Day: November 11, 2018

New Jersey, we met a little unexpectedly and maybe not on the best of terms. On our google maps it shows Highway 9 going from the tip of Delaware to the bottom of New Jersey. But not quite to our knowledge its not actually a highway at all, but instead you have to take a ferry. We had heard of the ferry but didn’t realize that was the only option. Looking back, a 17 mile bridge would have been a bit ambitious for any construction team. So after reluctantly paying our kinda pricey fee, we boarded the ferry. Anxious to take advantage of this time not driving we dove into some much needed study time. Turns out Daniel and I’s stomachs did not enjoy the rough seas and the multitasking. An hour and a half later of tossing and turning nausea, we finally reached the shoreline. Land sweet land! Shook up and sea sick we greeted New Jersey. Exhausted, we found a nice parking spot, set up camp, and knocked out for the night! 

Feeling refreshed and much better in the morning, we set out to make the most of our day. We started in Cape May which is a cute little port town that is full of shops and brightly painted building. Think a little old lady’s tea house and you’ve imagined 50% of the Victorian styled buildings. Anyways, we started our morning off with Sunset Beach, a little ironic as we watched the sunrise and ate our breakfast there. Sunset Beach (warning the road to get there is the absolute worst, which is really saying something because we voted New Jersey roads as the worst so far!) is a really neat little beach because there is a sinking carrier probably about 150 feet out in the main body of water. Yes, I meant sinking, (as in still sinking) over the past 50 years it has progressively sunk lower and lower in the ocean. It is expected in the next 20 years or so you won’t be able to see it above the water at all. Either way, a good breakfast spot and I can imagine a nice place to watch the sunset. 

From Sunset Beach, we decided to explore downtown Cape Cod. What a quaint little place. We got coffee, explored their beach themed home decor shops, and admired the fall decorations that covered the town center. Every light post was covered in corn stalks or scarecrows. There was an almost overwhelming amount of pumpkins and hay bails scattered about. We visited The Magic Brain Cafe, to get our caffeine fix, and headed North.

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But, wait, before we actually headed North, we HAD to stop at the Cape Cod Lighthouse. Seriously, Daniel and I have an unhealthy obsession with Light Houses. It isn’t even because we love them so much. It’s the simple fact that if we were to miss, even possibly one light house, the world would literally self implode. So you’re welcome citizens. We’ve made it our personal goal to see every light house ever built in order to protect the greater good. *Takes a polite bow. Rest easy Americans.

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Now, northern bound (for real this time) we had to visit the famous boardwalks. Atlantic City, the more commonly known, and Ocean City (a bit smaller) are known as the longest board walks in the United States. Even though it was off season, I would say it’s still worth a visit. There are a ton of quirky little shops and puns everywhere to catch tourists attention. Atlantic City had a lot more open store than Ocean City, and is well known for their Casinos. Daniel and I not being huge gamblers, but not wanting to miss an experience, wandered into the most dramatic and cringy spot. Commonly referred to as, The East Coast Las Vegas, we had to take our shot at making millions. We were imminently greeted by a wave of stale nicotine, and slot machines. Being the middle of the day, our crowd consisted mainly of an elderly, quite depressing, group of gamblers. Having no clue what we were doing, but trying to play it cool Daniel and I wandered over to the machines. Being pretty tight on our budget, (and we didn’t want to blow our millions) we saw the neon “1 Cent” sign shining like Lady Liberty beckoning us to our fortune! With our nature of being Cheapskates, we found ourselves spending, (are you ready people?) a whole whopping dollar bill. That’s right, we gambled one crispy George Washington. No luck. Nope we got a few points, but didn’t earn our planned fortune. I know, it’s truly tragic. Especially with Daniel being 13% Irish, I have no idea what happened to all our good luck. Tragic. Oh well, guess our big break will come later. Bummed out, we decided to cut our gambling addiction cold turkey and give up the life of risk. With the thrill of blowing a dollar behind us, we finished exploring the board walks, and were met by a  much greater treasure. Salt Water Taffy. Holy Cow, it was so delicious! Shriver’s was our golden arches of freedom, and they have actually been serving taffy on the board walk for the longest since 1898. Literally, eating this candy was like an explosion of flavor and a gentle cloud of love between your teeth. It was not the normal chewy-break-your-jaw taffy I was used to. But instead, an absolute dream of sugary heaven offered in so many flavors it could satisfy even the most picky Americans. I’m telling you, this cheap little pockets of gold, made our boardwalk adventures the best it could possible be.

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With our sweet tooth satisfied, we decided we should burn off some of our recent treats. Batona Trail seemed to be a good escape. Batona is actually a 53 mile trail that is an acronym of “BAck TO NAture” and was designed to get people outdoors and exploring. We selected a 8 mile trail that took us from a Mexican Aviator Memorial to Apple Pie Hill. The trail was small, but incredibly beautiful. When we reached the top, we cooked some soup via our nifty little portable stove. It was a pretty brisk afternoon, and we made it back from our journey, right at dusk. The perfect ending to a wonderful day in the garden state of New Jersey.

