The Ds. invade CM, Part Two

The evening of Day One was spent partly in enjoying coffee on the balcony



partly in the Ds. wearing part of their shell collection as hats.



The collection is now installed on the round glass table on the patio so that HP can enjoy his shell garden.


Day two required us to go downtown and see the Victorian houses, the Victorian horses and the Victorian carriages, and sample the Victorian Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream, while wandering around in the sun like everyone else, all mad with joy after the long winter and the long cold wet spring, with the first good weather in ages. Everyone smiling and laughing and eating ice cream and sampling fudge and generally doing what you do on The Mall in Cape May.

The fountain was not yet working, so the Ds seized the day and sat in one of the flower things





playing at being bouquets of flowers, while we listened to the violinist



who set up in the shade and played lovely Irish airs happily.

And we noticed several things: one was the arrival of a lone Scots piper in complete regalia, walking up and down in front of the church, pausing only to take a nip of something...




And we saw a wedding carriage all tricked out with ribbons





the horse gleaming in the sun, ribboned and with brasses, and with a driver in a top hat. After a while they trotted off down the street, no doubt to collect THE BRIDE from the reception.

To the Ds intense delight, they saw their first wedding in person. The church doors open onto the mall, and they were wide open so we heard a great rendition of the Schubert Ave Maria by a better than average singer, then the joyous exit music of traditional brides, and she appeared on the church steps



whereupon the piper struck up with Scottish airs



and very good they were, too.

She was so tasteful -- simple ivory embroidered dress, beautiful back detail, small veil, very understated makeup, just perfectly lovely, and I guess there was a bridegroom too, but they were soon mobbed by the guests coming out of the church, and there were only a couple of unfortunate hats.

But the bridesmaids were in the traditional green, with the traditional butt bows...



and the Ds were asking why, why, didn't they bring their wedding gear, here they were in beach gear looking like well, tourists, instead of honored guests.

The real wedding guests all climbed into an old fashioned trolley, bride and groom, too, and went off to the reception, from which I guess the horse and carriage would pick them up afterwards. There was only one attempt by a tourist to get a ride on the trolley, not understanding this was not the one he had a ticket for, but he was pacified and sent to the other side of the street where the real trolleys wait.

Horse and carriage is a popular way of trotting around Cape May, and they have to stop at red lights along with the rest of the traffic.



And there's the sightseeing trolley




Then there are those multibikes that entire families climb into



and the parents push like blazes and the kids sort of go through the motions of pedaling.

And there was what I think was an official Coast Guard type speedboat,



which crossed the bay in about three seconds, a blur, much further out than the amateur speedboats, and I wonder if our tax dollar financed it. There were commemorations of the armed forces this weekend, and I wondered if this speedboat was showing its paces. If I were in trouble, I would certainly appreciate being rescued by this thing. You could scarcely go underwater once before it would be there.




And we did go to the harbor, partly to give a shout to the Coast Guard whose station is there and who I think are the least recognized of our military forces, partly to visit the nature center



and partly to see the harbor and pick out what ship we'd have if we could have one



The harbor has wonderful clay under the surface, which the original Indian residents used to make coil pots. I've dug some up to make little pots and beads, and it's a lovely dark greenish gray, very very good for your skin, unlike most clay, and I just air dried it. Not serious clay, just a nice shout out to the long ago clay workers.

Day Three yet to come! even more adventures...stay tuned.

And Day Three was the Yarn Shop!!! in honor of which the Ds. had got to work on the current sock



But the Yarn Shop



was like returning to the maternity ward for the Ds., where, however, the star of the show was Francesca



who was very hospitable to us all, while I invested in a lovely helping of Spanish wool top, ready to spin, time I did some spinning, it's been a while. She is a keen Raveler, too, as are the people in the store, including Marie, and we all agreed Rav. is a Good Thing.

So was the trip, and I was totally rejuvenated and ready to come home and see HP and HS. speaking of shout outs, a huge one to HS who took over completely in my absence, and I came home to a peaceful house, HP perfectly well looked after, looking very cheerful, and the animals happy, the place all in order. Great stuff to be able to trust that all is well like this. Big cheer for HS, please!