Cape May '08

Picking up from the last post, we headed from Virginia Beach to Cape May. Looking at a map the plan was to run up the DelMarVa penninsula across the Cape May Ferry (pic) and to the beachfront hotel - The Marquis De Lafayette. That was the plan.

What actually happened was the trip was a smooth across the Cheasepeake Bay Bridge and up the DelMarVa. The trouble started when I had to exit to another local hi-way tp get to the Ferry. Since getting a GPS a while ago I have a real bad habit of sort of following the GPS and sort of following the signs along the road. Yep, you guessed it - I got lost... bigtime - for almost an hour. Finally I get to the entrance of the Ferry by 3:30pm (the time I thought I would be in Cape May) and was asked by the attendant "Do you have a reservation?" I've taken this ferry a few times and didn't know you could make a reservation never mind needing one. So I had to say "No." The attendant then tells me the next ferry for cars with no reservation is 7:00pm. OMG!! No way was I going to wait that long, so back on the hi-way we went. But first, so I wouldn't get lost again, I stopped at a gas station for directions. He gave me straight forward directions to the Del. Memorial Bridge, but once over I had two choices - get oin the Atlantic City expressway to the GS Parkway and then south. Or get on Rte. 47 and then Rte. 49 into Cape May. Looking at the map the two Routes looked shorter so that was the way I went. Wrong!! The routes were only one lane in each direction and takes you through a number of towns where the speed limits went down to 25 mph. Long story short it took nearly 4 hours to get from the Ferry on the Delaware side to Cape May going the way I went. For those keeping track it was also nearly an hour longer than if I had decided to just drive home. So we got into Cape May at 7:30pm - coincedently the same time it would have been if we waited for the Ferry! SHEESH!!

But anyway we were here, and it was very nice. We checked into our suite and made a beeline for something to eat. Henry's on the Beach is a place on the promenade thats pretty casual, but the food is good. The promendae also has an arcade. Peter discovered skeeball two years ago and loves it. So after dinner we spent an hour or so there.
The next morning after our complimentry hotel breakfast (very good and getting better each year) we stopped by the craft show. Each year they have a Craft Show on the Beach. They have the usual fare except in one booth I saw this guy had little painted Victorian houses. Even tho we don't live in a Victorian, but a Foursquare, we have a number of these from our visits to the Cape. But as I looked closer he wasn't selling any. What this guy was doing is taking orders. He would be painting your house to make it look like one of these wooden houses - Cool! The name of the crafter is Dee's Craft Houses. I think I'll be ordering one.

Soon after the storm clouds moved in, lightning was seen and there was an automated announcement warning bathers off the beach. So much for our day on the beach. The T-storm came with hail and all. But by afternoon the rain was gone, replaced by wind. The wind also made being on the beach very hard. we lasted only about 30 minutes as Peter was adamant about going into the ocean. I was a nervouse wreck about the rip tides but he never got that deep intothe water. The surf was so rough that he stayed running around near the edge. eventually we talked him into going to the hotel's pool, which was nicely heated and not crowded. For our last night, a woman at the pool recommended Cabanas restaurant to Debby. So that where we went. It was a bar and grill, but they had a decent menu and good food.