Catch-up Post #2: NJ part 1

July 4: We got in to our hotel, the Atlas, in Cape May around 6:30. The Atlas has seen better days. The paint job isn't the best ever. The elevator is slow as dirt. Every door sticks. But you can't beat the view.

We checked out the room, enjoyed the view from the balcony for a few minutes, then headed downstairs for a fresher-than-Red-Lobster seafood dinner in the hotel restaurant. (Crab cake sandwich was pretty darn good.)

We were both pretty full, but we couldn't go to sleep a stone's throw from the ocean without having touched it. So we walked to the edge of the earth and let the Atlantic reach out and touch our feet. Few things feel better.

Enjoying the incredible weather -- very cool for July -- we went to bed that night with our sliding glass door wide open and fell asleep to the sound of the ongoing battle between land and sea.

July 5: After 1300 miles of travels, we allowed ourselves to sleep in. The weather was cool again, with some showers in the forecast, so we decided to do a little site-seeing. We programmed Cape May Point State Park into the Garmin, and drove to across the point.

T is a big fan of lighthouses... and the ocean... which is a little weird, since she was born and raised in STL. But hey, I have a few quirks, too. Anyway, T had never been inside a lighthouse, so we were both pretty psyched about climbing the 199 steps to the top. It was pretty grueling, but the views of the town and ocean were definitely worth it.

What happened next has been previously blogged, so I'll spare you all the repetition. (I'm sure you'll all get sick of hearing this story anyway.)

So, she said "yes", but the ring was way too big. I knew this was the case, but the jeweler told me not to guess at the size, and I didn't want to spoil the surprise by asking T. So we scoped out a jeweler in town who could put a temporary "spacer" in the ring for us. We found a place in the Washington Street Mall area. With plenty of time left on the meter, we decided to take in some sights by foot. We spent about 45 minutes walking up and down streets filled with cute houses and shops. We went into a few shops, but didn't really buy much. It sprinkled on us a few times, but never to the point where it was unpleasant. As hunger started to set in (and T's shock began to wear off), we drove back to the hotel.

We walked to a great little place on the boardwalk for dinner. It didn't look like much from the boardwalk side, but after we made it past the waiting room we realized that we had made a good choice. The entire back (ocean side) of the restaurant was open, and we were seated at a cozy table right next to the railing.

The food was excellent -- I had the crab-stuffed chicken. We also had a small bottle of local wine. (We kept the bottle as a souvenir.)

We had our fill and enjoyed watching some of the restaurant's resident cats, then headed back to the hotel to see if our perfect day could get any better. (It did.)