Delaware Beach and Camp Times

This summer flew by. Between my two biggest excursions to North Carolina and Lake Champlain, I certainly can't say that I didn't get my fair share of swimming done, but somehow I struggled to find a weekend to dedicate to my annual Delaware beach camping adventure. In previous years I've gone in the early summer and then again in the latter part of the season. This year I wasn't sure I was going to go at all. I've gained some new responsibilities at work and they were making me feel slightly less capable of taking vacation days...but I made it happen. I arrived on the Wednesday before Labor Day and quickly set up my tent. Rain was also in the forecast, so I set up a tarp so I could still enjoy at least a little time sitting outside. After setting the site up I did as I often do and went to Fin's for happy hour and oysters. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so you'll just have to trust me when I say that I had a dozen oysters and steamed shrimp and enjoyed a Troeg's beer while making friends with an older woman who has a hair cutting license in three states.

The next day it was beach times. I brought a beer with me. I also brought Let's Pretend This Never Happened, which is a pretty good read if you're interested in a funny woman with a wacky childhood recounting her various anxieties and triumphs.

The water was really perfect that first day. The waves weren't crashing as much as lolling and I was able to comfortably float without fear of being smashed to the ocean's floor. So the campground is about a mile away from an access point for the beach. This access point is about 2 miles away from the primary beach area for the park, which features a giant parking lot,  large bath house, concession stand and life guards. Generally speaking the section of beach that you can walk to from the campground is far less crowded. The area by the beach house is always pretty chock full of bodies and umbrellas, while this more remote spot certainly isn't going to give you a sense of being totally alone but does give you a little more space between people. This was very much the case on that Wednesday, when it was pretty much me with my set up and then a young couple a couple hundred yards away from me on one side and a lady with her two sons on the other. It wasn't quite as solitary or remote as the beaches of Eleuthera, but it was still nice. Oh and there was an Amish couple playing baseball because of course. I have many thoughts about the Amish/Mennonite folks also camping but I'll perhaps share that in my next post.

After a day at the beach it was time to seek out a meal. I decided to return to the Surfing Crab and debated whether I was going to go the soft shell or hard shell crab route. In the end I decided that I was up to a solitary round of crab cracking and ordered half a dozen medium crabs. In the past I've been seated, or have seated myself, in the dining room to the left when you first walk into the space, which has long picnic tables that are perfect for large parties. This time, however, I went to the room that actually had seats with backs. I was, as is often the case, the only person by myself and the majority of the other tables were older couples on what seemed like double or triple dates. In one instance three couples came in together and quickly the men sat at one table while the women sat at another. I guess that makes sense? As a woman who sometimes finds the conversation of men more interesting than those of women (not always of course), I always hate that breakdown, but maybe after you're married for 30 years you just don't feel like hanging out in a coed group anymore?

I also ordered fries. This was a generous basket of very hot and crispy fries. I enjoyed them but didn't make that much of a dent, as my real focus was on the crabs.

This crab was a dictator in life, and a high five enthusiast in death. I made it through four crabs but couldn't quite bring myself to eat the last two. Service was good and fast. I could have perhaps done without my waiter touching my shoulder in a way that I felt was a little pitying or presumptuous. Or maybe I was just being overly sensitive. I didn't see him touching anyone else's shoulders. So it is a funny thing, my simultaneous desire to want to talk about how it actually is a little bit of a bummer to do things I like by myself and my annoyance if anyone other than me assumes that I am bummed. I had a fine time on this evening. The crabs were good. I had a book. I was doing exactly what I wanted to do. Yes, I would have liked to have a little company, but not having a companion didn't immediately make the meal (or any other aspect of the trip) suddenly sad. And yet I felt like those shoulder touches were somehow supposed to buck me up. Or it was all in my head. Hard to tell really.

And then it was a new day. The water was a little rougher and I was reading a new book, also good: Beautiful Ruins. This day was definitely more packed as far as folks, which made sense given the fact it was now a Friday on Labor Day weekend.

