By Shelby
This was a busy week for travel. We took the week off so we could get further south this week. We left Monday morning for Philadelphia, about a 5 and a half hour drive from Rochester, NY. We decided to take a slightly longer route to avoid a $17 toll, which seemed very expensive. We stopped at a few rest areas along the way to eat lunch and fill up our water bottles. Oddly enough, three of the rest areas we tried stopping at didn’t have drinking fountains and one of them had a sign saying not to drink the water. We stopped at a pagoda in Reading, Pennsylvania to eat dinner. It was on top of a mountain overlooking the city. Unfortunately, we just missed sunset, but the view was still very nice. After dinner, we continued on to a Planet Fitness near Philadelphia to sleep for the night.
We had decided to drive into Philadelphia, so Spencer found a parking lot next to the Delaware River where we could park for the whole day for $20. From there, we walked to the visitors center near Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. It was mostly sunny out, but the wind was cold. At the visitors center, we got our free tickets for a tour of Independence Hall. Since it was off-season, there wasn’t even a line to get through security. We ended up being able to get on an earlier tour.
In Independence Hall, we were able to see the two main rooms. The Assembly Room is where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed. This was very cool to see. The other room was the court room, where the Supreme Court used to meet.
After the tour of Independence Hall, we went to see the Liberty Bell. The Liberty Bell is in a long building near Independence Hall with exhibits inside explaining the history of the bell.
We were starting to get a little hungry, so we walked to the two most famous Philly cheesesteak places in Philadelphia – Geno’s and Pat’s. We wanted to try both so we first got a cheesesteak from Geno’s to share. The cheese whiz was pretty watery, but very good. We ended up dipping the cheesesteak into the cheese that fell off onto the wrapper.
Next up was Pat’s. We got the same exact thing – a classic cheesesteak with cheese whiz. The cheese was much less watery than Geno’s. I think, overall, I liked the cheesesteak from Geno’s better. When we finished eating, we walked back to the car.
Before moving on to our next destination, we walked along a pier next to the parking lot. The battleship New Jersey was just across the Delaware River, which Spencer was interested in. Unfortunately, tickets to go on the ship are $25 each, so we skipped going on it.
Our next destination was Planet Fitness in Egg Harbor, New Jersey, near Atlantic City. Instead of eating dinner in the Planet Fitness parking lot, we drove to The Point, a small park on the ocean, to watch the sunset while we ate.
The next morning, we drove to Atlantic City to walk the boardwalk. This time of year, it was pretty empty and a lot of the shops were closed. But this also meant that we were able to find free parking a couple miles away from the main area of the boardwalk. It was interesting to me that you weren’t really able to see the beach from the boardwalk since there was a large sand dune blocking it. It started to get a little busier the further we walked.
We went into Caesar’s Palace to check it out. It was very fancy. Unfortunately, the dollar I put into a slot machine got stuck and we had to go get someone to open the machine up to get it out. We found the machines very confusing. Eventually, we found some old-style slot machines that we could actually understand how they worked. They even had the side lever to pull. We spent a couple dollars on those machines before deciding to move on.
Before heading back to the car, we walked out to the beach to check it out. It looked pretty nice, but also very wavy. When we made it back to the car, we ate lunch and relaxed for a bit.
Our next stop was the Cape May Point State Park, about an hour from Atlantic City. When we got there, we walked along the beach and checked out the lighthouse. There was also an old World War II bunker. The beach was very empty. There was only one other person besides us.
Eventually the sun started to set and we took a million more photos. After the sunset, we drove to the Planet Fitness in Cape May to sleep.
Thursday morning, we went back to Cape May Point State Park to do some hiking. It was a pretty nice day out. The sun was shining and it was warm enough for Spencer to wear a t-shirt. When we got to the park, we saw a lot of people birdwatching. The state park is popular for that apparently.
We walked a trail that started with a long boardwalk through the woods. It was very nice. I love boardwalk trails. The boardwalk led to a bird viewing area at a pond. We saw a lot of swans. They looked really goofy when they stuck their heads underwater to eat the sea grass.
The boardwalk eventually connected back to the beach. We walked back to the parking lot along the shore. The waves were huge and crashed loudly against the shore. From a distance, it sounded like thunder.
From the state park, we drove into the city center of Cape May to walk around the Washington Street Mall, a pedestrian-only street with cute little shops. I was getting hungry, so I got a lobster roll to snack on. It was really good. We also got some salt water taffy from a candy shop and got to try different kinds of jerky at a beef jerky shop. I tried elk jerky, which was pretty good.
We had a 2:30 PM ticket to the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, which would take us across the 17 mile long Delaware Bay to Lewes, Delaware. We drove right onto the ferry and went up to the top deck to look for dolphins, which have been seen from this ferry before. We didn’t see any unfortunately.
When we got off the ferry, we drove to Rehoboth Beach to scope out where we were going to sleep that night. There were side streets leading to the boardwalk along the beach that had free parking off-season. There were also public bathrooms. The area was really nice. There were some fancy hotels and lots of restaurants and shops. It was pretty touristy. After deciding where to park, we drove back into the city to go grocery shopping. Unfortunately, later that night when we went to use the bathroom before bed, the public bathrooms were locked. We had to drive all the way back into town to use a bathroom at a grocery store. It was only about a 10-15 minute drive, but it was a little annoying.
The next morning, Spencer got up to watch the sunrise at the beach. Since there were no Planet Fitness locations nearby, we went to a local YMCA to shower. They had free 1 day guest passes for newcomers. That was pretty nice.
It was going to be a rainy day, so we decided to do a wine tasting at a local Delaware winery. The winery had a self-guided history of wine tour that was pretty interesting. For the tasting, we got to try six different kinds of wine. The blueberry, peach, and apple wines were unique.
After the wine tasting, we drove on to Assateague Island, where we camped that night. Assateague Island and Chincoteague Island are known for their wild horses. As soon as we crossed the bridge onto the island, we saw a few horses on the side of the road. They were even just walking through our campsite. That night, there was a lot of rain from the hurricane that was making its way up the coast. I’m glad we slept in the car and hadn’t set up a tent.
Saturday morning, Spencer watched the sunrise at the beach again and went for a walk along the shore. After I got up, we went for a short walk through the sand dunes away from the water. After our walk, we went to the beach and did some more walking for a while. The weather was great. It was warm and sunny and not overly windy.
The island got busier and busier as the day went on. Tons of people brought multiple horses with them. It seemed like there were now more horses than people! After we ate lunch, we left the island and drove three hours to Virginia Beach, where we planned on staying to work next week. To get to Virginia Beach we crossed an almost 18 mile long bridge with two tunnels across Chesapeake Bay. The tunnels allow corridors for ships to pass over. Sunday, we went grocery shopping, did laundry, and worked on the website.
Fun Facts from Week 29:
- Many historians believe that salt water taffy originated in Atlantic City, New Jersey when a man’s store was flooded by the ocean. While he was cleaning up, he was asked if he had any taffy. He joked that all he had was salt water taffy and the name stuck.
- The game Monopoly is based off the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
- The peninsula that Delaware is located on is called Delmarva, a combination of the three states that have land on it – Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
- Cape May is the oldest seaside resort in the U.S. It officially became a seaside resort in 1761.
- The Cape May-Lewes Ferry is part of U.S. Highway Route 9. This is one of only two U.S. highway routes to include a ferry crossing.
One response to “Week 29”
This is the only way I ever get to see all these places. I enjoy reading about your adventure