Saturday October 1: Back Home but Where Did September Go?

Where did the month of September go? Time flies when you are having fun, right? So I guess that means we've had a ball this past four weeks! Somehow it just doesn't seem like it so it must be the distraction of dealing with Steve's arm. Regardless, we returned to the boat yesterday about noon and were back into the water by 1 pm. It's good to be home :-) The Relax Inn was our home base for the last four days. It's in Galloway, NJ about 10 miles from Atlantic City. The room was a total of $130 for the four nights - and yes I know what you're thinking: really? Was it bad? Actually it was great! Only two years old - very clean and comfy - no holes in the walls or anything! Plus breakfast (bagels, coffee, muffins) included and a small frig and microwave! Seems it is very much the off season around here. Anyway, we took the scenic go-along-the-ocean road south toward Cape May with a couple of stops to check out the beaches and trails along the way. The lighthouse museum in Cape May was pretty good. The end of the cape and the part of the town that was there is quite a bit smaller. In the first picture you can see the current shoreline in red - with all of the land below the red line now a part of the ocean. Houses were just washed away in the many storms over the years. There was a Life Saving Station in the 3rd picture that was also just washed away and finally burned down. Double click to enlarge the pictures. Many species of birds migrate through Cape May throughout the year but this time of the year is the busiest for the birds. The first picture talks about the migrations and kinds of birds. Many different kinds of hawks. The second picture is the records for the birds spotted. It was so foggy today I don't know how anyone could see ANY birds at all! But there were probably half a dozen volunteers hanging around ready to identify and count any birds that flew over. The town of Cape May itself has so many old Victorian homes it's crazy. This is the row of homes which overlook the ocean on the south side of town - really fun to drive around town and see these homes.

Wednesday we headed to Atlantic City and the casinos! A mostly overcast day, the boardwalk (which we actually had ridden our bikes to when we stopped here on the way south) was very quiet. A few folks milling along but nothing like a month ago. We found a giant Monopoly board so that was fun. Lost our $20 allotment and moved on :-) Steve still has good and bad days, still not sleeping so we called it a day early and headed back to home base.

Our last day (Thursday) we decided to spend going to Philadelphia. Neither of us had ever been there and it was a relatively short 1 hour drive so off we went. On the way to Liberty Center, we drove through Chinatown with it's large, easily recognizable arch, found a place to park (on the second time around the block), went to the visitor center to pick up free tickets and waited for our tour time to see Independence Hall.

The tour guide was great - I think I learned more about the Revolutionary War in 1 hour than I ever did in school! The first picture is a painting of the action - the second picture is of the actual room in Independence Hall! The outside of the Hall is being worked on so it is covered with scaffolding.

Next was the Liberty Bell. There is a very nicely done area that talks about the bell, how it was cracked and why the crack got even larger because of the method used to fix it (a very acceptable method based on the time - it just didn't work on this particular bell!). Finally, it was time for lunch: street vendor sausage with onions and peppers. Not as good as the ones you can get at the Loudonville Fair but still pretty good. By this time it was time again to head back to home base. It was a good four days - nice to be off of the boat for a while, nice to have a full size bathtub! and in general was a good trip.