A Nice Stay in Cape May!

September 5-12, 2022

Our time in New Jersey was spent exclusively exploring New Jersey’s crown jewel, Cape May.  Cape May County is a south-facing peninsula, located at the very southern tip of New Jersey.  Just to confuse things a little, at the southern end of Cape May peninsula sits the city of Cape May!  It is this city that New Jersey considers to be its jewel.  Wandering around the city, it didn’t take us long to understand why this is such a popular tourist destination. In fact, it was the tourist industry that made this city into what it is today.  Cape May claims to be America’s first seaside resort!

Driving through town, you can’t help but fall in love with the Victorian homes lining the streets.  They give Cape May such a quaint ambiance.  Cape May boasts having over 600 authentically renovated Victorian structures, most of them dating back to the mid 1800s. 

In 1971, the popular and historic Washington Mall shopping district was closed off to traffic making it a delightful pedestrian mall.  It’s filled with unique gift shops and delicious restaurants!  We resisted any gift shop purchases, but didn’t have the same will power when it came to the dining opportunities.  Cape May Fish Market served us the most delicious New England clam chowder we have ever eaten!  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!  Down the street, we found Uncle Charley’s Ice Cream Shop.  Some extra hikes were in order after our visit to Washington Mall!

Sitting on the corner of Washington Mall is Our Lady Star of the Sea.  This historic church began as a small wooden church located across the street from where it now sits.  It wasn’t long before they outgrew their humble beginnings.  In 1913, they began celebrating Mass in the beautiful church currently used.  The stain glass windows were imported from Munich, Germany. The altar is carved from Carrera marble, mined from the same quarry as the white marble Michelangelo used.  The gospel reading was Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, followed by a homily centered on forgiveness.  Everything about our experience at this church was lovely!

The very southern tip of the cape is Cape May Point State Park.  In 1823, the first known lighthouse built on this point was erected.  Maps dated 1744 indicate a lighthouse located there, but nothing is known about it.  The current lighthouse was built in 1859, as the previous lighthouse was being affected by the rising waters of the ocean.  I thought it was interesting that 200 years ago, the ocean waters were already rising!  This lighthouse continues to be a working lighthouse today.  Its light is visible 24 miles out to sea!

While we were at the park, we came across a naturalist who, along with several other ornithologists, were making a list of all the birds they had spotted so far that day.  We were there late morning and already eleven raptors and eight other types of birds had been spotted.  During the half hour we were there, we were able to see a bald eagle, an osprey, a tri-colored heron, a blue heron, a merlin, many mute swans, a turkey vulture and a prairie warbler!  This is a popular birding area for a very good reason!  As a south-facing peninsula, a large variety of birds can be seen during both spring and fall migrations as they follow the shoreline south.  It was so fun joining this group for a short bit!

On another trip to the state park, we joined a naturalist on a walk along a trail.   Matt pointed out several different types of vegetation we had never heard of including the jewelweed plant.  This plant was traditionally used by Native Americans to treat poison ivy.  It apparently is effective and can still be used today.

We had been informed a few weeks ago by a fellow adventurer that in New Jersey, you go to the “shore”, not to the “beach”.  In order to not stand out as a tourist (as if our Midwest accent doesn’t give us away!), we were careful to include a trip to the “shore” in our agenda!  It was a lovely afternoon, watching the tide slowly take the wave action away from our chairs.  I did a little reading (book club is reading The Screwtape Letters) as we applied and reapplied the sunscreen.  Before we left, Dick spotted the fins of dolphins playing in the water a hundred yards offshore.  It was so fun watching them appear and, as suddenly, disappear, unsure of where they would pop up again.  It wasn’t long before a couple of wave riders noticed them, too, and pulled up next to them to get an up close and personal look!  Even a cruise boat came by, giving their passengers a good look at the dolphins as well.

Prior to WWII, this area was a popular hunting area; however, with the start of the war, the land was converted to a military base.  A bunker was built 900 feet inland, surrounded by ground and covered with sod.  Fully manned and armed, this bunker was ready to offer defense if an invasion was attempted at that location.  There never was a shot fired from the bunker; however, a Nazi U-boat did surrender here at the end of the war.  Erosion from storms has washed away the ground and the exposed bunker now sits on the beach, close to the shore!  Time marches on, leaving us valuable reminders of the past.

Multiple watch towers were also built along the New Jersey shore and Delaware Bay and were used to triangulate the precise location of any approaching ships.  One of these watch towers was built not far from the bunker and is open to visitors.  You can climb up the watch tower and see the view used by the military during the war.  What a blessing that these defense stations were never needed.

The idea of a ship built of concrete seems absolutely absurd!  Apparently, a dozen such ships were built during WWI.  The idea was short-lived as the ships were heavy.  Hmmm.  Not sure what to say about that!  One of these ships, the SS Atlantus was purchased after it was retired in 1920. The plan was to use it in the creation of a ferry dock.  A storm hit the area a couple months after the groundbreaking ceremony was held.  SS Atlantus broke free of her moorings and sunk.  It was at least a good attempt at repurposing what seems like a silly idea from the get-go!

Sea Pines Resort and Campground, located 16 miles north of Cape May, was home for the week we were there.  This is a Thousand Trails campground, so our membership made this stay very affordable.  The area had not had any rain during the past two months and residents were very thankful for the three rainy days we had while there.  The rain gave us a nice chance to catch up with several chores around the camper as well as giving me the opportunity to pull out my sewing machine for a bit.  

The day before we left was September 11th and Sea Pines hosted a moment of silence along with donuts and coffee at 8:46 that morning.  We (sadly) got to the lounge closer to 9:00 and missed the moment of silence, but did get there in time for the donuts.  I hadn’t really thought about our proximity to New York City (150 miles due north of Sea Pines) and how that might impact the campers at Sea Pines.  It turns out that, every year, there are people who come to this gathering who personally experienced that tragic day.  This year a man was there who was a NYC bus driver whose route had him at Ground Zero at 8:46 that morning 21 years ago.  I so regret not having been there in time to hear his personal story.  It’s one of those days that we each know exactly where we were and what we were doing when those planes were turned into weapons and took so many innocent lives.  It’s hard to believe the babies born that year are now of legal age.  Time has marched on.  NYC, the Pentagon and Shanksville, PA all seemed to have recovered and moved forward, but this made it very clear that the scars people bear are still very raw.

Next up:  Delaware!