Made Up Beaches and Horseshoe Crabs

After our night at the Caribbean we got a diner breakfast and headed on down to Cape May. We drove out to the Cape May lighthouse. We wandered the beach a bit. The beach struck me as odd. Long and deep, flat, flat, flat so that you couldn't even see the waves until you got close to the water's edge, where it sloped down suddenly. We went to one of the town's beaches later that week and kind of had the same experience. We were also on a beach with lots of pretty young people...it just wasn't quite the right fit. We hung out long enough for me to get a bit of sunburn despite the sunblock but then headed home.

The beaches puzzled me as there was no natural slope and hardly any packed down sand. Finally I found this article and it explained a lot to me. The beaches have been rebuilt since the 1980's for millions and millions of dollars, and I'm not the only one that thought it didn't seem like a real beach...

Since 1989, the cost of rebuilding and replenishing Cape Island beaches has topped $50 million with estimates of more than $100 million to continue replenishing in the future. More than 33 million cubic yards of sand have been redeposited from offshore to create 5.7 miles of expanded beach from the Coast Guard base to Cape May Point. This new seascape today remains very political, experimental, controversial and one of the most expensive manufactured beaches in the world.

Depending on which side of the blanket you are sitting, beach replenishment is considered a blessing – or a curse. ....

There is no debating that beaches are the lifeblood of the economy. The lust for the sea experience generates billions in vacation dollars and real estate fortunes. Many blessings, indeed.

But there is danger lurking along man-made beaches where high surf breaks closer to the beach and there are sudden drop-offs and step-offs in the ocean where the imported sand has not stabilized to form a gentle slope found on natural beaches. There are invisible cavities near stone groins, aging steel and wooden piers that have been blanketed with sand.

Veteran beach lovers in Cape May Point were angry the first summer after the 2004 winter beach replenishment. They were vocal about dangerous holes and drop-offs, new rip currents and rough imported sand. They were accustomed to narrow tide-cooled sloping beaches of the finest sand in the world.

And Cape May itself, is of course a high tourist area with great Victorian architecture. Sometimes when places are so perfectly kept up they start to seem like a Disney version of it all somehow. This is why I am a failed preservationist in many ways. I like places before they are restored....or at least over restored. I love tourist areas that are slightly faded. So all in all, Cape May was fine, but not someplace we would return to. We hit some antique shops and malls and Owen found a present for Leo but that was about it.

Our house was on the Delaware Bay, just across the street from a little beach. I thought that sounded lovely until we ventured out there barefoot and I found I was walking on pieces of dead horseshoe crabs. Ummm. Okay, now I'd read a bit about them....but I just didn't picture them so BIG. When I read further though I found they can live to 11-12 years old....which means there were crabs out there Owen's age. They are rather fascinating creatures. I'll give you that. Completely primordial......they look like Darth Vader masks with a tail. I was kind of ok until we went out later and I found they were coming in with the tide, little tails sticking up out of the water and crawling onto the beach. I hotfooted it back to the front porch.

 

Here's a video with commentary by Owen and Ernie...

I wasn't even inspired to cook. I think I only cooked once (as Ernie said, it was unprecedented....and Leo even looked startled when I told him). The kitchen was cute but pretty impossible to cook in and I didn't find the fish markets inspiring. We did get some local scallops one night and I think I made a pretty damn good dinner. We had planned to get blue crabs one night but then we kind of looked at each other and admitted that crab is o.k. but eh. We just weren't enthusiastic.

Here's my one cooking adventure:

Cynthia's Curried Scallops with Corn Fritters and Zucchini and Basil Sauce

1 lb scallops
1 can coconut milk
2 teaspoons Penzey's Sweet Curry Powder (I always bring a few spices from home)
1 heaping teaspoon Vietnamese chili-garlic sauce
potato starch (you could use flour, but I like the lightness I get with potato starch)
soy sauce

fresh corn cut off the cob (2-3) ears
one egg

zucchini cut into sticks

Heat the coconut milk and simmer til slightly cooked down, add curry, chili-garlic sauce and a dash of soy sauce. Set aside.

Mix corn and egg, season with salt and pepper and a tablespoon or so of potato starch (or flour). Shape into patties and saute in oil til crisp (I should have made mine crisper). Coat zucchini with starch, salt and pepper and saute til just done (to your taste). Coat the scallops with starch, salt and pepper and sear on both sides briefly. 

The flash makes this look greasier than it was....please look with forgiving eyes. The sauce was GREAT with the scallops and zucchini and I have a soft spot for corn fritters without added sweetness. Oh, oh, oh, and we also served it with a basil sauce which didn't make it into this picture. I just whizzed fresh basil and olive oil together and we drizzled it on the scallops. It was pretty great if I do say so myself.

We ate meals or ordered in from a number of eh places. I think that, other than the dinner I made, the best food we ate was some steamed shrimp at a touristy place near where we stayed. It was surprisingly perfect.  

The house didn't have wifi so I ran up our phone bill by going over on data. I'm weak. We called the owner to ask about wifi and never got a response. Fine to not have it but would have liked a response. And the 'fully equipped' kitchen didn't have a single potholder much less a sponge or dishcloth to wash with. It was all just a little...eh. 

But every time my phone buzzed Owen and I would compete to see who could check the text from Leo first....and they made us all SO happy....

Apart from that, one of our favorite moments was, when driving by numerous turtle crossing signs, we actually saw a turtle crossing the road. Not only that, the drivers were slowing down to carefully go around it, and one car pulled over to help it across. For some reason that delighted us.

And....one evening a thunderstorm came rolling in across the bay and we sat and watched the lightning and clouds flicker at us. It was quite wonderful.

 I'll write more about the last leg of the trip later. It always feels good to sort it all out in my mind on here....