A Summer Trip to Cape May, New Jersey

Last week TD and I had a delightful trip to Cape May, New Jersey, which is at the southern end of the state and definitely worth a visit. First we stopped in Ocean City, New Jersey, which we always enjoy, and then drove further on down to Cape May, which we had not been to before. The town was a very popular seaside resort in the nineteenth century, but in 1878 a devastating fire that lasted five days destroyed 30 blocks at its center. When the homes were rebuilt, they were designed in the style of the day - Victorian. In 1976 the entire city of Cape May was declared an historic district and so today visitors stroll along block after block of beautiful Victorian houses painted and trimmed in a range of charming colors. Picket fences run along the sidewalks, and the streets are draped with tall shade trees. "I feel like I'm in Meet Me in St. Louis," said TD.

Luckily he had found a room in a charming B and B called Twin Gables where we unloaded our bags. The house is owned by the friendly and warm innkeeper Regina, who reminded me a little of my mother. Coincidentally, the B and B turned out to be around the corner from the home of TD's distant cousin Mary Ellen, who arrived at cocktail hour on the porch with her husband Joe. After a glass of wine, they took us on a quick walking tour of Cape May. Street after street of the prettiest houses and inns stretched out before us. The town reminded me of Cooperstown, New York, which is also an historic district, and of Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard.
Red, white and blue –

A cool porch under shade trees –

I liked this handsome chocolate brown Cape Cod house with turquoise blue trim –



A great spot in Cape May is the Congress Hall hotel. The large resort hotel was rebuilt in brick after the big fire in the nineteenth century. It was fully restored in 2002, and now it's a beautiful destination with enticing restaurants and bars. The striking main thoroughfare at Congress Hall features American flags and Victorian light fixtures – 

The hotel lobby was decorated dramatically with green walls plus red and black accents. Someone who knew what they were doing did a good job designing this hotel –

One night we ate outdoors at an excellent Mexican restaurant called La Dona. Many of the restaurants are BYOB so we picked up a small bottle of tequila and the restaurant made the most delicious orange, lemon and lime margaritas. The best I have had! The food was also excellent. Later, we walked to the big, old Chalfonte Hotel, which was built in 1876.

Simple and authentic, the rambling place has an old-school charm. There's a little bar on the side, and we sat and enjoyed a night cap on the long, wide porch, like that at the Sharon Spring Hotel in upstate New York. Families and friends who seemed to be there on an extended holiday pulled up rocking chairs and talked in intimate groups.
One day it rained, not a beach day alas, but afterwards a rainbow shone bright.

A fitting end to a fun adventure in Cape May –

In the Summer Swim

The view from the beach house in Connecticut (click on photos to enlarge).
TD and I have had a wonderful summer and have been able to get out of town a lot on the weekends. We used to go to visit my parents in Guilford, Connecticut, taking the train out of Grand Central Station on a Friday night after a week of work. But my mother has passed away and my father has moved to Colorado and the family house was sold so TD and I have gotten creative regarding getting out of town in the summer. Also, we have lovely invitations!

TD and I both like to be near the water, specifically salt water. Ted grew up in Atlantic City and so he spent his childhood on the beach, and my family took summer vacations on the Jersey Shore on Long Beach Island, which is where my great aunt Margie, who lived in Philadelphia, had a summer beach house. We drove to the Jersey Shore from upstate New York, six of us in the station wagon, and there I was introduced to the ocean and the soothing, calming sound of the waves.

Then in college I spent two summers on the island of Martha's Vineyard where I was very close to the ocean. I especially liked the "up island" end of Martha's Vineyard, previously called Gay Head and now called the Indian name Aquinnah, which is very wild and free and feels like the end of the earth to me. I recently came across this photo of my family on the beach there. This is from around 1985 - clockwise from the top, Eric, me, Cynthia, my mother, my father, and Thom.

