In October, Spud spent a lot of time in the driveway or at least most of their ventures were not camping Vanventures. Spud was very useful from time to time, with our family vehicle count reduced by one. My car needed it’s transmission rebuilt and has spent a long time visiting our mechanic. There were events and family plans that kept us mostly near home, so when the schedule finally cleared the weekend before our next long trip, we decided to do one night in Cape May.
We headed out Saturday morning, wtih no real plans. We went into downtown first to stroll. It was quite crowded as usual but no special events there. I needed to find a chocolate bar for a gift and wound up discovering Luisa’s Cape May Chocolate Bar.. This small little shop is lined with every type of chocolate bar imaginable from all over the World. The prices are not inexpensive but good chocolate is worth it. Of course, I couldn’t leave without one bar for myself, beside the gift. Then we stopped at Fine Fellows ice cream to get Steve a for later treat as well. They have a vegan coffee flavor that is one of his favorites.
Next stop was our favorite area around the lighthouse. We hiked our usual routes and saw a few “usual” birds, ducks, geese, swans but none of the others we often see. We hiked along the beach and saw no dolphins. Then before we moved on we climbed the viewing platform to look out over the big lake and a naturaist was up there pointing out birds. The most spectactular site was the gourgous bald eagle that flew overhead.
We headed over to Diamond Beach and sat on the rocks for a while, also scanning for dolphins, but to no avail. It didn’t matter the weather was spectacular and we were just enjoying the sand, sun and waves.
Good Earth Organic Eatery, one of the reasons for the trip opened at 4, but since we weren’t ready for dinner, we decided to pick up take out and then check in at the campground.
One of our friends often visits The Depot Travel Park, the only campground actually in Cape May proper. It can be hard to get reservations, but after calling one other place which wanted twice as much for a stay, as they were in the middle of some type of Halloween festivities, I was please to call The Depot and not only get a spot, but a one night reservation, something that would never happen in Season.
The campground is very nice, well maintained, if a bit crowded. We had some neighbors next door who arrived to tent camp, as we were enjoying our dinner near the fire, between our two sites and we chatted with them on and off over the course of our stay, with them sharing our fire for a bit and taking it over when we went to sleep.
In the morning we went to South Cape May Meadows, where we finally saw an egret and enjoyed more lovely weather. We decided to make our way up the coast a bit, making a few stops here and there before heading to the Cape May Zoo for a visit.
Our last stop was Yanni’s in Ocean City for lupper, after a quick peek at the empty bird rookery on the Ocean CIty bridge. The menu on line looked like there should be good gluten free / dairy free choices but in reality, it was rather limited for our needs. The lovely waitress went above and beyond, convincing the kitched to make some adaptations to a dish that would work for me.
Heading home, we knew that this was the beggining of being on the road again with the big adventure planned for the end of the same week. Time to load up Spud,no winterizing yet!