I worried after hearing stories all summer about these massive dolphin deaths in the Atlantic that I wouldn't see any on this trip. Luckily that wasn't the case. One of the positive things of being on a beach with other people, some of whom are children, is that I could focus on reading my book with the knowledge that if there were dolphins to be sighted, the parents would call out to their kids loudly enough for me to to into zoom photo action. As always, it was neater really to actually just watch their fins skim the water's surface than to try and photograph it. Really neat. Though I still haven't seen another one jump out of the water like I did quite a few years back.

Looking toward the main beach/bath house area.

Tent and Ducks at Cranberry Lake Campground

I bought a sleeping bag in preparation for this trip, as I remembered just how ill prepared and cold that one night's sleep was back in 2009. So now my tent is totally tricked out with air mattress, sleeping bag and foyer. This is what it looked like on Monday morning.

That morning one of the lakeside sites was unoccupied, so I walked down and perched on a rock and interacted with some ducks. Interacted isn't quite the word. I sat on a rock with my feet in the water and the ducks paid me no mind, neither in terms of fear or curiosity.

I liked the secret bit of blue they had going on in their tail feathers. I wonder what purpose it serves.

Morning Time

C., Mr Ass and I camped on the site I had reserved while C. and J. and K. camped on their own site and K. had her own site as well. In the morning - hmm there are too many C's and K's. Let's call my friend and pizza/wine C. C.P. and let's call friend from college C. C.S. and college K. K.H. then J. can be J. and K. can be K. I'm glad we worked all of that out. Anywho. In the morning C.P. and I awoke around the same time. She promptly readied herself for a run while I began eying a box of garlic Triscuits for breakfast. Later on Mr Ass also got up and though it wasn't even 9 in the morning, we began a game of Scrabble. Meanwhile C.S. and J. were having a little time in their hammock. I took a photograph or two, but either I focused poorly or they had multiple chins.
The view of my campsite from C.S., K.H. and J.'s perspective.
Mr. Ass played admirably, but was ultimately defeated.
More of the bounty that C.S., K.H., K. and J. picked up at the farm stand.
After C.P. returned from her run, she, Mr. Ass and I got into Mr. Ass's car and drove to Dunkin Donuts. I ordered myself a coffee and since it was my *birthday* I felt I was entitled to eat my first egg sandwich from Dunkin Donuts since my college years. Strange thing-ish: except for one African American teenager, the entire Dunkin Donuts staff was made up of young men and women from some Eastern European country. I don't know which one, but I'm sure of that. It made me wonder if they were there legally, and if they all were somehow related. A mystery that I'm sure someone could easily solve.

Next Stop, Delaware

A while back I was seeing a whole ton of 30th birthday party photos on Facebook, and it got me jealous. Jealous that I hadn't attended the parties in question, and jealous that I never have parties like that for my birthday because it always falls on or around Thanksgiving, and folks are too busy with their families for that kind of shenanigan. So I decided I was going to throw a faux thirtieth birthday weekend for myself...because if I didn't do it, who would? No one. So I let a whole bunch of people know that this was my intention, and where I would be, and invited them to join me. I actually gave them two opportunities, and that Friday was the beginning of that first opportunity. I drove to Philly, unloaded some stuff and reloaded other stuff (tent, lantern, etc) and then drove out to Cape Henlopen. By the time I got there (not as early as I originally intended), C. and J. and K. and K. and C. were already at the campground. Yeah. I wanted my faux 30th to be held at Cape Henlopen because it is magic there. Once I arrived I put up my tent and had a beer. C. and J. and K. went to the beach, but C. also put up her tent and joined me in the glory that is having a drink or so while the sun is still in the sky. We also bought firewood.
Firewood we turned into a fire. Because I hadn't expected to spend the night in the Hudson Valley, my entire timeline was a little wacky and I hadn't really figured out what any of us would eat that first night. Thankfully C. and K. were better planners than myself, and it is really because of them that we had anything to eat at all.
Mr. Ass arrived later in the evening and contributed S'mores and corn. Well, more corn - I hadn't realized that C. and K. et al had already purchased a few ears at a farm stand on Route 1.
These peppers were especially good.
K. was a bit of a grill master.
We all had a good night of fire sitting, hot dog eating, corn gnawing and bourbon drinking. I'm so glad this group of folks all made it.

Rain Drops (Not Falling on my Head)

The days were generally hot, very hot, but a storm did roll through on Sunday. I holed up in my tent and took a nap.

