November 7-9, 2019

Holly was slowly healing from her elbow surgery but was feeling much better. So we decided to escape for the weekend with our granddaughter Chloe. We aimed for Cape Henlopen, DE. The state park is well known to both of us. Holly’s family spent many summer vacations there living in a tent and playing at the shore. John and Holly both spent time at their mosquito infested group campground with the Boy Scouts.

The park is awesome! You have the Atlantic Ocean, Delaware Bay, walking sand dunes, an old military base turned museum, submarine watch towers, a cool bunker, a great Nature Center with Ranger Programs, a fishing pier, swimming beach, hiking trails, biking trails, bird sanctuary, and more. The park is right outside the little town of Lewes where the Ferry to Cape May, New Jersey docks. It is also a short drive to several nature sanctuaries, a canal, more bays, more swimming beaches and the Rehobeth Beach Boardwalk for all the junk food and beach town vibe you can handle.

For our quick escape, we stuck with the adventures in the park. Holly only had one arm so John and Chloe went on an exploration with bikes rented from the Friends of Cape Henlopen (conveniently located right near the Nature/Visitor Center). It was a beautiful day to explore and a good time was had by all.

For our second day we headed to Fort Miles (also in the park). This was fenced off in the past but is being restored and opened a bit at a time as a museum. We had a great time exploring the bunker, displays and BIG guns. Once we were done with the ground (and below ground) level displays, we headed to the tall, concrete submarine watch tower and climbed on up for an excellent view of the ocean and coast.

Our final exploration was a long walk on the beaches of Delaware Bay, around the point and along the Atlantic Ocean. Chloe found an overturned horseshoe crab and rescued it. It was fun watching it slowly slide back into the cool waters of the bay.

J