Spontaneous Road Trip to Cape May
Audrey and I took the opportunity on a sunny late-November Sunday to hop in our new cute lil’ car “Trigger” (more on him later) and drive aimlessly around the southern coast of New Jersey. We happened upon a totally weird, almost Twighlight Zone scene in this little town called Bridgeton where all these people were wandering the streets zombie-like. We high-tailed it outa there once the police started closing off the streets for a random parade. We thought they might be cordoning off the zombies.
After that, we pointed to a speck on the map called Sea Breeze and drove out there only to find nothing but a swamp. Seriously. Here’s the video:
As the afternoon crept up on us, we kept zig-zagging our way down the Coastal Heritage Trail (map) towards Cape May so we could watch the sunset. We saw another fun dot on the map called something like “NJ Tall Ship” near a very small dot called Bivalve. Who’s ever heard of a town called Bivalve? Sounds like a place to go for heart surgery. Bivalve, however, ended up to be a rotten-smelling boat launch for professional fishing boats. We got some amazing photos there, though. Like the one at this:
[More on Flickr.]
As the late fall sun quivered over the horizon, we pulled up to Cape May Lighthouse and the beach where we could pick up shells and cool-looking rocks and run around doing cartwheels and stuff. That was fun! And romantic!
And at last, we headed into the town of Cape May in search of a good meal. Alas, this was the only downside of the trip. Having no guide in a nearly dead off-season town with 90% of restaurants and businesses closed, we chose what appeared to be a quaint local joint. Instead, it had big screen tv with football playing, ditzy waitresses and crab cakes boiled down to crispy hard balls that looked and tasted like crap. Luckily, it was ‘buy on get one free entree night‘ so it was only half as bad as it might have been.
Spontaneous road trips on a sunny Sunday. Can’t beat it, baby.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
“Planned spontaneity” is what my friend Heiner used to call it. Loved those kids of things…go with the flow. Looks like a great day…nothing like going where the whims take you.
November 27th, 2007 at 7:53 am
One of the best trips I ever had was to a bog in the NJ Pine Barrens. We traipsed butt-high in mud to get up close and personal with pitcher plants.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
The photos in the Flickr are gorgeous! :o)
November 27th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Thanks, everyone! We bought a new camera for all the photos and video… I’m not 100% in love with it, but it does have some pluses. It’s the Canon PowerShot SD1000…
November 27th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
love the van
November 28th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
hey mark, i check in your blog now and then. it was nice to see cape may “late fall style”. cape may is best known for it’s amazing cuisine, sorry you couldn’t find something yummy. you can’t go wrong at the Lobster House, where an eclectic mix of salty ole fisherman meet after a day at sea. clam chowda there is awesome too! cape may sunsets are supreme.
i had to laugh at your description of bivalve. my brother used to date a chick who lived in bivalve in a hippie commune of nature preservationists. there is a great deal of bird migratory research that goes on there. a lot of students do their graduate work there and are employed by the great state of Jerz.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Cape May is the best thing New Jersey has going for it. One of my fave times was windsurfing on the Delaware Bay side with NW winds pumping up 25 knots. There was 5 foot swells and always the danger of going downwind into the ferry channel.
So I hope you at least had a beer in the Ugly Mug.
December 5th, 2007 at 12:02 am
Is it possible for Audrey NOT to be cute?
We were looking at an old victorian in Bridgeton at one point. The splendid isolation and proximity to the sea and marshes was sorely tempting.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
[...] I’m back to white! Also, a new header image up there is a photo we took on our ‘spontaneous road trip to cape may‘ back in late November. Pretty cool, [...]