Anne was done with her teaching recently, and Ellie's family will be spending the week in Aruba, so we thought we would do a drive to Virginia Beach, via the Cape May - Lewes Ferry and the Bay Bridge Tunnel. Along the way perhaps to try to catch any birds that may be around. Too early for large groups of migratory birds, but we figured Northern Gannets would be in the area, as the should be in Raritan Bay soon.
3/16/2022 Wednesday. We left at around 10:30 am, the drive to the Ferry Terminal is a bit over 2 hours, so we would have an hour to spare so we could check in at 2 pm for the 2:30 pm sailing. We stopped at the Ocean City, NJ Visitor Center hoping to see herons and ibises building their nests, but it was too early for that. We drove around North Cape May a bit, but didn't see too many birds.
The Ferry (MV New Jersey) can hold about 100 cars, and was less than 1/2 full today. At $33 for the car and two passengers, it was a good deal. Among the sea gulls that seemed to follow us for the entire 1:15 hour journey we would see a few gannets. Otherwise the passage was uneventful, actually rather pleasant on this sunny day, as long as one stayed on the leeward side.
Lewes was a lot nicer than we remembered it (last visited over 10 years ago), and a lot more built up, it seems. With some waterfront properties that must be quite expensive. The drive to the hotel took about 20 minutes. After checking in we drove to Cape Henlopen State Park and the western end of Cedar Ave, there were a few ospreys, one was carrying a rather long stick to add to the nest that was being repaired.
The check-in experience was somewhat disappointing. First was how inefficient the front desk was, two people were helping a couple with a lot of questions, while one of them could help the next in line. Second was when another group showed up, one of them did peel off to help them. The room is like that of other Hyatt Places we've stayed at, nice, but small tweaks to the design would make things that much better for multiple people in the same room.
We still vaguely remember 2nd Street where we had this huge crab cake on our last visit. The place is closed - probably recently as there was work going on.
Dinner was at Go Brit! A fish and chips place (although it has a cajun offering) that served reasonably priced and good quality food.
Just to keep a record of birds we see on this trip: turkey vultures, black-backed gulls, herring gulls, norther gannets, ospreys. Quite a few we couldn't name.
A gaggle (?) of seagulls following the wake from MV New Jersey.
Two lighthouses guiding marine traffic around the breakwaters built to protect Lewes.
We had dinner at this Fish & Chips restaurant just outside of Lewes.
We were nearly done with the fish before we remembered to take a picture. Pretty decent food.
Accommodations: Hyatt Place, Dewey Beach, DE (1 night).
3/17/2022 Thursday. Breakfast at Hyatt Place was back to normal. When we stayed in their Hawaiian property last year, it was take-away muffins with bacon and egg. Today there were a few hot/warm entrees, and assortment of other food. We checked out at around 10:30 am.
The drive from Dewey Beach to Virginia Beach should take a little over 3 hours, but we didn't check in the hotel until after 8 pm.
We stopped first at the Assawoman Wildlife area, and when we saw a bald eagle across the water (probably Dirickson Creek), we tried to find it by driving in the Bayville Shores Drive area (no luck); Ocean City, our next destination, was to us just a shore city, which we don't care much about; lunch was at Chick-fil-A in West Ocean City. Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge was about an hour away, and we drove along the Wildlife Loop which reminded us of the one in Forsythe; we saw a bald eagle and many horses. It was a little after 7 pm when we got to Virginia Beach, we decided to have dinner at this Dough Boy Pizza place, but it took over 30 minutes for the food to show. Our room has a direct view of the ocean, we will enjoy it tomorrow morning.
Birds we saw: bald eagle, northern shoveler, dowitcher, bofflehead, snow goose, swan, sanderling, yellow legs, blue heron, great egret. I also had to move a turtle out of the way (probably an Eastern Painted Turtle).
Our room, which we secured with a certificate, is a one-bedroom unit. We decided to give the car to the valet. I didn't want to deal with more driving, and valet parking costs only the tip as it is included with the room.
Accommodations: Residence Inn Virginia Beach Oceanfront (1 night).
3/18/2022 Friday. Again checked out of hotel at around 10:30 am. Sat on the balcony and enjoyed the ocean view a bit. Today was a nice day. For reasons I don't understand, there were a couple of tractors leveling the sand on the beach, with one working quite deliberately. The quality of the sand didn't look the best, somewhat like the trucked in dirt on South Amboy Beach.
We first drove to Sanbridge (still part of Virginia Beach) to take a look at the summer home we will be renting, then headed back north towards Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. The uninterrupted journey would have taken about 4 1/4 hours. We stopped to get gas, and had lunch at Hardee's in Oxmore, VA, the result is we got to the Refuge at around 4:45 pm. Our intention was to take a quick look, but there were enough birds to keep us there for about 90 minutes.
This coming summer we are renting a house for a week in the Sanbridge area of Virgina Beach. Anne and I thought we would drive by to see what it's like.
This tractor spent quite a bit of time grading the sand in front of our hotel. A tractor also comes by "South Amboy Beach" every few days to grade the beach. Wonder why that's done.
We saw fields upon fields of these wild flowers on the peninsula. Google thinks they are "henbit deadnettle."
Birds we saw: red-wing blackbird, avocet,,dowitcher, northern shoveler, osprey, yellow legs, cormorants. There were gannets and pelicans as we crossed the Bay-Bridge.
One word about the hotel, although our hotel for the night is okay and quite acceptable, we find quite a bit of difference between it and the hotels rooms we had the previous two nights.
Accommodation: Quality Inn, Smyrna, DE. (1 night).
3/19/2022 Saturday. After checking out of the hotel we visited Bombay Hook again, this time for about 2 1/2 hours. Sighted the usual suspects.
The whole trip was about 850 miles. Gas prices have been increasing the last few weeks, and we noticed gas was more expensive in NJ. [However, on Tuesday 3/22 we found NJ gas was quite a bit cheaper than when we left, some stations offered $3.89/gallon.]
When I first publish this (March 29) I haven't put up the birds' photographs. I shall do so later. One factor is difficult to identify what birds we saw.
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