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Officially 27

At the beginning of April, I officially turned 27! Young me thought this was a super old age, but I’ve now come to realize being in your late 20s is not actually old lol. The years feel a lot shorter now that I’m older and time really does fly.

It’s been a busy month for me with birthday stuff. On my actual birthday, I spent the day driving around close to home. First, I visited a waterfall. Then, I went looking for wildlife. I saw some seals in Old Saybrook that were too far away for me to get decent photos of and I got a lot of photos of Ospreys in various spots.

The night of my birthday, I had pizza and cake with my family. Last year, I didn’t get to do this with my family because I had pink eye. My parents bought a cake, but my pink eye was stubborn and wouldn’t go away. They ended up dropping the cake off to me and a card last year. This was part of the reason I chose to not go on vacation BEFORE my birthday this year lol.

The day after my birthday, I headed south to Ocean City, Maryland. I made a little road trip out of it. I stopped at Paterson Great Falls National Historic Site in New Jersey and some spots in Delaware on the way down.

The waterfall was kind of just a pit stop to stretch our legs, and I got splashed in the eye with water. I won’t lie, I did have a bit of anxiety worrying that the water might have infected my eyes LOL. But, a quick Google search reassured me that I was probably fine and the risk was EXTREMELY low. For once, Google made me feel better instead of worse.

After Paterson Great Falls, we stopped at a Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. I had seen that lot of people typically saw eagles here, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to check it out. This was one of the highlights of my trip for sure. I have never seen so many eagles in my life. It was drizzling most of the time we were here, but I stood out in the rain photographing those eagles. I couldn’t get enough of it. I took some of my best eagle pictures ever.

After that, we stopped at Cape Henlopen State Park where there was a lot of cool historic stuff to check out. We climbed an old lookout tower from WWII and checked out Fort Miles Historic Site. Additionally, there were beaches to check out and two lighthouses visible from one of the beaches! But I also got a special wildlife surprise. I saw about 30 deer just hanging out in a field in the park. The trip was turning out to be quite the wildlife adventure.

On day two of the trip, we went to the Maryland side of Assateague Island National Seashore. In this park, you’ll find wild horses that free roam around the park. They were honestly everywhere from the moment we got on to the island. They were grazing on the side of the road as well as in the parking lots.

I really liked seeing the wild horses so close up. There are signs everywhere that state you need to stay 40 feet away from the horses at all times for their safety and for human safety, but people did not follow this rule. I did follow the rules. I am a stickler for rules, but especially when it comes to wildlife.

It made me so mad to see families with kids getting too close and taking selfies with the horses. There was also one woman with a digital camera who literally got right in a horse’s face with her camera. I cannot stand when people do not respect wildlife. Huge pet peeve for me because the animals can’t protect themselves. If they do, there’s a chance of them being euthanized for harming a human. Thankfully a ranger came and told her to get away from the horse.

After Assateague, we went and checked out Fenwick Island Lighthouse, which was just a quick stop because it wasn’t open to visitors. Snapped a couple of pictures, and then went back to our beach-side condo to relax for the rest of the night.

On day three, we drove south to Chincoteague, Virginia to check out the Virginia section of Assateague Island. We drove around the island, where the horses did NOT free-roam like the ones in Maryland. While I was a little upset they were fenced in, I completely understood why they made that choice after seeing people have zero respect for the horses in Maryland.

That night, we did a wildlife cruise where we got to see a mama horse and her super newborn foal (it was 12-24 hours old). We got to watch the mom try to coax her foal to cross the water. It was really such a cool experience. We also saw some other wildlife, like coastal birds, and Assateague Lighthouse from the water (which we had also visited up close on the island earlier).

On day three, we took a ferry from Lewes, Delaware to Cape May, New Jersey to drive up the New Jersey coast to check out some lighthouses. I didn’t plan this before we left, it was a last minute decision I made after I saw the ferry by Cape Henlopen State Park. In New Jersey, we climbed Cape May Lighthouse and Absecon Lighthouse and then visited Barnegat Lighthouse. Barnegat was not open to climb by the time we got to it.

While the birthday trip was jam packed with stuff, it was honestly the kind of break I needed. I was feeling so burnt out from work and just regular life. I had been really looking forward to taking the trip and getting away from it all for a bit. Sometimes, you just have to get away to reset a bit.

Younger me would have never thought I’d be so into doing trips like this, but I love the aspect of planning a trip and then making it happen. I love photographing stuff and just experiencing new places. And I’m so lucky that I have the ability to just get in my car and take trips like this. Living in Connecticut, we really are so close to so many different states that are a relatively short drive away. It’s comforting that it’s easy to take these little trips, whether planned or spontaneous. I hate feeling stuck.

It’s honestly still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I’m such an adult now and I am in control of my life and what I do. I spent so many years feeling like I had absolutely no say in what I could and couldn’t do, but now I really can live the life I want to live. It’s still crazy to me.

Happy to have made it another year. Here’s to 27 and another year of growth and continuing to have new experiences!

-Kailey