I love to swim in the ocean and float along. When I'm in the ocean drifting I feel like I'm detached from the earth and earthly concerns and in the care of something greater, floating along in my life on my adventures and all is well. The water is a spiritual place for me.

One weekend in July, Ted's cousins the Pero's invited us to the Jersey Shore for the weekend and we went to the Ocean City beach, which is huge and wide. We spent a fun week there a couple years ago. It's packed with people as far as the eye can see having fun at the beach -

Another weekend, we took a ferry to the Sandy Hook National Park beach in New Jersey. On the boat ride back, this is the view as you return to Manhattan. New York City sparkles - it's like approaching the Emerald City.

Our friends Gary and David invited us for a weekend to their home in Fire Island, Pines -

With the ferries coming and going in and out of the harbor, carrying passengers to and from, the Pines really is a special place -

Southampton was the destination one weekend when we were hosted by my brother Thom and his family. We arrived on Friday afternoon and went promptly to the beach where neighbors had set up camp with billowing umbrellas and sheets for shade. I thought the arrangement looked very "Gerald and Sara Murphy in the South of France."

TD and I took a bike ride into the village to pick up some things. With its high green hedges and majestic trees, Southampton really is a beautiful town.



One weekend we took a subway and a bus to the beach at Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways at the end of Brooklyn, which we had not been to before. Another time, we took the train to Jones Beach. But the best part of the summer was when we rented a beach house in Guilford on the Long Island Sound for a week in August. We came in the back door and walked through the house to find this view of the water out the front (and at the top of this post).

It was a wonderful house and we enjoyed being there on the water so much.

The view was so beautiful that we could barely close our eyes day or night -

To take a break from the sun we drove one day to New Haven to the Yale Center for British Art, which has recently been renovated. In the Long Gallery (pictured below) on the top floor, paintings are now hung and stacked by theme - Landscapes, Portraits, etc., for a dazzling display of English art. It's a jaw-dropping room and offered the perfect combination of a heady dose of art on a sunny beach holiday. Admission is free. Do get to the Yale Center for British Art if you can -

Back on our little seaside point, we enjoyed a small community beach where neighbors of all ages came to sit in the sand and swim out to a floating raft. My brother Eric and his wife Tracy came out to visit.
At night we took walks around the neighborhood -

And tried to commit to memory the beautiful vistas

Summertime is a happy time of travels and get togethers, and I'm always a little wistful when Labor Day comes along. I hope you are have having a wonderful summer too --

A Week in Ocean City

A grand house steps away from the beach. (click on photos to enlarge)
TD and I are back from a much-needed vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey, where we rented a nice beach bungalow for a week. TD is from the area and his mother lived nearby so the idea was to spend some time with her but you may recall that she passed away very quickly in June. We were glad to go to Ocean City anyway and visit with his relatives and enjoy its spectacular beach.

Ocean City is actually an island located south of Atlantic City, which is also an island. Methodist ministers founded Ocean City in 1879, and the town is still "dry," with no alcohol sold within its borders. Ocean City is well-known for its big boardwalk, complete with an old-fashioned ferris wheel.

We stayed in the northern "garden district" where there are still many old homes like the big one pictured at the top of this post. Grace Kelly's family, which came from Philadelphia, had a summer home in Ocean City. Writer Gay Talese was born and raised in Ocean City, and owned a family summer home there until his wife, editor Nan Talese, unbeknownst to him, bought another weekend home in Roxbury, Ct.
We rented bicycles for the week, and enjoyed pedaling around looking at the  houses and gardens.

Some of the big family homes made quite a statement, but I also liked the smaller, simpler bungalows. Tendrils of green ivy were painted on the front of this charming cottage.

Many of the houses had awnings over the windows to keep the hot sunshine out of the interior rooms. Awnings came in many striped color combinations but I was drawn to those in tailored grey and white.

This grey bungalow had a handsome "pinstripe" awning, and the yard was surrounded by chic white impatiens plants. I personally like things to be simple like this; I don't like a lot of clashing colors distracting the eye.