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Though that ended our time in Jersey, we did do one more little waterfall excursion before venturing into New York. We woke up bright and early to begin our trip to the Big Apple. However, along the way, we made room for one more hike in the great Garden State. Well, we thought it was a hike but it turned out that it was a waterfall that you could just drive straight to it. We visited Great Falls Park, home of the Great Paterson Falls. It was a tremendous display of power, and it reminded me of the Willamette Falls in Oregon City, OR. The town was built around the great resource that was the falls, yet its full beauty was not completely smothered, and added to in its industrial brace. This stop was definitely worth it, and it was a great way to say goodbye to the neat state of New Jersey.

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Cheers!

McKayla

We looked on our map and saw Delaware as our next destination. This state is tiny, only beating out Rhode Island in a state size competition. While small in stature, Delaware was large in rooted history as well as delicious treats. We made our routine morning stop to Planet Fitness before setting out for Dover. Dover shared a lot of similarities with our previous state’s capitol. Brick everywhere, and I mean everywhere. If it could be constructed out of brick, it was. Delaware prides itself on being the first state in the U.S. and it definitely shows that statistic off with its capitol.

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The first capitol in the first state was very generous! Everywhere we went, we got a souvenir. Here! Have a flag! Take this Delaware State Pennant! Here’s a button you can wear to show off your Delawarean pride! Please take this full collection of commemorative World War 1 era art postcards, and if you try and give me money I will literally burn it, because it is no good here. It was very interesting to read about the history of Delaware, and after a day of walking around this small town, we grew hungry.

We drove past a local pizza joint on our way out and swerved into the parking lot immediately.

MILITARY MONDAYS: 50% OFF ALL PIZZAS FOR VETERANS

Say WHAT now?

Delaware quickly became the frontrunner for best state ever.

We sat down and were treated to a delicious, fluffy Margherita pizza topped with fresh basil, and our souls swooned as they gorged on melted mozzarella and homemade marinara sauce. It was only $7. $7!! It was worth every penny-and we even debated buying a second pie for the road. God Bless you Grotto Pizza, never change.

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Wilmington DE is home to the DuPont Black Powder Hagley Museum. The Dupont family took control of the Brandywine River and harnessed it power to manufacture Black powder. The process was as intriguing as it was dangerous. Everything was water powered-to include the machinery used to repair gears and other metal components in large processing machines. They developed a complex leather belt system that would run any drills, keying machines, grinders, and other various metal working tools needed by repairmen efficiently and smoothly. The craziest part of this whole contraption, is that they worked nearly silently. We also received a demonstration of the potency of black powder by one of the tour guides, and it was definitely a blast(dad pun intended). The whole open area museum was amazing, and the tour guides were all engaging and knowledgeable-although a little free spirited in a sense. In McKayla’s words: This whole place is ran by a bunch of Duanes!

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We began to make our descent towards Cape Lewes, we made a pitstop in Milton to visit the Dogfish Head Brewery. This place was huge! Vats of beer towered over the small visitor center and bar, that sported an outdoor seating area complete with fire pits and bocce ball lanes. A large twisted-metal steampunk treehouse spiraled up out of the ground to greet all those that wished to tasted delicious brews. According to the internet (a very reliable source, I know), a few employees reside inside of it. The beers were delicious, and the tours were closed (noticing a state trend here for the booze tours?), so we headed down south towards the giant highway that connects Cape Lewes and Cape May.

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Because that’s a thing, right?

“There is a bridge we can take… Route 9… That’s what the GPS says!”

“Ok… “

“Here, keep going straight, and then turn left in a mile”

“It says the ferry entrance is in a mile…”

“No, that’s wrong, why would they label a ferry as a route? Keep driving until you can turn left and then take that left onto the bridge”

I’ll let the reader take a gander at deciphering who was who in that conversation, but long story short, there’s no damn bridge that connects Cape Lewes and Cape May. The only way between the two ports besides driving back up north and around the bay, is to take a two and a half hour ferry that boards at specific, reserved times. We should have done our research, because we had no idea that this was what needed to be done. I felt like one of those tourists I always saw walking downtown Portland asking, “Is this a Voodoo?” while naively pointing at every bagel shop they could see (DISCLAIMER for all my non-Oregon readers: Portland, OR does not have a lot of bagel shops, so this must have been a very specific instance to highlight the utter stupidity and capture precisely how I felt in this instance). The lady working the counter rolled her eyes as we asked how to get on the ferry, before condescendingly explaining to us how to use the internet to make a reservation online…

“The next ferry is at 7:45, but you should probably get here at 7 so you don’t get confused”

“It’s 5:30, I think we can make it…”

