Both our children's families are traveling. Joe and family are in Japan right now, and Ellie's in South Carolina. We will meet up with Ellie in late July. Meanwhile we have some time on our hands, and decided to drive to the Delmarva Peninsula to check out some of our old haunts. (Some of the places we plan to visit we had only visited once before.) We did little planning beforehand.
So little planning, in fact, that I messed up the dates. Our first stop was going to be South Jersey for the first night (Sunday). I booked a stay at Fairfield Absecon for Monday instead, and realized my mistake only after the cancellation deadline (11:59 pm Sunday). I called the hotel directly (at around 12:15 am), hoping to move the reservation forward by a day without penalty. The front desk person said Sunday night was fully booked, but he was kind enough to cancel my reservation without penalty. After thanking him, I looked into the Marriott website and there were still rooms available, so I booked it for the correct night. So far (just about midnight Sunday) I don't see a penalty charged against my credit card yet. (And if it did, I'm okay as this was simply a kind act by the receptionist.)
Sunday 7/6. We left our house a little after 3 pm, the drive down Garden State Parkway was uneventful. We could see traffic backing up in the northbound direction already. This was the end of the long July 4 weekend, afterall.
Our first stop was Forsythe Wildlife Refuge. Given this is the middle of summer, and a hot afternoon (high 80s), we expected most of the birds would be cooling off in the shade. To our great surprise, we saw quite a few varieties, although not in great numbers. All the osprey nests we saw were "occupied," with chicks poking their heads out every now and then. Skimmers were plentiful, gracefully gliding along the surface of the pond to scoop up whatever they eat. We saw the usual terns, the unusual sighting was of two Caspian Terns, the largest of the terns. Many shore birds were about, most of which we failed to identify, with the exception of a group of yellowlegs. The rather large (greenhead?) flies were always surrounding our car, so we didn't get off at all.
When we were approaching the Ocean City Visitor Center we were surprised by the number of white dots see saw in the usual shrubs and trees. Turns out there were even more birds than we first expected. The demographics, such as it were, looked very different from our many prior visits. A few observations. (1) There were many more ibises (white and glossy) than usual, they now seemed to be the dominant population; (2) The ibises bicker among themselves quite a bit; (3) A few egrets were still in mating plumage; (4) We saw only a few night herons (yellow crowned?); (5) There were a lot of juveniles (to be expected); (6) Even some shrubs next to the main bridge are now dotted with birds, many are juvenile ibises; and (7) All the squawking stopped at sunset.
This is the first time we ever saw Caspian Terns, the largest tern species. One is in the water to the left of the "island," the other is in the center front of the island.
We never saw this "annex" occupied by so many birds before.
As sunset approached (this was taken at 8:14 pm, sunset at 8:27) the birds seemed to calm down for the night. Many of these white ibises have tucked their heads into their wings already.
In between we checked in at the hotel. We were upgraded to a suite. Interestingly, it would have cost only $10 more if booked directly. The receptionist wasn't the one I talked to last night. The parking lot was not close to full the few times we saw it. We walked to the Denny's next door to have dinner.
Accommodation: Fairfield Atlantic City Absecon (1 night).
Monday 7/7. After checking out of the hotel, we stopped by Ocean City Visitor Center again to take a look at the rookeries before heading down to the Cape May - Lewes Ferry terminal for the 12 noon sailing. There were quite a few cars waiting for the next sailing as we drove our car on to the boat. The sailing was relatively smooth, but there was considerable swaying that one had to be careful with one's balance.
We stopped by the Ferry Terminal to get away from the heat.
The ferry can accommodate about 100 vehicles. Here leaving Cape May. It turned around before heading to the bay, and turned around before docking at Lewes.
Seagulls (mostly Laughing Gulls) followed the boat, hoping to pick up fish or other food churned up by the boat's propellers. It seems many would fly alongside the boat for the entire 85-minute journey.
For lunch we went back to Go Brit in Lewes, Delaware. The food was still good, even though the people who worked there didn't sound very British. We then continued driving along through towns such as Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach (skipping the restaurant Woody's Ron recommended, as we were still full from lunch), Bethany Beach, and Ocean City (MD). We stopped at Dewey Beach to take a lot. It appears the town doesn't charge for beach access, yet still provides lifeguards. Parking was quite available (the rain chased many off many beach goers. Otherwise we saw buildings or reeds along the highway, catching glimpses of the ocean and the bay every now and then.
