Cape May, New Jersey

~ Cape May ~

New Jersey

April 2008

It started on a Thursday morning following a long dreary winter. The day was beautiful outside and was predicted to remain nice for the next couple of days which induced vision problems in me… I just couldn’t SEE spending another minute in my office so I took vacation on Thursday afternoon and all day Friday and went home.

The BIG question: What do we do? All we knew for sure was that we wanted to go SOMEWHERE. After discussing several options we settled on Cape May, New Jersey. It’s only three hours away so why not go down tonight so we looked up B&B’s on the internet that had reasonable rates and started making calls. We called several before we got to one with a real person answering the phone. The Pharo's Inn with innkeepers Walt & Pat Kowalski. Rooms available? Yes. Here’s our credit card number, we’ll be there in three hours or so. We packed our stuff and were on our way in twenty minutes flat!!

Did I say three hours? The “fastest” way according to our GPS was straight through Philadelphia on the Schuylkill Expressway and over the Walt Whitman Bridge. Traffic on the Philadelphia leg cost us an hour. Fortunately it opened up once we got into New Jersey and all those other cars got off the highway.

Cape May, for those who don’t already know, is a seaside town located in the southern most part of New Jersey. We were told some years ago that the entire town is a national historic site because of an abundance of Victorian designed homes many of which date back to the 1800’s. We’ve always referred to these homes as “Gingerbread Houses” because of their ornate design and color. Many of the 25-30 B&B’s in operation are in these homes which makes for a unique experience.

Cape May also sits on the northern shore of the Delaware Bay where it spills into the Atlantic. Unlike the rest of New Jersey, Cape May’s beach runs east/west. The beach has a 1.4 mile long promenade which is perfect for walking, jogging, bike riding, and just plain sitting.

I was up, ALONE, and on the beach by 5:30am each morning for some sunrise photography. Kathy just couldn’t get up for what turned out to be two very nice mornings. After breakfast, included at the B&B, we headed out to the Cape May lighthouse for some pictures. Still sitting on the beach are bunkers installed during WWII as lookouts for Germany submarines. Of course a trip to these beaches wouldn’t be complete without looking for some “Cape May Diamonds” a few of which are visible in our pictures. Basically we spent a lot of time walking our butts off…..

Click on any of the pictures for a larger view....

Some images of the beach....