Anniversary Getaway

With our wedding anniversary just around the corner (tomorrow),

we decided to take a quick trip to the beach as a celebration.

We left the farm early Friday morning and drove to Cape May, NJ.

Cape May is the beach town of my childhood vacations.

So, going back to this place after having been gone for so, so many years

was great fun.

It was definitely a trip down memory lane for me...

and fun to share those memories with Hubbs.

We stayed in a lovely old Bed & Breakfast, called Angel of the Sea,

with its high ceilings and wooden floors, worn smooth by a hundred thousand shoes

 over the past 175 years.

We were transported into a time of velveted furniture, feminine wallpapers, 

and Chantilly lace curtains.

(Very Victorian, indeed.) 

We had access to bicycles and took that opportunity to ride all over town

and down to the neighboring Cape May Point

(the southern-most point of New Jersey)

where childhood vacations were spent at my great Aunt's cottage.

Sadly, as of this summer, the cottage was sold, torn down,

and the lot made ready to build two new beach houses.

As time always does... it marches on, and with it comes change.

We rode around "The Point" visiting all of the old haunts...

the lighthouse and skeletal remains of a WWII bunker on the beach.

We rode past the old convent by the sea... where once there were porches lined with

 rocking chairs filled with vacationing nuns in their black and white robes, 

contemplating the ebb and flow of the tides

or ideas too vast for my comprehension at the time.

Those same porches, this time, were empty.

We stopped by Sunset Beach where the hull of an old cement ship still remains,

in the spot in which it sank in 1926.

Onward we rode through the neighborhood of The Point to see if a favorite place

was still there.

Happily, we found it.

The General Store has been there since I was a child.

What used to be just a small grocery, is now a restaurant, coffee shop, and quaint shop.

In the days of childhood vacations, we would awaken early and climb on our bikes...

riding over washboard-rough macadam to the store for 

fresh donuts.

We'd ride home again with the anticipation of that first bite...

through the sweet bread-like shell to that luscious cream filling....

powdered sugar clinging to our lips.

This time, I opened the door to the General Store

and peered into the bakery case.

Sadly, no donuts.

One last chocolate-filled croissant called my name.

Just as before, I lacked the restraint to eat slowly, savoring each bite...

but, instead, plowed into the buttery dough and sunk my teeth into soft, dark chocolate.

Bits of flaky pastry clung to the corners of my mouth...

replacing the powdered sweetness of childhood.

A new memory created.

Re-fueled, we rode on...

stopping at an area of land that was purchased by the Nature Conservancy

and turned into a nature preserve.

We were especially interested in this site, as The Nature Conservancy is one of the non-profits

that we support.

We walked its sandy paths

 enjoying the flora and fauna of the land...

swans and their cygnets...

In the afternoon, we sat on the beach, wrapped in quilts for warmth

and read (something I rarely have the time to do.)

Beggars, looking for handouts...

And we... knowing that if we encouraged him,

our beach would end up looking like this:

 (as it had the previous afternoon.)

With uncertain weather Sunday morning,

we decided an early morning walk on the beach would be our goodbye.

It was quite dramatic, with a storm just off the coast...

sheets of rain falling to meet the sea.

We walked to the northern most edge of town with the sun trying its best to peek 

through the clouds...

while behind us, the storm continued.

Not knowing how the day would turn out,

we decided to beat traffic out of town and return home a little earlier.

The weekend was a wonderful treat...

filled with delicious memories...

in a place that will always be magical to me.

It was a perfect anniversary with my very best friend.