Link to picture album for 7/5 and 7/6
Today we all woke up late (after 7AM) and feeling very refreshed! It was raining for most of the morning, but the clouds broke around 10 and we had to get out of the house. It didn't seem like much of a beach day, so we decided to just get in the car and make it up as we went.
We headed south toward Cape May. We took the scenic route and drove along the stretch of private beaches where multimillion dollar mansions sit. It's always amazing to see those giant houses and just imagine what it would be like to live on your own private beach. Kaeli was just amazed....the other kids didn't seem too impressed. :)
Once we got to Cape May we started seeing signs for the lighthouse. So, the lighthouse ended up being our first stop. We first took a walk on the bird observatory deck. It's a good thing not many people were trying to observe birds because we certainly scared them all away. A set of ramps led up to the main deck and Ryan and AJ had a lot of fun running up and down the ramps. Why wouldn't they? How many 3 and almost-2 year-olds do you know that would want to sit and stare out over a swam watching birds?
After looking for birds we walked over to the beach area for a snack. After our snack we took a walk over to check out the WWII bunker sitting on the beach. It was very interesting to see and just imagine what it all looked like when it was in use. It was also amazing to see how much beach erosion has occurred over the years. At one point the bunker was completely on land. Now it's halfway under water during high tide. During our walk AJ and I were on the back side of the bunker. An rather old gentleman walked past us and only said "looks like you have an engineer in the making". He was referring to AJ and I still wonder what it was that made him say that. I'm guessing it was that AJ always has such a serious look on his face-especially when he's looking at something interesting. It probably looked like he was very much studying the construction of the bunker.
We stopped by the visitor's center before heading off again. For our next stop, we went to Cape May Point--the very end of NJ. We played in the surf for a while and then had lunch.
Finally, we headed to the Cape May zoo. We make at least one trip to the zoo every year. This time our trip was rather short because we were all so exhausted by now. AJ was pretty grumpy because he only had about a 30 min nap in the car. Inside the zoo he had a tremendous tantrum over the fact that I would not put him inside the fence at the flamingo exhibit. For some reason he really, really wanted to get up close and personal with the flamingos. He was making quite a spectacle of himself--but I've become pretty accustomed to getting all these looks when he throws his tantrums. I try my best to avoid eye contact with people and just smile when I can't. We finally got AJ settled down and then it was Kaeli's turn. She wore her flip flops-even though I always tell her flip flops shouldn't be worn when we're doing lots of walking. She did have a blister between her toes, but as usual with her, it turned into a HUGE drama. Again, me feeling like the whole park was starting at us. We put Kaeli in the stroller and started heading for the exit as quickly as we could. We only stayed about an hour, but I should say this is a small zoo and is free. So, it's not like we lost out on alot of money by staying just a short time.
After recuperating at the house for an hour or so we had dinner and then headed over to the beach. It was very late in the afternoon (probably around 5:30), but it turned out to be a perfect time to just play at the beach. There was a huge tide pool and the kids just had a great time playing in it! We will definitely be spending more time on the beach in the late afternoons. It's a great way to waste those last couple of hours before bedtime.
It's now 10:00....the kids are all sound asleep and I'm very much ready for bed myself. I think tomorrow we will spend most of the day playing on the beach.
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