Whale (Dolphin) Watching off the Jersey Shore

The kids' grandparents booked an amazing whale watching tour over our July trip to the Jersey Shore. I've seen killer whales once on a Seattle ferry ride, but the kids never have. And with all our recent watching of Shark Week, they were pumped to get out on the water and put their newfound marine explorer skills to work. We didn't spot any whales, but we saw a TON of dolphins and had a beautiful (and much cooler) ride along the shore.

Ocean City, NJ Boardwalk

I truly never really heard about New Jersey growing up. Maybe that was just a Midwest thing. Sure, I knew that it was a state (I think), but not much beyond that. And anything I gleaned as I grew older was not favorable.

Weekend Makes

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone! This weekend generally marks our very first "summer" trip to the New Jersey shore. Unfortunately, we can't make it this year (although I'm secretly a little pumped that we'll give those cold waters a little more time to warm up before our first trip of the season). But we've still got beach on our minds. Accordingly, beach weekend makes. Happy holiday!!

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Fly Away: Cape May, NJ to Lewes, DE

How could we almost close down the summer season without posting on our awesome ferry ride between Cape May, NJ and Lewes, DE?!? We'll let it slide, mom. We know you've basically lost your mind with this extended summer (4 more days until school starts!). But, the rest of you are still in luck -- the fabulous fun aboard the the Cape May-Lewes ferry continues well into the fall.

We set sail from the Cape May side on a nice sunny day this summer. You can bring your car onto the ferry, but we decided to leave ours NJ-side and catch the shuttle in Delaware to downtown Lewes (you can buy tickets for the shuttle when you purchase ferry tickets). The ride over was pretty tame -- we sat outside, sat inside, made ourselves some impromptu rootbeer floats a la our Summer Bucket List, spotted dolphins, and pretty soon we docked in Delaware.

It was just a quick shuttle ride to downtown Lewes, apparently known as the "First Town in the First State," and which is super cute and very walkable. We didn't have much of a plan, but wandered about, had a little lunch, popped into the local sweets spot (Edie Bees Confectionary Store -- gorgeous and YUM), walked by a few historic houses, climbed around a waterfront park, and then we needed to catch the shuttle back so we didn't miss the ferry. Lewes is definitely a town in which we could have spent more time -- there are lots of neat little historic sites. But we were sure glad we caught our ferry ride home.

Because we somehow landed upon a serious party headed back to Cape May. There was a full band jamming on the roof and all kinds of snacks and drinks available for all. We boogied the whole way back and were actually quite sad when NJ came into view (which basically never happens -- we are always glad to spot the Garden State). Turns out that such parties are a regular occurrence and, in fact, there is an entire social calendar of onboard and ferry terminal events. I know Kane is eyeing up the Halloween Trick or Treat cruise. So if you're headed up the east coast any time soon, check it out!

Fly Away: Cape May County Zoo

It is really hard to get the two of us off of the beach when we're at the shore. But after a few days, we start to hit a wall. The sun and salt have worn us down and we need a little break. Mom's always had the Cape May County Zoo in mind as a good place to do that, but it took a rain day to get us there on our recent trip.

Word was that that zoo had brand new baby snow leopard cubs and we were PSYCHED to see them. The zoo is one of those great local zoos that have the animals fairly close up (although many of them are in cages or behind fences that make it a little difficult to see them) and we started on a path back to the cubs. It started to drizzle. Some bigger drops fell. Then the sky opened up and it poured. And all of our rain coats were back in the car (obvi). We persevered. But wouldn't you know those little cubs had just gone off view by the time we reached them. grrrrrrr.

Making a run for it, we headed to the reptile house and spent some time conversing with snakes. We thought the rain might let up, but after a while, there were no signs it was going to slow down (and plenty of flash flood warnings), so we hit the road. We got totally soaked on the run back to the car, which was super fun until we were in the car without a change of clothes. Lets just say some creative use of raincoats might have gone down.

We hope to go back on a nicer day!

Fly Away: Philadelphia Museum of Art

On another anticipated day of bad beach weather at the shore, mom took us in to Philly to go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The museum holds a special place in mom and dad's hearts -- they visited the museum on one of their first trips together and it's also where daddy proposed to mommy when she lived there. It has a great collection of modern art, but mom knew that I would go berserk for the hall of armor. Not to mention that the museum's symbol is a gryphon and the entire main building is adorned with Greek deities and mythological figures. You had me at gryphon, mom. You had me at gryphon.

I wanted no part of the classic "pose with Rocky statue" out front -- I was chomping at the bit to get up the stairs and see the armor. Cam and I spent a good amount of time picking out with what we would arm ourselves -- Cam went for the shiniest and bejeweled. I just couldn't make up my mind because each piece was more fabulous than the next.

After we'd sufficiently planned our defense, mom walked us over to see the room where daddy proposed. Word is that on the way to the museum back in the day, a nervous daddy asked mommy what she wanted to see first. She responded that there was a modern furniture exhibit closing soon and that she wanted to make sure and see that. He asked whether she'd like to see the Monets (which reside in a lovely fountained room where he planned to pop the question). Mom said "I *bleepin* hate Monet." Panicked, upon arrival, daddy proceeded to drag mommy throughout the museum asking her "do you like this room? how about this one?" They started to attract a little crowd as people could sense he was about to propose, so mom finally threw him a bone and said she liked a certain French cloister they were in. Oh well, we all know that it worked out in the end.

