If you’re looking for a charming, sea-side vacation with slightly dated hotels, Cape May is the place for you!  There was not a chain restaurant or chain motel in sight, which is good or bad, however you prefer your vacations.  I like the no-chain thing, Gene is more chain-oriented.

The cape is only a two hour drive from our place, and we really knew nothing about it.  Actually, I knew there was a beach, and I knew there was a free zoo.  So Esh-style is to decide about two days ahead, that hey, no work for Monday, the soil is too soggy to farm,  we could handle a weekend getaway, since 2008 held no vacations for us.

The problems with vacations is that I want so badly to relax, I want so badly for my kids to have a blast, I want so badly for my husband to get some downtime, that I get stressed trying to make it all happen.  And then it defeats the purpose.

So I wake up at 6:30 the first morning. (Actually Brandt, the scheduled alarm clock, woke me up.)  And I’m thinking.  We have to go to the beach!  We have to go to the zoo!  We have to go the pool!  We need to eat breakfast!  We need to sleep in!

Luckily we did all those things.  On day #1 we did the beach and the pool.  On day #2 we did the pool and the zoo.  And like vacations are, it was 60% bliss and 40% torture.

I found out that my dear daughter has the same problem that I do.   At the entrance to the zoo there was a merry-go-round that she wanted to go on.  We promised her that when we leave, she can take a ride.  While we were at the bears she asked about the merry-go-round.  While we were at the camels she asked about the merry-go-round.  The entire time at the zoo all she talked about was the merry-go-round ride she was going to have.  Finally I sat her down and talked to her. 

“Elena, we are at the zoo!  You wanted to go to the zoo yesterday and we’re finally here.  You got to see a zebra, and a lion! Just look at the animals and have fun looking at them.  Don’t worry about the merry-go-round.”

As you can guess when we finally exited the zoo the merry-go-round was not in operation.  They had covered up all the plastic horses with canvas tarps.  And as you can guess, many, many, tears ensued.

So later we went to Kmart and she took a ride on the little electronic helicopter.

Enjoy the moment!

Andrea