Another Cape May Trip Report : July 1 - July 5
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:40 am
Susan NJ's trip report prompted me to add a different adult perspective of the same place at basically the same time. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera, so no pics.
We stayed at the Hotel Macomber, which is a National Historic Landmark and on the northern end of the historic district right on Beach Street.
http://www.hotelmacomber.com/
The ground level has shops on either side of the entry stairs. One side had a bagel & breakfast shop, the other side had a convenience store. Around the corner on the Howard Street side of the building was a bicycle rental shop. The first level of the hotel had a wrap-around porch with plenty of seating and also held outdoor diners at dinner. Inside were the check-in counter and also the Union Park Restaurant - "casual fine dining." We had one of the “first floor” rooms overlooking the beach, which were actually on the second floor. The covered balcony was our favorite “people-watching” spot. Directly across the street on the boardwalk was an ice cream shop, arcade, candy store, beach apparel store, and around the corner on the end of the building sitting right on the beach was McGlade’s restaurant. This place had fantastic breakfasts (at least 20 different omelets) and very tasty lunch offerings as well.
Beach access was right across the street, either at Howard street (on our left looking from our balcony) or at McGlades. Our first evening, as we were sitting on the balcony, we watched as a white carriage with red upholstered seating, drawn by a white horse, pulled up at the beach access at Howard St. A bride, three attendants, a flower girl and a photographer got out and made their way to the beach. They disappeared behind the arcade building as the carriage pulled away. About 15 minutes later the carriage returned, with a young man and an older couple. They also got out and made their way past the arcade building. This time the carriage stayed put. Sometime later the bride & groom returned and got into the carriage and rode off to their future together. The other folks walked to wherever they were headed without benefit of the carriage.
Our first full day we got up early, slathered on the sunscreen, put clothes on over our swimsuits, packed up the beach gear and headed to McGlade’s for breakfast. After breakfast it was several hours of beach time, stop at McGlade’s to pick up lunch to go, back to our room for lunch on the balcony. This worked so well it became our daily morning routine.
Later in the day we picked up a couple of bicycles for three-day rentals to get around town with and took a ride through the streets of the historic district to admire all of the Victorian buildings. At Washington Street there are a couple of blocks that are closed to all but foot traffic. This is a pedestrian mall, with shops and restaurants. We parked the bikes at the bike racks at the park and strolled around window shopping and looking for a place for dinner. Picked a spot at random, name I don’t recall, and had a good meal and a couple of drinks before cycling back home.
We awoke to drizzle on the third, so instead of hitting the beach we decided to take a drive south to visit the lighthouse. There’s a multi-level viewing platform there overlooking a wetlands and pond area, where we saw a variety of waterfowl. The charge was $7.00 to climb to the top of the lighthouse, we decided against it and instead explored the interpretive displays at the visitor center. Lots of aquariums set up with various native amphibians, reptiles, etc. and very nice displays. Had a chat with the caretaker comparing her experiences with mine as a caretaker at my local state park’s aviary, then headed off for more exploring.
Next we encountered a Property owned and operated by the Nature Conservancy with hiking trails.
http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/re ... eadows.xml
So we took a hike. This property consists of restored wetlands, beach dunes and undeveloped beach. You could walk to and along the beach, but were not permitted to stop, sit, swim, etc. The dunes area between the wetlands and the beach proper were fenced off & closed due to the nesting activities of the numerous water birds, which included plovers – a threatened species. There is a viewing platform overlooking the marsh & nesting area. At the beach, the waves were breaking right on the shoreline, and just beyond the breakers was a pod of dolphins. They were so close to shore we could see their eyes. When the dolphins moved on, so did we.
My husband's birthday is the third, so I treated him to dinner at the Union Park Restaurant. It was BYOB except for some rather pricey local wines that they offered only by the bottle. Being a special occasion we bit the bullet and split a bottle of merlot which was actually very good. He had the duck, I had the petite filet and both were excellent. They stuck a lighted candle in my husband’s dessert but did not humiliate him a with a song, a nice touch.
On the fourth, after our morning McGlades-beach-McGlades-balcony morning, we had a bird’s eye view of the parade that came down Beach Street. Anyone can enter the parade, and I got a kick out of the many participants of the “Bicycle Brigade”. Some imaginative and humorous bike decorations and costumes. I gave a standing ovation to the white haired older man who marched past enthusiastically playing the bass violin he was carrying by means of a strap over his back – like a giant guitar strap. Now that’s stamina. He, a saxophonist and a banjo player were putting out some rousing Dixieland.
Later in the afternoon we biked south again, parked the bikes in the park again, and wandered around again. There was a community band in the gazebo at the park playing patriotic songs, which we enjoyed for a bit. Then we started looking for a place for supper. This time it was the Rusty Nail. We were early so were seated right away. We wanted something light so each ordered salads. Mine was a Ceasar with lump crab which was very good. Don’t remember husbands, but there were no complaints from him so it was also good. Had a couple of drinks here before cycling back “home”.
That evening we crossed the street to the beach and watched the fireworks barge arrive, set up and finally make with the fireworks – a very nice display, although we could not see the ground-based display that preceded it. We would have had to remain further south in town to see that, and I’m not big on crowds.
Our last morning we did an abbreviated version of the morning beach routine, substituting a stop at the fudge store for McGlades and returning in time to get checked out by 11 and head back home. This was our first visit to Cape May. We will definitely back to explore all the things we didn’t get to (like SusanNJ’s wineries).
