Searching for Two Needles in a Really Big Haystack

Each and every summer, my family takes two weeks to go on vacation on Chincoteague Island, Va. I’ve grown up and moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, but this summer my wife and I decided to take the trip to Chincoteague to stay with them for a few days. Ashley and I have gone before, in fact the island is where I proposed to her two years ago and we visited last summer a few weeks before our wedding. This summer was a little different though. Now living in North Carolina, we were very pleasantly surprised to see that it was only about a four hour drive to reach Chincoteague (vs. the eight or nine hour trip from western PA). This great fact aside, we still were unsure of whether we would be able to go. We had already traveled great distances this summer, but in the end decided that we had a great opportunity to visit a place we loved with my family on our First Anniversary weekend, so we did it.

Chincoteague is a great place. I can’t recommend it enough. It has gone through its fair share of changes over the years (I still vividly remember the sand dunes, visitor’s center and bath houses that have since been leveled by hurricanes), but it still maintains its small-town relaxing vibe. We had no problem waking up at 7:00 am every day and taking a bike ride around town for a few hours. It is that relaxing.

We had a great time on our trip. My family seemed very happy that we were able to come and I am very grateful to have a family that takes a trip and is more than willing to let us stay with them and feed us while we’re there. Not to mention, I’m sure my little brother was extremely happy to have someone there other than mom and dad :)

I can’t conclude this post without sharing a story about our last day at the beach. The water was rough and the tide was coming in. A large wave washed up over our chairs, and out of fear of my camera getting wet, I decided to take it and some other stuff to the car. When I came back, there were over a dozen people on their hands and knees sifting the sand where we had been sitting. Confused, I asked what was going on. My wife’s wedding and engagement rings had been washed off her chair in the wave. At the time the wave came up, she was applying sunscreen and momentarily took them off. Through bad luck and bad timing the wave decided to encroach upon us at that time. Initially I thought to myself there is no way that we are finding those rings, they could be anywhere. More and more people joined in to help. The search continued and everyone was on edge waiting for the next big flood of water to come up. If that happened, we were sure there would be no hope for the rings. Suddenly, someone stood up and said “Is this it?” They had found the wedding band! Incredible! The search continued and shortly after finding the first ring, someone found the engagement ring. I couldn’t believe it. This wasn’t like searching for two needles in a really, really big haystack. So many people pitched in to help too. We are incredibly thankful that everyone helped out and feel very lucky indeed. Wouldn’t it have been ironic that the place where I gave her the ring was the place that it was forever lost? And on our one year anniversary? Sheesh, what a day!