After our May wedding in Brooklyn, we took a few days to make our way down the east coast, eventually heading to the DC area for a friend's wedding. Our first stop was Cape May, NJ, a historical shore town at the state's very tip. We stayed at Angel of the Sea, supposedly one of the top B&Bs in North America. While it did have friendly service and old-fashioned decor, we were disappointed with the breakfast (granted OD has very high expectations for breakfast). Plus, it was slightly awkward that we were the only couple there who were not senior citizens; we were soon known among the other guests as the young newlyweds.
Being off-season and mid-week, the town was quiet -- actually, too quiet. A lot of the restaurants and shops were closed, and the whale-watching boats weren't running due to lack of passengers. The beach was nice, but it was too windy and cold for sun-bathing and swimming. We should have spent more time just relaxing at the B&B, but we had that post-stress antsiness. We did partake in afternoon tea on the porch and made a little bird friend who wanted OD's muffin.
After two nights in Cape May, we took the ferry from New Jersey over to Maryland; the trip was long enough for me to start feeling queasy and be glad that the whale-watching the day prior had been canceled. From the ferry, we did see a couple dolphins in the distance at least. Back on dry land, we swung by the outlets; though OD had resisted the idea of shopping on our mini-moon, I couldn't pass up getting US rock-bottom bargains! (Shopping in Singapore is prohibitively expensive.) Hours and shopping bags later, we headed to Berlin, MD, a quaint little town set about 20 minutes from Ocean City. As a wedding gift from friends, we stayed at the Atlantic Hotel, a historic inn on the main street. Like Cape May, the town was a tad sedate, but we did find some fabulous cupcakes and sea-salt chocolate-chip cookies.
The highlight of our mini-moon was definitely seeing the wild horses at Assateague Island. Generations of these horses have roamed free on this barrier island. Their shorter statures make them look more like ponies and their bellies are bloated from their salty diet of marsh grasses, however, their coats were not as mangy as I expected and they appeared quite healthy. I really wanted to see them galloping along the beach, but they pretty much stuck to eating the grass and loitering in the parking lots. They didn't seem to mind the tourists snapping photos of them and were fairly confident that the cars would stop if they blocked the road. We followed the rules and didn't get too close to the horses -- even though they seemed pretty tame, they are not zoo ponies and will bite and kick (however we saw some teenagers tempt their fate to get a photo).
It may not have been the most exciting week of our married lives, but we were glad to take a few days to recover from the wedding. And after all, it was just the first of a series of mini-moons -- we've decided that our honeymoon period won't be over until we have taken a full moon (28 days) of trips! Stay posted.
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