Inside GO BRIT in Lewes, DE.
Rain is forecast for several days. The skies were beginning to clear when we got to Dewey Beach. (This photo notwithstanding.)
After checking into the hotel, we discussed where we wanted to get dinner. Crisfield is about 45 minutes to the southeast, and by the pier is the restaurant Water's Edge Cafe. The town itself was otherwise very quiet, and there seemed to be a lot of Housing Authority apartments around. We discovered this is where ferries to Smith and Tangier Island, well-known for their isolation resulting in distinct dialects. At the pier we met a couple, the woman told us they would be on this one-day nature tour (Smith Island Brown Pelican are the keywords). When we looked it up afterwards, it is a rather expensive proposition at over $300 (that was a couple of years ago).
Water's Edge Cafe in Crisfield, MD.
With two sides (Caesar Salad and Mac & Cheese in my case) these two crab cakes cost $30.
Crisfield City Dock.
Ferries to Tangier and Smith Islands depart from this pier.
Many places are named after British cities: Salisbury, Cambridge, Oxford and Princess Anne (not the current Princess Anne) are prime examples. They all have interesting stories behind them. Both Princess Anne and Salisbury are homes to small universities. (Actually there are quite a few colleges on the peninsula.)
One note on the hotel. I booked a Best Western in Salisbury in favor of a couple of Marriott properties nearby as they were considerably more expensive. And Best Westerns have been dependable in the past. Not this time, there is a significant different in quality. For our next stop we booked a Fairfield in Dover, DE.
Accommodation: Best Western Salisbury Plaza (1 night).
Tuesday 7/8. We doubled back to Ocean City for an eco-tourism cruise on the Assateague Adventure II. The cost for the 1-hour trip was $20 per person (senior rate) which was quite reasonable. This trip was similar to the one we took the last time we were in the area, except we got close to the horses, and there were a couple of horseshoe crabs on the boat. The guide (a young personable man) mentioned that most of the ponies bought were return to the island (about 30 each year), but most reports on the web seem to say only a few are returned.
A boat like this will go about 100 miles off shore for a week to catch fish using the "long line" method.
A tuna being cleaned. For a good trip crew members can make a few thousand dollars each.
This boat owner has strong opinion of offshore wind mills.
Some large houses on the water front.
We got very close to this herd of horses. The one lying on the ground is the foal.
We had lunch at the de Lazy Lizard restaurant next to the dock. The staff there seemed to embrace the word "lazy" in the name (well, they were okay).
We had lunch at de Lazy Lizard in Ocean City. I had the crab cake in the "blend" soup - half cream of crab, half MD crab.
We drove by Cambridge downtown, and stopped by the Harriet Tubman to take a peek. We knew that it was closed due to water damage (from a broken pipe, not flooding), but was hoping to at least get some sense of what it was like - no luck. There is a mural nearby though. Downtown Cambridge was very quiet, some businesses were open, but nary a customer. Today was a hot day, but I don't think that was the sole reason. The population of Cambridge is 50% minority, but we saw very few on the main street.
The Harriet Tubman was closed because of water damage.
Anne managed to take this photo from the outside.
The mural "Take My Hand" is located nearby.
It took 30 minutes to get from Cambridge to Oxford. The town was equally quiet, but there was a rather large harbor with both working and pleasure boats docked. A couple was fishing off the dock, and caught quite a few small fish the few minutes we were there. I couldn't keep the Porgy and Bess song out of my head for a while.
Oxford Harbor is home to working and pleasure boats.
Ours was the only car on this crossing. There was a group of five ladies on board also.
After the 10-minute ferry crossing from Oxford to Bellevue, we proceeded to drive to Dover. Towards the end we could see the threat of rain coming in our direction. It just started to rain when we checked into the hotel.
Dinner was at Panda Express.
Accommodation: Fairfield Dover (1 night).
Wednesday 7/9. We checked out of the hotel at around 10 am and visited Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge before returning to NJ. While the place wasn't quite teeming with bird life, we still managed to see quite a few different kinds. The lighting was such that we had trouble identifying the specific species - or we need to go back to relearn how to tell them apart.
After corn, soybean seems to be the most popular crop in the area.
A few avocets among the other shorebirds. Today we wished we had a better camera.
We didn't encounter much traffic on our way back. For the entire trip we logged about 650 miles.
That evening I suffered from a terrible cold/flu (or COVID?). As I type this Friday things are a lot better.