Like everyone else in the world, we very much wanted a vacation (ANY VACATION) this summer. With school starting after Labor Day (and potentially in-person), we couldn’t take a chance traveling somewhere far requiring a 14 day quarantine. That limited us to…. New JERSEY! Neither of us have done a weeklong Jersey Shore vacation. We’ve stayed out in Wildwood twice now for the weekends only, and a weeklong stay in the Wildwood & Cape May area would be perfect.
Nums found an AirBnB condo that we could rent for the week, close to the beach and other attractions in Wildwood. We would be checking in on a Monday, and staying until Friday. We had some ideas of what we wanted to do that week — whale / dolphin watching, parasailing — and perhaps likely seeing friends and family. For the most part, we’d be relaxing. I was also bringing my bike so I could ride 1-2 times while out there.
We left relatively on time. On the way there, we stopped for lunch in a Wawa parking lot. We got to Wildwood without much trouble. The condo was really nice, and the kids were happy to have their own rooms. Everyone wanted to relax after arriving, but I was interested in getting some riding in before dinner. I went on a quick early evening ride to Cape May. Nothing fancy — I wanted to get the lay of the land.
After I got back home and freshened up, we went to dinner (outdoor dining) at 410 Bank Street in Cape May. It’s a very nice French restaurant that we’ve been to once years ago. Now, it was harder to find parking, as all the open restaurants have used their parking lots for outdoor dining. As always, good food.
On Tuesday, we spent the day down the street at the beach. It was an okay day, because the wind blew sand on us all day. It was… annoying. We eventually called it a day and went home. We scheduled two Hello Fresh deliveries for Tuesday. We enjoyed a nice Korean meal, and watched a few episodes of the hilarious The Goes Wrong Show.
On Wednesday, we went on our whale watching / dolphin cruise on Cape May Whale Watcher in Cape May. I doubted we’d be so lucky to see whales, but I was hopeful we could see dolphins. The cruise was 3 hours out to the ocean and back. We wanted to do one of these many years ago, but it didn’t work out. It was nice to get out on the ocean.
After the cruise, we drove over to see Nums’ friend Barb and her family, who were vacationing in Cape May this week.
Wednesday evening, my sister and her family arrived. They would be staying with us one night, and we would hit the Cape May beaches on Thursday together. The kids hung out Wednesday night, and the adults had a good time on the balcony.
Thursday morning, I was up early for a ride to the Cape May lighthouse. The ride went well, and I got to check this 26 mile ride off my list.
The Cape May beach experience turned out much better than our Wildwood experience on Tuesday. Less wind, less sand blowing on us. The beach was a little rockier, but you can’t win them all. In the evening, we made another Hello Fresh dinner, got some ice cream from a nearby ice cream shop, and then the Josephs went home.
On Friday morning, we packed up and cleaned up. We had to check out and get to Wildwood Crest for our 11 AM parasailing reservation. We rushed down there, and made it just in time to check in and catch our boat. It was an interesting experience — surreal and quiet when you’re up there in the air.
Once we got back to land, we grabbed lunch at a cafe, then went bike riding around the area. We rented a tandem bike for Nums and I, and the kids rode their own bikes with us.
That’s it! That was our Jersey Shore summer vacation. It wasn’t Cancun. It wasn’t some wildly expensive vacation needing passports. We all hung out together for a week, got to relax, and enjoyed some new experiences. We even got to spend some quality time with friends and family. Win win.