The main building is set up perfectly for a wandering walk, which of course is not at all the mood that we were in (particularly after mom tried to get us to pose and re-pose for a picture in that French cloister). Mom insisted on seeing the modern art before we headed over to the Perelman Building across the street, which was starting to set up for what appears to be a really fabulous set of family programming over the summer. The museum is transforming the Perelman Building into "Art Splash" -- a set of family programs featuring a different theme each week that will include guided tours, hands-on activities, picture books and more. We got a little view at what's on tap this summer and you can bet we'll be back to see more. Art Splash opens the weekend of June 28th and runs until September 2nd.

We rounded out our visit with a roll/climb/run through the sculpture garden and quickly attracted the attention of the museum fuzz because apparently you are not supposed to do any of those things in the sculpture garden. Little uptight there, fellas. Really. Fabulous day off of the beach (even though it never did rain)!

Artworks: Sand Art Jewelry

There were pretty serious storms hitting the east coast (and elsewhere across the country) last week and we took some part of one rainy day to work on a project that has been our list for a while. Mom spent much of her summers growing up on a little island in Lake Michigan and Grammie B always had a fantastic set of beach-centered art projects for mom and her siblings to do. One of mom's most favorite projects was making sand art jewelry. It's incredibly easy, but makes pretty and wearable art.

Here's what you need:
- plastic tubing and stoppers (we bought these pre-cut kits of bracelets and necklaces)
- a tiny funnel (the kits we purchased came with these)
- dry sand (we scooped ours from the beach, but if you are at home, sandbox sand works just as well)
- liquid food coloring
- a small container and spoon for mixing

Mix a few drops of food coloring into a small scoop of sand -- the tubing is tiny and a little sand goes a long way (although you can make other sand art with the leftovers). Place the funnel in the end of the plastic tubing and pour the sand in (we found out the hard way that wet sand is difficult to get in -- it worked, just took a little pushing and prodding). Layer the sand in whatever colored design you like. Then push a stopper in and wear it!

FYI, No Monsters in My Bed posted a great set of beach vacation activities last week and we've added those to our list as well. Check it out!

Fly Away: June in New Jersey

When things get busy, mom's head tends to resort quickly to triage mode. Whatever doesn't need immediate tending to gets filed away in a mental pile somewhere. So neither Cam or I were really surprised when mom realized a few weeks ago that school was ending several days earlier than she thought. Which also meant that our June trip to New Jersey was right upon us. Not to worry -- unlike mom's lack of preparedness for the end of the school year, we have packing for the shore down to a science. Everything has its place and we all do our parts. Cam and I make sure we have our loveys and books and every single bathing suit we own. Mom takes care of the rest. Sounds fair, right?

The Greens usually convene on the east coast at Nona's house for July 4th, but this year a few of our family members are going to be traveling elsewhere and this June trip also happened to fall on mom's birthday and Father's Day. So we decided to do it up right and all get together a little earlier this year. Things didn't go exactly as planned. The weather was bizarre. It was either a perfect beach day or a monsoon. Daddy was traveling for work and was routed and rerouted all across the country. We had to modify the Green Family Olympics. Daddy eventually made it with a few hours of mommy's birthday left. BUT, in the end, we had a fabulous week full of family, friends and beach, beach, beach.

We even made it home last night with just enough time for mom to fill out our forms and scrounge together sunscreen for camp. Which starts today, obvi.

Fly Away: Memorial Day Weekend at the Jersey Shore

Summer took its time getting to D.C., but when we had a few hot days last week, we couldn't wait to get to our beach. We spend lots of time at our Nona's house in the summer (well, the two of us, mom and vegas do. dad spends it working in the hot city. poor daddy) and Memorial Day always signals the true return to our most favorite place in the world: the Jersey Shore. All JWow jokes aside, our barrier island home away from home is the best of the best. As Nona is fond of saying: "if you are lucky enough to be at the beach, you're lucky enough." True that.

Now of course as soon as we showed up "down the Shore" (technically its "up the Shore" for us, but we like to roll Philly-style), the weather turned cold and rainy. Didn't stop us much, though. We hit up the beach for at least a little bit every day. The water temperatures hovered right around the low 50s, but Kane and I were unstoppable -- even in our clothes the first day, we both went right in the drink. Kane and Veg took to fanatical digging and I fostered a new love of jumping the waves (thanks Grandpa D-Rock!). And we built epic sandcastle knight fortresses and prisons and dug grottos filled with sand crabs. The new outdoor shower (thanks, Sandy) was tops and everyone fought over a turn in the sunfiltered steambath wonderfulness of an after-the-beach shower.

We got down to Wildwood Crest to see our cousins, Green's Bikes and hit up the Wildwood boardwalk (even some rides this time!) like it was going out of style. Mack's pizza, quality cousin time and a surrey ride. Can't beat that. And to send our Jersey gastronomical adventures into overdrive, we celebrated Memorial Day at the Brigantine Elks Clam Bake -- steamers, crab cakes, corn on the cob. Funnel cake of course. Top all that off with some live honkey tonk, an Elvis impersonator, and the Philly Fanatic?! No contest.

It was a fabulous (albeit slightly chilly and rainy) way to get the summer started!