June 12, 2023 We heard light rain overnight and there were some brief sprinkles as we ate breakfast. The sun finally peaked out around 10:30 and we left to see the 1879 Emlen Physick Estate. It was a short drive into Cape May City. The Estate is an 18 room mansion with Victorian architecture depicting one family’s lifestyle and how they lived, worked , and spent their leisure time.
It is one of the best examples of Victorian Stick-Style architecture in the country.
The mansion is thought to be haunted. On the grounds there is a Carriage House Museum and an art gallery.
From there, we took the Garden State Parkway to North Cape May to go to the Walmart there. We needed to stock up on some items. The Parkway is a toll road that you pay for when you exit. As we tried to exit, we found out that one lane took the EZPass and the other lane took cash. We realized that we left the EZPass (good for the toll roads on the East coast) on the bus. We did have the SunPass with us, but the SunPass doesn’t work here. The toll was 75 cents, exact change, which we didn’t have. We had large bills and 22 cents in coins. We sat there for awhile wondering what to do. There was nothing to do, but pass through the gate and deal with it. As we drove through, the neon sign said “Toll unpaid”, so now we learned that we will get a notice in the mail asking us to pay the fee. Lesson #1. We stopped to buy gas and were reminded that in New Jersey you cannot pump your own gas. They have to do it for you. Lesson #2. We found Walmart without any problems and filled our cart, only to find out in the checkout line that New Jersey doesn’t provide bags. You must bring your own bags or buy the cloth bags for $.74, so we bought one and jammed all the small items in it. The bigger items we left in the cart to put in the Jeep for the ride home. Lesson #3. Well, that was a morning of lessons learned. We got back and unloaded the groceries. We also put a couple of cloth bags into the Jeep for future trips. The sun came out and the temp was in the mid 70s, so I took a bike ride around the campground and into the neighborhood. I wanted to look at some of the beautiful homes in the area. There were so many, decorated in many different ways, and some with gingerbread trim. It was hard to choose which ones to photograph.
Biking through the neighborhood, I noticed the colorful hydrangeas and other flowers that were in bloom. Bob grew hydrangeas back in Wisconsin and we were told that the color of the flowers depends on the make-up of the soil. Different soils produce different colors.
In my biking tour, I came across two commercial buildings that were unique. This is an old church that is now Panico’s Bistro, an Italian restaurant.
This grouping caught my eye because of the bright pastel colors.
I was gone about an hour and enjoyed biking on my new E-bike. Auggie and I got to stay outside for awhile before the dark clouds moved in and it got cooler. Rain was on the way. Bob and I gave Auggie a trim outside and the clippings just blew away with the breeze. Around dinnertime, the showers moved in and we got some needed rain. After dinner, the sun came out and Auggie and I were able to take our walk. So many of the campers left yesterday or early this morning. We think that they were New Jersey or nearby Pennsylvania residents who use the campground as their weekend getaway because the place was deserted. We were able to watch the sunset from our front windshield.