Bed Tent Fort Lovin'

Behold! The tent bed fort! I'm going to try to take a few more in an effort to give one the full blown awesome sense of its scale and cozy factor, but here are a few to start with.
Blue!

Rain Tent

I could have sat and watched the ocean from my high little perch for a bit longer than I did, but the serious cloud line I saw behind me made me think better of that plan. So I returned to my campsite just as a steady rain began to fall. I tucked into the tent and spent about an hour reading Jane Smiley's 10 Days In The Hills (a book so chock full of so many things that I have a lot of thoughts about it...I think it may be the most sexually explicit novel she has ever written). I was nice and dry and not overly warm in my tent, and I remembered the many, many days I spent reading in a similar fashion in the summer before my senior year with great nostalgia.

I really think that living the tent life is one of my favorites. You don't have a computer, you don't have a television, you have books and whatever thoughts you have and that's it. You get a lot more writing and thinking done in this setting. I don't want to mislead anyone, however, into thinking I don't appreciate the benefits of, say, a toilet and shower--both of which were within easy walking distance of my tent location (both in Cape Henlopen and in that summer).
Above you can see the vestibule/foyer that my rain flap provides the tent. I love this small space that I could leave my shoes and other non-waterproof belongings, as it led to less clutter in the tent itself while peace of mindedness that the items outside the space would not be compromised by poor weather.

Tent Play

Before I left Philly, I got my tent out of the coat closet and I noticed that S. had quite a fine looking lantern. He was sleeping, so I did the presumptuous thing and took it without asking (leaving a very long note explaining my actions and imploring him to text me if it wasn't okay). And it's good that I did. Well, if I hadn't I would have bought my own light source. It's a good thing I did because this lantern was a powerhouse of light. So much so that I got very into taking photographs of my campsite, and myself, with it as almost my only light source.
Photoshop!



It reminded me of my early experiments in photography. And by experiments I mean more about my playing with my image and long exposures. All guesswork, without any real idea or concept, just messing around for the fun of it. None of these photographs turned out particularly well, but it was fun to use that little piece of my brain.
There are more pictures for later. More of my face and silliness.

Sunday Camp Getaway in Cape Henlopen State Park

After last week's failure to take advantage of one of my very last vacation days before the busy season takes away my ability for vacation/leisure, I was determined to make something of my very last vacation day of the year. So, I successfully reserved myself campsite 6 at Cape Henlopen State Park, which is located on the shore of Delaware, near Lewes and Rehoboth. Very close to the Cape May-Lewes Ferry actually. I considered taking the ferry until I learned it costs close to fifty dollars. I arrived around 12:30 and set up my tent, which was no easy feat. I don't really remember that part of my earlier stint of tent-life. Eventually I was successful.

I emailed R. and A. earlier in the week to see if they'd like to meet up at the beach so I waited for them before going to the water. R.,A.,A., S. and A. arrived. The kids all look older than the last time I saw them and it was great to see them. On the way to the beach we saw a herd of deer in a big field, and a few yards away was this white deer. Never seen anything like it.

And then we were at the beach.
It wasn't an overly sunny day, but it was warm. We saw so many dolphins just a short distance from the shore line. More than ten, maybe fifteen? And sometimes? Sometimes, just for fun they would jump out the water and flip. Wild dolphins flipping of their own volition! It was so cool. I couldn't get over it. I stayed in the water for a while, wiped out on one wave and got quite a snoot full of water in my nose...not to mention sand in my suit and a bruise of my calf. But I lived to ride more waves, with a better sense of timing no less. A. saw a jellyfish, and I saw it too, but I decided not to freak out about it.

Last time I saw A., she couldn't walk. Now she can. Crazy. We all get older, but seeing kids literally age is just crazy.
S. loved looking for crabs.


The lifeguards were very young and fit. It was embarassing.

It was lovely to see the whole family. After a few years of not being able to meet up, I'm liking seeing them more often. It used to be, when I was in high school and college, that they were the first people I would call and see when I came back to Maryland. R. and I have, as she said on her blog, known each other since we were 14 and 17 respectively and I think was probably 16 when I met A. What a long time ago that was. Or seems to be. Thanks to them all for making the drive and having a day at the beach!