The first person was the toll troll at the ferry gate. The second, literally anyone (but it was me). We had an hour and a half to kill, and the lighthouse 5 minutes down the road was closed for the day, so Mickey and I decided to travel north 20 minutes to Rehoboth Beach: Home of Carolina Reaper ice cream, and World Famous Thrasher french fries. We roll up in Murky Mer just in time for a beautiful sunset. The dying sunlight painted the sky with an assortment of melted sherbert that God lazily drew together and faded out with white on his latest Instagram post (He is literally the best editor ever, go figure). McKayla and I eagerly walked hand-in-hand down the boardwalk towards our destination: The Rehoboth Ice Cream Shop. Subtle, yes, but it does convey a point, I suppose. As we walked past novelty store after novelty store, we notice a repeating trend: All the stores are either closed for the day, or worse, closed for the season. I was optimistic, however, as the website for our ice cream destination stated that they were open until 9 PM. We wholeheartedly hopped along to the end of the boardwalk; the final destination in which our ice cream craving lay.

Yes! The door is open! We rush into the establishment, eager to sample each and every flavor. They have the Reaper ice cream! Today just got wild, I could not wait to melt my face off with something that was supposed to cool you off.

We look for a cashier

Nah

We look for an employee

NAH

We look for literally anyone

nah…

We round the corner of the building to find 3 ladies huddled in a circle, apparently gossipping about the miserable lives they led in their miserable town full of miserable people.

“What are you guys doing in here? We’re closed, please leave”.

“But… your door is open, and it’s only 5:45”.

“We close at 5 during the fall, BYE”.

The pain of rejection always burns more when there’s no ice (cream) to soothe it with…

I know that’s not how you treat a burn, but there’s no metaphor between running a burn under cold water for 2-4 minutes and a savory dessert derived from dairy products and a very spicy pepper, so sue me. Don’t actually sue me though, pls.

We were heartbroken (mainly me), destroyed (again, mostly me). As we sulked down back towards our sometimes-trusty-steed, we stumbled across another one of Grottos LEGENDARY Pizza restaurants! What luck! Heaven exists twice on earth, and we were eternally. Oh wait…

There is no Military Monday special at this location

Oh, ok, thanks.

The sulking continues… Only multiplied by the double betrayal that Rehoboth Hell  Beach had bestowed upon us mortal souls. As we trudged along the opposite side of the street, Mickey remained optimistic. She even made me pose along the boardwalk with the beautiful sunset. Hey, I had to do it for the Gram. I couldn’t be too grumpy, today had been a great day, and it wasn’t raining. Oh yeah, Thrashers World Famous French Fries was closed, too. The days seemed all but lost. Then, up in the distance, blurry red and yellow banners solidified into view…

NICOLA PIZZA: HOME OF THE NICO-BOLI

All that was America beamed down on us in neon-lights. Nicola Pizza is a bar/restaurant home to a famous calzone that many-a-former president have become akin to gorging on (George Bush Sr. and Clinton, to name a few). We had both read about this place, but had no idea that it was here. AND IT WAS OPEN. We sprinted into the bar, sat down, and ordered one of their finest Ground Beef Nico-Bolis to share. It was a delicious concoction of ground beef, cheese-whiz, and pizza sauce all wrapped together into a flaky pastry cottage. Thank you Nicola Pizza, never change (Grotto’s Pizza, change a little). With our bellies filled, we headed back to our ferry bound for the land of Guidos.

We made it to our ferry at 7 PM sharp. To much chagrin of the ferry toll troll, we did NOT miss our ferry, go figure. We had an hour to kill, and there was not much to do in the waiting area of the ferry. There was, however, a Pac-Man/Galaga arcade machine. Ask my brother, we beat Galaga on our old Play-Station 2, so you know that your boy is great at Galaga. I slammed in two quarters into the ol’ relic and began blasting alien spaceships.

3 levels in, piece of cake.

4 levels in, still, come on, no contest.

The first bonus round came up, and I began to notice a delay in the blaster button.

Still, easy.

Round 6: Out of the blue, my lil’ Skywalker shooter stops shooting…

Literally. The machine stops responding to the fire button on the control panel, and the rest of my 50 cents was spent dodging out-of-this-world kamikaze pilots while McKayla mashed the FIRE button for all it was worth only to yield on average 1 blast per 30 mashes. We didn’t make it past stage 9, but my word was every stage fought tooth and nail.

It was time for our ferry to depart, so we got back into our lil’ Mer’ Bear and loaded the ship with no issues. We both thought this two hour trip would be a great time to knock out some schoolwork and some blog work.

We was wrong.

Both McKayla and I are very susceptible to seasickness, and low and behold, the ride was choppy and miserable. It was fun trying to decide which between the two of us was turning greener, but that was the only ‘fun’ thing about this trip. We huddled in misery and waited for the suffering to end, until finally, we made it to shore again.

Looking back, it was pretty bizarre how up-and-down Delaware as a state was to us. The Delaware giveth, and the Delaware taketh away. Overall, I really enjoyed our time in Delaware, and even the ‘bad’ parts will make great memories down the road. Until next time, Delaware, tell your shops and restaurants to stay open later, yeesh.

-Daniel-