Around Here: Vacation in Delaware 07/26-31

A glimpse of what it is like to be in our family just this week...on vacation!

photo cred: Jenn V

photo cred: Jenn V

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 403+ hours (of 1000)
Beach outdoor hours are some of the best. 

Reading and finishing How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang and I liked it. Very cute all around; a great beach read! The chapter of them in his childhood bedroom had me in a chokehold - the chemistry was crazy even though that particular chapter was very PG (Haha, there are definitely not PG parts -spicy!!) but I loved that whole interaction in that chapter! Then I started reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler and WOW. Loving it!! [I left Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros at home because I was afraid it was going to consume me and I was going to miss out on family time (lol).]

Leaving early in the morning (even though we didn't have to) because that is some of our favorite childhood vacation memories growing up - getting in the car in jammies and sleeping most of the way to the sounds of our parents talking in the front seat. We drove through PA to MD by the time we were driving over the Chesapeake Bay, everyone was awake and anxious to see the water. I planned a pit stop in Matapeake Park, MD where they had a public beach since we had plenty of time to spare before we could actually get into our VRBO house. We looked for shells & rocks, the kids put their toes in the water for a little bit and then we loaded back up for the last hour of the drive to Bowers Beach, DE! 

Grocery shopping because #bigfamily. We stopped at Food Lion in DE (about a half hour from our beach) to grab things from my mealplan and snack list so that we would be stocked for most of the week. There was no grocery store right in Bowers Beach, so it was then or never. We don't usually go shopping as a whole family and good thing because we are a spectacle - HAH - all 8 of our light eyes and light hair family members walking en masse through the grocery store...I get it, we are overwhelming (hah). The amount of times strangers have said to us "you've got your hands full" is outrageous. 

Getting comfortable in our VRBO house in Bowers Beach, DE. We stayed at Windsong right on the bay in Bowers Beach. The house was two stories with spiral staircases between the floors which the kids loved. (I didn't love that - it was hard to carry stuff up the steps, like suitcases and coffee cups, hah). The house was beautifully furnished and had two decks and was literally right.on.the.beach. There was a lot of big family helpful pieces of the house too - like a washer/dryer, dishwasher, a propane grill, full house bluetooth, wifi, towels & linens already there, loads of storage space for food and snacks, and the screened in deck. The house was perfect for our stay and our host, Karen, was really responsive and very kind. A reccommend from us if you find yourself interested in staying at Bowers Beach, DE! 

Obsessed with horseshoe crabs. Delaware Bay is well known for their horseshoe crabs and they were everywhere! It was not the full mating season, but we still saw plenty and we were all so fascinated with them. Rusty and Reddy loved rescuing them by carrying them back to the sea when the tide was changing to low. Keep reading if you want to go full nerd: Horseshoe crabs are incredible creatures that have been around for 450 MILLION years! They have blue blood that can be used to test our medical injectables to make sure that they are safe for human bloodstreams. The horseshoe crab eggs are the meal for the endangered birds the Red Knot, who stop on their migration from South America back to the artic! If you want to know even more - watch this video! 

Learning, tracking, (and enjoying!) the low and high tides. I refreshed the tide times website each day so that we knew when to expect swimming or low tide exploring! The tide change was drastic everyday. In high tide, the water was only about 15 feet from our deck and we could swim in 4-5ft of water right in front of the house. There was a little ridge that we had to be careful with that was covered in sharp oysters, so we kept our shoes on when we went swimming. During low tide, the water receded 200 feet and we could walk all the way out looking for sea snails, horseshoe crabs partially buried trying to wait out the tide, and minnows. It was honestly magical during low tide and I just had no idea that it could be that drastic! 

Fishing. Brandon and Grey visited the Bowers Bayside Bait and Kayak Rentals shop on our first full day of vacation. The owner was so helpful in getting them a fishing license, proper bait, and giving them tips on what, when, and where to fish. Grey was in his glory fishing all week and he caught a couple croaker. He and B also caught a horseshoe crab each by accident (we untangled and threw them back in unharmed), and B caught a stingray?! It was crazy and kind of scary, but he broke free before B could get close enough to cut him off (thank goodness kind of because he was flailing about and I was worried about someone getting spiked!) We saw a fellow fisherman down the beach catch a baby sand tiger shark (!!) and the bait shop owner did warn us that if we had any idea how many sand tiger sharks there were in the water that we'd be shocked......um, yikes. But we didn't seen any fins and sand tiger sharks are fairly cool about humans. 