We saw Ted's family on several nights, and it was fun to hear them recall old reminiscences. Every day we went to the beach which is long, wide and crowded with aficionados. Whole families, from great grandparents to infants, came down to the beach, with wagons and carts loaded with chairs, umbrellas, lunch, and all kinds of accoutrements. This community takes its beach-going very seriously!
A path to the ocean -

Stairway to heaven -

Clear skies ahead -

One day dark storm clouds rolled in but other than that we had good weather.

Lifeguards on duty -

TD pedals home from the beach -

On the beach at dusk – we are coming up on our 28th anniversary! 

The beach is always relaxing and restorative for us. And being with Ted's family, I learned more about him, even after all these years. It was a quiet, peaceful vacation; one of those places that was hard to leave, both physically and mentally. I hope you are enjoying these August days too.

Hot City

Free yoga class in Bryant Park on a hot and humid night – that's a lot of yogis. (click on photos to enlarge)

Although we had a cold spring, we are now suffering in New York, along with the rest of the east, from a serious heat wave. It's too hot to be outside, which is a drag. The summer so far in general has been very hot and humid, and the air has been heavy with discomfort. I've lived in New York a long time and I don't ever remember it being this humid, like a tropical climate. I wonder, with the changes in global warming, if this is how we will live now. I don't mind heat and I like summer but I long for dry, light, crisp air.

One night when the heat abated a bit TD and I walked over to Madison Square Park which used to be nothing special but has been transformed into a lovely city escape on Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street. Danny Meyer's Shack Shake is located there, and we got a glass of wine which is served in a sculptural plastic glass that is shaped for holding with a notch for your thumb. Disposable chic. We had a seat on a park bench, and, delightfully, a free jazz concert soon started with a wonderful singer named Rene Marie. Everyone around was entranced by her music. The classic Flatiron Building, built in 1902, rose above the trees in the park. There was peace in the city. It was one of those unexpected magical New York moments.

Stylish cylists are now tooting around town on 6,000 blue shiney Citibikes, the new bicycle sharing system in New York City. I like this guy's casual shorts worn with dressy lace-up leather shoes. As a bicycler, I am a fan of this new program. I say more bikes in the city and less cars.



A cool place always to take refuge is the New York Public Library main branch at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, the Beaux-Arts Edwardian pile which was completed in 1911.

The branch is now slated for a controversial renovation, and a group has just filed a lawsuit to halt the renovation. I really hope this library is not ruined.

Speaking of global warming, this delivery was a first. This pamphlet recently arrived in the mail from the Office of Emergency Management in response not doubt to last year's Hurricane Sandy.

Yikes.

Summer in the City

The sun setting over the Hudson River from the Chelsea Piers on a warm summer night.

Last Saturday morning I walked over to the Union Square Farmer's Market where the bounty of summer is now in full tilt.

I loved the purple flowers in the foreground here and I bought a bunch; I'm not sure what they are called.

After my yoga class at the Chelsea Piers I rode the blue Schwinn over to a flea market on 25th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway. It's in a vacant parking lot, and I hadn't been there before. Honestly I wasn't thrilled with the vendors there though I did like these colorful strung beads that look like jelly beans.

Then I stumbled upon a guy with good taste. And that's what the flea market is all about isn't it – the thill of discovery.

I really liked the big iron ornament shaped like a globe with an arrow through it which was standing on the glass case. The vendor said that earlier in the day it was priced at $75 but now it was $40.
Dear reader, it was hard to bicycle home with that heavy iron thing on my handle bars, I'll tell you that.

I put the purple flowers in a pretty green glass vase which I bought at the Salvation Army for $4. I especially like the white flowers which have a purple edge.

They look good at night too.

I put the heavy iron ornament on top of the iron and wood book shelf. I just love it.
It looks good at night as well.


Update: My friend Nannette emails to say that the flowers are lisianthus and my friend Meg suggests that the metal thing is an armillary.