We stayed at the Hotel Macomber, which is a National Historic Landmark and on the northern end of the historic district right on Beach Street.
http://www.hotelmacomber.com/
The ground level has shops on either side of the entry stairs. One side had a bagel & breakfast shop, the other side had a convenience store. Around the corner on the Howard Street side of the building was a bicycle rental shop. The first level of the hotel had a wrap-around porch with plenty of seating and also held outdoor diners at dinner. Inside were the check-in counter and also the Union Park Restaurant - "casual fine dining." We had one of the “first floor” rooms overlooking the beach, which were actually on the second floor. The covered balcony was our favorite “people-watching” spot. Directly across the street on the boardwalk was an ice cream shop, arcade, candy store, beach apparel store, and around the corner on the end of the building sitting right on the beach was McGlade’s restaurant. This place had fantastic breakfasts (at least 20 different omelets) and very tasty lunch offerings as well.
Beach access was right across the street, either at Howard street (on our left looking from our balcony) or at McGlades. Our first evening, as we were sitting on the balcony, we watched as a white carriage with red upholstered seating, drawn by a white horse, pulled up at the beach access at Howard St. A bride, three attendants, a flower girl and a photographer got out and made their way to the beach. They disappeared behind the arcade building as the carriage pulled away. About 15 minutes later the carriage returned, with a young man and an older couple. They also got out and made their way past the arcade building. This time the carriage stayed put. Sometime later the bride & groom returned and got into the carriage and rode off to their future together. The other folks walked to wherever they were headed without benefit of the carriage.
Our first full day we got up early, slathered on the sunscreen, put clothes on over our swimsuits, packed up the beach gear and headed to McGlade’s for breakfast. After breakfast it was several hours of beach time, stop at McGlade’s to pick up lunch to go, back to our room for lunch on the balcony. This worked so well it became our daily morning routine.
Later in the day we picked up a couple of bicycles for three-day rentals to get around town with and took a ride through the streets of the historic district to admire all of the Victorian buildings. At Washington Street there are a couple of blocks that are closed to all but foot traffic. This is a pedestrian mall, with shops and restaurants. We parked the bikes at the bike racks at the park and strolled around window shopping and looking for a place for dinner. Picked a spot at random, name I don’t recall, and had a good meal and a couple of drinks before cycling back home.
We awoke to drizzle on the third, so instead of hitting the beach we decided to take a drive south to visit the lighthouse. There’s a multi-level viewing platform there overlooking a wetlands and pond area, where we saw a variety of waterfowl. The charge was $7.00 to climb to the top of the lighthouse, we decided against it and instead explored the interpretive displays at the visitor center. Lots of aquariums set up with various native amphibians, reptiles, etc. and very nice displays. Had a chat with the caretaker comparing her experiences with mine as a caretaker at my local state park’s aviary, then headed off for more exploring.
Next we encountered a Property owned and operated by the Nature Conservancy with hiking trails.
http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/re ... eadows.xml
So we took a hike. This property consists of restored wetlands, beach dunes and undeveloped beach. You could walk to and along the beach, but were not permitted to stop, sit, swim, etc. The dunes area between the wetlands and the beach proper were fenced off & closed due to the nesting activities of the numerous water birds, which included plovers – a threatened species. There is a viewing platform overlooking the marsh & nesting area. At the beach, the waves were breaking right on the shoreline, and just beyond the breakers was a pod of dolphins. They were so close to shore we could see their eyes. When the dolphins moved on, so did we.
My husband's birthday is the third, so I treated him to dinner at the Union Park Restaurant. It was BYOB except for some rather pricey local wines that they offered only by the bottle. Being a special occasion we bit the bullet and split a bottle of merlot which was actually very good. He had the duck, I had the petite filet and both were excellent. They stuck a lighted candle in my husband’s dessert but did not humiliate him a with a song, a nice touch.
On the fourth, after our morning McGlades-beach-McGlades-balcony morning, we had a bird’s eye view of the parade that came down Beach Street. Anyone can enter the parade, and I got a kick out of the many participants of the “Bicycle Brigade”. Some imaginative and humorous bike decorations and costumes. I gave a standing ovation to the white haired older man who marched past enthusiastically playing the bass violin he was carrying by means of a strap over his back – like a giant guitar strap. Now that’s stamina. He, a saxophonist and a banjo player were putting out some rousing Dixieland.
Later in the afternoon we biked south again, parked the bikes in the park again, and wandered around again. There was a community band in the gazebo at the park playing patriotic songs, which we enjoyed for a bit. Then we started looking for a place for supper. This time it was the Rusty Nail. We were early so were seated right away. We wanted something light so each ordered salads. Mine was a Ceasar with lump crab which was very good. Don’t remember husbands, but there were no complaints from him so it was also good. Had a couple of drinks here before cycling back “home”.
That evening we crossed the street to the beach and watched the fireworks barge arrive, set up and finally make with the fireworks – a very nice display, although we could not see the ground-based display that preceded it. We would have had to remain further south in town to see that, and I’m not big on crowds.
Our last morning we did an abbreviated version of the morning beach routine, substituting a stop at the fudge store for McGlades and returning in time to get checked out by 11 and head back home. This was our first visit to Cape May. We will definitely back to explore all the things we didn’t get to (like SusanNJ’s wineries).
