Cape may

We all hear about the Jersey shore. I didn't know much about it before moving to Vineland except for what little I knew about Jersey Girls. We loved going to Jones Beach in New York, so we quickly explored the beaches in Jersey. Everyone raved about Ocean City because its so family friendly, a dry city. Naturally, we go where people recommend. Ocean city is nice but way over crowded, and too commercialized. Not to mention that you have to pay for beach tags...hate that about the Jersey Shore. We usually just go to Atlantic City because there is no charge. To us a beach is a beach, if we can body surf and kids can play in sand, we're all happy. 

We've had intentions of making it to Cape May, the nations oldest seashore resort, found at the most southern tip of New Jersey, for some time. Now that we've been, we realized that was the place to go. It was beautiful, quaint, culturally enriching, and more. 

We've been into family runs lately, the girls bike, Doug and I run, Syd enjoys a ride in the stroller. So we decided to make part of our Cape May exploration a family run.  I love spontaneous family outings!

Our first stop was Sunset beach at the Cape May point. We saw a whole pod of dolphins so close to the beach, nothing more exciting than seeing dolphins in the wild!  We learned about the Kechemeche Indian tribe, native to New Jersey. They discovered the Cape May Diamonds, which are actually just quartz pebbles cut and polished to resemble diamonds. The Indians used these in their trading. We also saw the SS Atlantus, a ship built during WW1. It was used to transport American troops back home from Europe. After the war, it was retired, privately purchased and towed to Cape May. In 1926, I huge storm caused it to break free, it landed by Sunset beach and sunk. And there it stays.  

The girls collecting shells and Cape May Diamonds

The SS Atlantus.

I was horrible at snapping a picture of the dolphins, because I really just wanted to see them!

Our next stop was Cape May Point State Park and Cape May Light house. The lighthouse is beautiful...but aren't all lighthouses? You can't swim at the beach because it is dangerous. Something with how the water hits the land. There is also a WWll bunker and gun turrets on the beach that has slowly been washed away over the years. Very cool to see.

The beach at Cape May Point State Park 

Cape May Lighthouse

Our final stop was Main street Cape May. We biked the promenade, which is basically the boardwalk but cement. The original boardwalk was destroyed by a storm. Most of the buildings and houses are all Victorian...absolutely loved it! And lucky for us, it was kind of a chilly day so we pretty much got the promenade to ourselves.

Paige in front of her favorite ones, the green, red and white, and blue.

Leah gets head aches a lot so she hopped in the stroller with Syd and Doug rode her bike back to the car.