Front Deck sittin' My favorite part of the beach house was the double deck. The first floor deck was screened in and we spent a lot of time hanging out there; playing chess and cards, eating on the bar overlooking the bay, and listening to music on the house wide bluetooth (amazing!) The upper deck was not screened, but somehow was high enough in the air that the bugs didn't really go up there (hah). Gemma loved that spot, just sitting up there doodling in a notebook and watching everyone on the beach. That was my favorite sunrise watching spot too - the sun came up right in front of the house over the bay each morning and with a cup of coffee and my fella next to me - it was perfection. 

Family dinner night out at The Boatyard at JPs on Saturday night. They had live music and their food truck and cornhole! It was our one scheduled restaurant dinner on the meal plan and we all got dressed up a little bit to make it feel like an official vacation dinner.

Ferry Ride from Lewes, DE to Cape May, NJ. We took a little drive down the DE coastline from Bowers Beach to Lewes to catch the ferry on Monday morning. The ferry ride was about an hour and it was a fun experience in itself. I purchased tickets for the ferry+shuttle before we left for vacation and I'm so glad we did because the shuttle from the dock to downtown would have been full if we hadn't! (I suggest just buying the combo ticket!) The ferry was clean and easy - you could even take your vehicle if you needed to!

Beach hopping over to Cape May, NJ where our friends the Valentines were spending the week on their family vacation! The kids (and me!) LOVED the big waves and asked that next time we do a beach trip we go somewhere that has waves that big again. Rusty and Gemma swam and dove in the waves almost the whole time we were there. Grey and the Valentine boys played in the ocean and on the beach (football, Spike ball) and the grown ups got to chat and laugh together. The babies were kind of scared of the waves and then spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping on beach chairs! It was the perfect visit mid-vacay with friends - thank you Valentines for showing us around! 

(trying to) avoid the bugs. Our only complaint about the vacation was the mosquitos and horseflies! We were all pretty bit up and despite using bug spray, we still were the targets for the bugs. It wasn't constant - if the breeze was coming off the bay, then it was all good. But if the breeze was coming from land - it was pretty buggy. We had that gorgeous enclosed deck though so it became a great spot to enjoy the view and sounds with safety from the bug bites! 

School shopping on the way home to break up the drive a little bit. We stopped at the Hagerstown, MD outlets and got each kid a few things for school clothes or shoes. The babies were so excited to get new preschool clothes (they wanted to put them on right that moment, obviously) and it felt good to stretch our legs and do something productive before we got home. 

Joyfully surprised to drive up our newly milled driveway (yay! so smooth - who's driveway is this?!) and to see that Pappy had cut down all our dead pine trees along the driveway while we were away! Thank you Pappy!

Greeting all our pets and thanking our animals watchers again for taking such good care of everyone while we were away. Pappy and the Maurer family - we are so thankful for you guys! The pups were all so happy to see us! 

Breathing a sigh of relief to be back in our own house with our own stuff. Even though it was a great vacation, there is always just the relaxation to be back in the familiar again and that's part of the gift of vacation too - a reminder that it's pretty good to be at home too. 

Sporting by making it back home in time for cheer and football practices for Violet and Rusty on Wednesday night. Vi was happy, Rust was kind of bummed but then was glad he went afterwards. 

Making meals at our beach house this week and Brandon did most of the cooking. He said he'll do 5 days of the year if I can do the other 360 days - hahahhaha, that's a joke marriage police (kind of, hah). But not having to cook on vacation is actually a deal I'm willing to make! We had frozen pizzas, church picnic chicken on the grill, spaghetti, shrimp, taco night, and sheet pan nachos. We ate out at The Boatyard one night and while in Cape May we had lunch at Hot Dog Tommy's.