Cape May

After 22 years of dedicated service, my Matt is retiring from the navy. We are both so excited! One weekend a month plus lots of extras, on top of the calls, texts, and paperwork, it will be such a relief to be done. He told me he didn’t want a party but wanted us to go somewhere. So I got to planning  I picked a weekend, the only one that worked until January and it happened to be Veterans Day weekend and thankfully Chelsea was also available. We watched her kids for a weekend back in 2020, so it was our turn. 😂 

After some looking I decided on Cape May, NJ. We went there with McCombs around 10 years ago, but Matt couldn’t come with us, incidentally because he was working his Navy job. 

I kept everything a surprise for him and just told him the weather and what to pack. We both woke up crazy early on Friday and decided to just go for it. I was a little worried about getting to the ferry in time, so leaving early made it possible for us to grab brekkie and still have plenty of time. 

We stopped at Chick and Ruth’s in Annapolis around 7:30. 

It’s a quirky old little restaurant that I went to with my girlfriends years ago on a girls trip and it was just as delicious this time as it was then.

I told Matt where we were going when we left in the morning, but didn’t give him any more details. Lewes is a cute little beach town where we caught the Cape May-Lewes ferry. 

Lighthouses abound out there and it reminded me of the Delaware lighthouse cruise Laura and I went on that we lost all the pictures to because they are *all* on her camera and it broke. Whomp whomp. 

Since we got there so early we had about an hour to get some steps in. We walked around and around the ferry terminal and it was cold cold! There was a biting wind that went right through. I knew the weather would be in the 50’s which I was thinking isn’t that cold, except it is in a biting wind. Anyways, I didn’t pack appropriately and I was pretty chilly outside that day. 

Matt had asked that morning if he needed Dramamine and I said no. Ferry’s are always smooth, right? Haha, not when it’s stormy! The Delaware Bay was rolling that day and we both felt a little queasy, so we spent most of our time out on the deck, which I love but I was sooo chilly! Anyways, we made it and went straight to get lunch at Harry’s Ocean Bar and Grill. I had researched the best restaurants and made a reservation for us, though it turns out I didn’t need one. Anyways, lunch was delicious! 

We shared an autumn salad and butternut squash ravioli and then a chocolate cheesecake and it was soooo yummy. They were all busy busy decorating for Christmas and it was so pretty and warm and festive watching them all work together. We made up the story that it’s a family run business and on Christmas decorating day it’s all hands on deck and everyone in the family comes in to help. It’s plausible and that’s what we’re sticking with. 

After lunch we checked into our Bed and Breakfast. I splurged and got us a room at the Wilbraham Mansion. It’s very cute and fancy and it was exciting to finally be there on our special weekend. 

Our next activity was a couples massage! We went to the Cape May Day Spa and Matt was so excited. Because it was a surprise he had to fill out his information when we got there. 

So pretty.

Side by side massages with my favorite was amazing. I was unsurprised to find Matt and his masseuse were more chatty than me and mine. I don’t want to make small talk, thankyouverymuch. 

Cape May is adorable. We had to grab a shot of Delaney’s! We ended up getting our D a sweatshirt for her souvie. 

The Wilbraham Mansion has an indoor heated pool so  

we went swimming before our next activity. 

And then my last planned activity of the day, and the weekend actually, was some community theater. It was close to our hotel so we strolled. 

I was iffy on the show, but we like community theater so I went for it. We saw The Death of Sherlock Holmes with the East Lynne Theater Company, a radio style show. It was in an old church that was beautiful and the show was quirky and interesting. I liked the first half, but after intermission my sleepiness hit. Matt and I had talked about getting ice cream and I just wanted it to end so we could get ice cream before it closed. 😂 

The ice cream parlor ended up being closed after all, but we found an open CVS and bought some Ben and Jerry’s and ate it in the jacuzzi. Another core memory unlocked. ❤️

We got up early, as old people are wont to do, and went swimming again. 24 hour pool was so fun!

The mansion served brekkie in their 4 dining rooms, so we joined other guests at a big table. 

We had fruit, juice, quiche, hash browns, and sausage. Chefs kiss. 

On our way back to our room we grabbed a shot of the pool since we didn’t get one when we were swimming. 

The mansion has bikes for guest use, so after we checked out, we grabbed some bikes and headed out. Thankfully it wasn’t windy on Saturday and that made all the difference. 

We loved our stay! We’re a pretty cheap people and it was so fun to stay someplace fancy. 

Matt planned Saturday that morning. First stop - beach time. We collected shells and walked in the sand and enjoyed the waves. 

They’ve got a long bike/walking path along the water, so we took that all the way till it ended. We did some window shopping and it was just a lovely day. We heard this parade playing music but only caught the tail end before they dispersed.  

We rode to the Cape May Preserve and walked to each of their lookouts. This place is a “globally renowned birders paradise,” but we didn’t see anything too interesting. 

Our next stop was the lighthouse, obvi. We took Seagrove Ave, which was pretty sweet. 

Spelled wrong, but I’ll allow. 

❤️❤️❤️

We hung out at the beach as long as we could. We took a different route home and stopped by Exit 0 Filling Station for lunch. I had read that they are known for their curry and burgers, so obviously I got a curry burger. Matt got an impossible burger and a milkshake and it was really good. Such yummy food all weekend!

We rode into town and shopped the cute outdoor mall. We got everyone a sweatshirt and then more ice cream for good measure. We shared a big waffle cone sundae with honey lavender and strawberry cheesecake and again, King Ice Cream Parlor, so good!

Way too soon it was time to head to the ferry. I booked us the last ferry of the day at 6:00. We dropped off our bikes, grabbed some tea time snacks - they serve tea each afternoon complete with freshly baked treats - and headed out. 

Our return ferry crossing ended up being free because of Veterans Day. Noice. It was also incredibly smooth, no seasickness at all. In Lewes we stopped by Home Goods so I could grab treats for the Calvert RS presidency for their ward conference the next day and we bought some fun Christmas stuff. Matt had heard about questions to ask your spouse for more intimacy, so I looked them up and we took turns answering. We actually both learned a few new things about each other, so that was cool. It was just a beautiful end to a beautiful weekend. Seriously, so so good. We definitely need to do this more often.