Category: Cape May

The Difference between Here and There

Jim and I went out to dinner tonight. It was spontaneous and a really enjoyable time. There was one little twist in the matter: we went to Cape May.


Of course, no home our way looks like this. This is Cape May.  It’s  seldom that we venture to the city during the ” high holy season”, Navagating through the groups of tourists is not our favorite pastime. But then?



Sure we love where we are. The peace and quiet is great, off season, that is. Granted we are not as crowded as Cape May is. When we manage to sneak into Cape May, and actually don’t have too many people around, it’s truly a delightful experience.

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Saturday Afternoon

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So after our afternoon walk, the gals came in and rested and Jim and I got ready to go to Mass in Cape May, where our home parish is located. For a January afternoon,it was a pretty day!

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We always go over the West Cape May bridge, which affords us a bird’s-eye view of what’s going on in the Cape May canal.

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After Mass, we walk around and see what’s going on in Cape May.

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Usually, on the way home from Church, we stop at the Cove Beach, where today we were lucky enough to catch the sunset.

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In all, a wonderful afternoon!

Family Affair

We went out as a family today, for a walk on the beach at the Cove in Cape May.

The fur girls are only allowed on the beach off-season, so we really like to try to take advantage of that when the weather is decent. Decent was an understatement today: the last day of January had us at 50 degrees.

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Kasia walked with me, and Jim had the Zush on her leash.We went from almost the end of the Cove at Cape May beach and walked up beach toward the Convention Hall at Cape May. I think Zush heard us say we were going to try for the Hall, and she let us know it was time to turn back.We couldn’t believe that all the rock jetties and pilings that we normally would see between the beaches literally have disappeared.We don’t know if it was beach replenishment or last weeks’ Nor’Easter, but it really was reminiscent of Lawrence of Arabia. There was a lot of sand as far as the eye could see.

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We came across a lot of shells that we brought back home and both girls,especially Zush, were beat.

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I think it’s safe to say we’ll all sleep well tonight.

Old Softie Redux

For lack of anything worthwhile on five zillion stations on cable, I put on White Christmas on Netflix.

Yup.White Christmas.

No, there’s no snow right now in Cape May, but as someone with a first day of winter birthday, I always felt I had squatters rights on this film. My parents watched movies on the television and White Christmas always seemed to air in time for my Mom’s or my birthday. I remember being in my childhood kitchen, and Mom and I turned the tv around into the kitchen so we could watch White Christmas while we made cookies.

#Thankful for those days

  

Almost December

Jim and I went over to Cape May tonight to see the preparations for Christmas and see if any of the decorations are up.

It was surreal to walk through a seaside town and realize November is almost done and the temperature today is 51 degrees.We walked through town with sweatshirts.

We walked through the shopping mall/street and people were doing their black Friday shopping while eating ice cream. I think last year black Friday was snowing here:just goes to show you that climate changes is a reality.

We parked by the ocean and walked through Congress Hall, which was completely decked out for Christmas with the exception of it’s Christmas tree being lit.They are doing that a week from tonight.

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They have their carousel up and candy canes and lights on the shrubs.The doormen are dressed as if they are toy soldiers.There are garlands of evergreens all through the building.It looks as if it is Christmas.I guess they will do it soon enough,
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Full day

I did miss sleeping in today, as former retired people would people know.

We got up for Mass this morning, then paid a sick call on my buddy in Cape May.We then realized that we needed food for the house, so we went food shopping. We ran home and I walked the girls before coming back in and scarfing some lunch before changing for work.I got back in at 7:15 and walked the girls for their last walk of the night. Unfortunately, I have to get up early tomorrow morning for a doctor’s appointment.

I miss retirement. I miss my sleep.

The Perfect Storm

Compostman, aka Jim, took me out tonight to the Cape May Coast Guard Base for a date!

He knows how I loved the Perfect Storm.I have read Sebastian Junger’s book of the same name, and have read other things written about the event.So when the local paper had an article that Commander Bill Mueller, retired, was speaking, he knew I’d love to hear him.

Commander Mueller,who at the time was an ensign, was in the Coast Guard, serving on the Tamaroa. It was the ship that was on duty on the night of Hurricane Grace in October of 1991. The storm merged with a storefront coming out of Canada and another storm in the Atlantic to become the Perfect Storm.

It was intriguing, because of the movie, people right away think of the Andrea Gail, but there were many other rescues that were either attempted and failed or were successful,and to hear of the state of the sea with those waves, steel that was moaning from the wind, well…it was a scary, sad story.

The night and the talk really made you appreciate having two legs on terra firma.

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They say it’s your birthday

Today is Jim’s birthday.

His accomplishment for the year? He survived another year with yours truly, for one, and that’s a big one. I am not the easiest person to live with at times, especially of late.

The girls and I don’t know how we would live without him. Our family definitely would have a big piece missing.

Happy birthday to our Jim/Shingleman/Daddy…. We love you to pieces!

Sto lat!

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Tired

The ” Big Event”, as Shingleman liked to call it, is over.

When you have nine people in a house where everything you do is geared for two,well,let’s just say it’s a job. It was a nice job, but one nonetheless .

I like to entertain, but I am more of a family/dogs gal. I am blessed with compassionate friends, two of which came out to the big event. Their presence made it even more special.

Now, saluting the past and spending the present catching up with sleep!

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Another Saturday night

We are in until sunset; we just got in from Mass and dinner in Cape May. The air-conditioning is humming along, so the humidity is checked at the door. After dinner, we walked the Washington Street mall, and shared some ice cream.

It’s not often we get a chance to be out without the girls, so tonite was a special treat. We may get up early tomorrow to have the girls get a chance in the bay swimming again. This way Zush gets a chance to chill-us old gals need all the help we can get!

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Undiscovered by us until now

The picture in this blog is of one first streets in Cape May in its’ history as a fishing village. I am sorry to say that I didn’t catch the name of it, so what kind of blog writer does that make me?Tsk-tsk…lol.

We would always go to Cape May harbor, but never had found this street before until one of our neighbors had told us about it. It is located in the area of Pittsburgh Ave., right before the Coast Guard base. The street itself was so rustic, that part of me was hoping that George Clooney and the “Andrea Gail” crew would come on out-that is how authentic it looked. At the end of the street was a mooring for the boats, and next for that was a six-foot high pile of lobster traps, which, of course, were empty. I had been going to Cape May through all 52 years of my life, and I never even heard of this area. I am shocked at this because both of my brothers were fishermen.

It goes without saying, I’ll be back, and reporting more on this.