Just one more Cape May post.. for this year, at least :)

Today I have a guest blogger!  My sister, Carrie, wrote this trip report about her latest trip to Cape May.  Enjoy!

My sister, Susan, and I just returned from our third visit to Cape May this year.  I just love it in Cape May.  We just went for a few days, from August 23-25, and as always, we enjoyed our visit.

We arrived in Cape May at around 9am to try and get the most out of our day.  The weather was cloudy and windy so instead of heading right to the beach, we had breakfast at the Oceanview Diner.  The food here is great!  This was our second time to the Oceanview for breakfast and it was just as delicious as the first.  I love their feta and spinach omelets.  YUM!  I know that everyone usually heads to Uncle Bills for breakfast.  The food is good there, also, but I think that the Oceanview is better.  Plus, there’s usually not a wait-not like Uncle Bills!

After breakfast, we did a little shopping-well, I did at least! No matter how many times I’ve been to Cape May, I always manage to spend some money!  My favorite store is Colors.  They carry clothing from Life is Good and also Fresh Produce.  The clothes are a bit expensive, but I somehow buy something every time I walk in the door!

Then, the sun came out so we hit the beach for a little while.  Too bad the wind didn’t die down!  We tried to put up the umbrella, but it didn’t last long. The wind blew it inside out!  But besides that, it was beautiful.

At around 3pm, out hotel room was ready.  This time around we stayed at the Capri Motor Lodge at Madison and Beach.  It felt strange to be in Cape May and not staying at the Victorian, however I really liked the Capri.  I think I read somewhere that it’s run by two sisters, but don’t quote me on that!  If you pay your balance in cash, they give you a 10% discount, so that’s a nice little perk.

We just had a standard room, with two double beds and a little kitchenette.  It was very cute.  Loved the bathroom!  The water in the shower got nice and hot!  We got cleaned up and headed out to Tisha’s in the Washington Street Mall for dinner.  The one drawback, if you want to call it that, is the location of the Capri.  It is maybe a 15 minute walk to the mall.  However, they do offer a free trolley service to get you from the hotel to the mall.  And if you make a purchase in the mall, show them the receipt and your return trip to the hotel is free also.  I prefer to walk, though.  I love looking at the houses and the cute little shops along the way. 

We go to Tisha’s every time we are in Cape May.  The food is always exceptional.  My sister is still talking about the Pasta Lauren-penne pasta, vodka sauce, peas, shrimp and pancetta.  I had the Chicken Pasquale.  Delicious!  One word of advice-don’t bring your small children!  There is no children’s menu.   While the staff is more than accommodating, the kitchen should not have to make special dishes, not listed on the menu, for young children.  Plus, nobody wants to hear a child yelling “I need butter!” when they offer seasoned oil to go with the bread!

For dessert, we both hit up Ben and Jerry’s.  I love the varieties of flavors that they offer.  The staff is great too, very organized when dealing with families that have large orders.  I had a brownie sundae.  Awesome! The brownie was so dark and fudgy.  It was the perfect end to our day.

I’m an early bird, even on vacation, so I was up and out on the promenade by 6am.  I love walking by the beach as the sun comes up.  It’s a great way to start the day.  I met up with my sister at Avalon coffee at 8am for breakfast.  The Avalon is a little coffee shop on Gurney Street, right next to another favorite spot of ours, Louie’s Pizza.

The iced coffee at the Avalon is really good.  And they serve an everything whole wheat bagel, which is sometimes difficult to find.  The whole ordering and paying system can be a little chaotic.  If only they would be a bit more organized, this place would be perfect.  But the iced coffee keeps us coming back!

After breakfast we went back to our room and got changed to go to the beach.  It was a sunny day, would have been perfect if it wasn’t so windy again!  There didn’t seem to be as many beachgoers on our section of the beach.  We had taken a walk and noticed that the beach was more crowded the closer we got to the convention center.  We couldn’t figure out why, but thought it might be because there aren’t any comfort stations at the end of the beach where the Capri is located.

We went back to the hotel to have the salads that we had brought with us for lunch.  The pool area was pretty crowded but there was a free picnic table on the lawn outside of the pool, so we ate lunch there.  Susan opted to go back to the beach after lunch.  I couldn’t take the wind anymore, so I stayed at the hotel.

There was a free lounge chair on one end of the pool, and I was able to nab it.  It was so beautiful and warm in the sun!  Very relaxing, too.  The pool at the Capri is a little smaller than the one at the Victorian and didn’t seem as deep either.  From what I could tell, it seemed to have a maximum depth of only 4ft.  This pool seemed well suited for young children and families, which there were a lot of!  They also took advantage of the free popcorn available in the lobby!

Susan came back from the beach at around 3:30 that afternoon.  We went back to our room to get ready for dinner at Louie’s Pizza.  The white slice at Louie’s is one of the best slices I have ever had!  Their crust is awesome!  And their mozzarella sticks aren’t half bad either!  After dinner it was back to the mall for some ice cream!!

Why does it seem that Mother Nature sometimes saves the best weather for the last day of vacation?  It was another beautiful day.  Since we wanted to have a nice breakfast at Tisha’s (again, Tisha’s!), we had to check out of our room by about 9am.  I wanted to get in a little more time on the promenade, and maybe a little time to read outside, before breakfast so I was ready for my walk at around 5:25am.

 It was still dark out and I was a little apprehensive about walking on the promenade in the dark by myself, but I went ahead anyway.  The promenade is fairly well lit in most spots and there were a few other people walking as well.  That made me feel more comfortable.  One thing did startle me, though, and that was the skunk that was hanging out in the grassy area on the beach side of the promenade!  Yikes!  Thank goodness I didn’t get sprayed!  Imagine that ride home!

We dropped our keys in the slot of the office door, since the office wasn’t open yet, and made our way to Tisha’s.  Susan drove over and I walked.  One of the things that I really love about Cape May is that once you get there, you can park your car and not need it again until you go home.  It’s such a beautiful town.  I love walking around there.

Again, our meal at Tisha’s was delicious.  Susan had an egg plate with bacon and I ordered the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.  Both came with their crispy, tasty home fries.  The roll for the sandwich was so soft and fresh.  It’s a perfect breakfast.  I think that their breakfast menu is more kid friendly than their dinner menu.  Even my picky nephew and nieces would find something to eat here.  If there’s chocolate chip pancakes available, they are happy campers.

Alas, after breakfast, we had to head home.  We will be back in June next year, though.  I’m already looking forward to it!  324 more days to go!!