The Dollivers invade Cape May, Day One

Just back today after a wonderful, packed, three days at the shore, with the only three days' good weather to be had anywhere in the region, sunburns, even.

The Ds were rendered speechless by the beach and the Atlantic Ocean. Get a look at that, it's HUGE.



Very big for Dollivers. They held hands on the whole trip, just to be sure.

And the whale and dolphin watching boat came by on their first beach visit, to great excitement, see, it says d-o-l -- hey, it's the Dolliver Watching Boat!!



wave, they're watching us here on the beach.

Nice piece of natural sculpture there, too




Next stop the hawkwatch platform, where they craned out to see as much as they could without falling into the marsh



and a new friend, Susan A. took their picture.




Turns out that aside from being an instant Dolliver fan, and a very nice woman indeed, she's an artist, weaves, makes dolls, has worked in clay, you name it, a kindred spirit! and she went so far as to make our portrait, Boud with Dollivers, a first.





What a piece of luck to have met her. Wonderful new friend.

Then a hike to the bird blind, where the Ds were amazed at the sight of a pair of swans with six cygnets, all wound up together like kittens, hard to count, but we think it was six.





We kept at a prudent distance -- you don't want to irritate a pair of swans with young.

At the entrance to Cape May Meadows, next stop, we read the official recognition that this is one of the few last best places!



we all vote for that. And there was the usual obliging bird who sat on a post long enough for a picture.



There's always one for me, every year. Maybe it's the same one. Oh, it's her again. Well, I'm a nice guy, I'll pose. Again.



Also at the meadows, a snowy egret, the kind with the golden feet,



danced about gracefully for a while, and overhead an osprey flew over with a huge fish in his talons. Many hawks and vultures, a glossy ibis in the shallows, and at the edge of the ocean, joy, the piping plovers, rare and protected, are nesting again and succeeding. And a couple of oyster catchers wandering about casually as if they were not the first ones I'd ever seen.

Back at the fort, while we lay around on the balcony,



an energetic mom of three tiny kids organized them into the wading pool,



while a couple of teens read intently in the big pool, maybe finals are coming up.




More adventures to come!