Cape May

Cape May

Geo and I hit up Kat's birthday party in the city last night. I feel compelled to add that it was also Luke's birthday, Girlie's husband aka "THIS GUY" *thumbs* We had a lot of fun, but we left relatively early because we had plans for early the next morning. We also left early so that we wouldn't feel like those parents Chris Rock talks about ("Go home and take care of them kids before they rob me in 10 years.") We've been feeling kind of guilty, we've been out to two movies, two birthday shindigs and one rock concert in the past month and a half. That's more than the whole year before it!! WOO-HOO! I'm still in shock. On the way home we got take-out from Hop-Kee in the form of Peking-style pork chops, garlic sauteed string beans and salted squid in hot peppers... YUM. Super yum. Uber yum. I love Hop-Kee. I am contemplating moving to Chinatown so I can be closer to Hop-Kee. I am contemplating naming my next child after Hop-Kee. That's better than "Ender" isn't it? When we got home, Geo was so tired he said wouldn't be able to go Cape May the next day because it was a 2 1/2 hour drive.

At 8:30 the following morning, I was awakened by a loud whisper... "Riss...? Are you tired?" I figured he either wanted sex or to go to Cape May. I looked up at him and he gave me this excited, little boy grin like he was about to go on the best trip ever. I still had no idea which one he wanted. Just kidding, Cape May it was. I got up, packed the three hundred things you need to bring with you whenever you take twins anywhere, and by 10:45 we were heading south towards "Exit Zero" on the Garden State Parkway.

Somewhere past Ocean City, we hit a traffic jam due to a really bad accident. The police had blocked off the parkway so a chopper could land on the other side. It was going to be awhile so people got out of their cars and walked around. As we watched the chopper land, some punk teenage kid walked by complaining that he wasn't having any fun. I felt like smacking him but instead just told him I thought the guy being airlifted from the accident scene was having less fun. Please God let my daughters not be punkasses like that. Everyone was walking around complaining about the holdup and to be honest it was pissing me off. There's someone less than 100 yards from us, fighting for his or her life, and it might be losing battle or one already lost. On a different day it could have been one of us or one of our friends or someone we love. So fucking what if people have to wait 20 extra minutes before they go to the fucking beach and work on their fucking tans. People are unbelievable sometimes, but I did manage to avoid going off on anyone by pretending they didn't exist. After the chopper lifted off, it flew right over my head and I kinda jogged a bit faster towards the car. There's something disconcerting about a helicopter flying less than 50 FEET over your head.

We got to the zoo around 1:30, and met Net, Noble, Mike, Manny, Janelle and their son Keiran by the flamingos. We had a good time checking out all the animals. My favorites of course were the Bengal tigers. Not that I want to be one of those people that keep tigers as pets in their apartments, but they are gorgeous animals. The monkeys are also fun, especially the ones the size of gerbils. Is it wrong that I want one? Yeah okay, don't call animal control. I'm not trying to have mean little monkeys around my girls. By the way, I changed that picture to the right because I was getting bored with the old one. This new one is me at the zoo, pointing Vanna-esquely to giraffes you can't see.

After the zoo we headed over to the beach. But after 3 steps onto the hot sand, Geo turned around and said "Screw this." Privately I was relieved because damn it was hot. And sand gets into the most uncomfortable places. We got back into the car and drove around for awhile, finally ending up in this cute little area that I guess is downtown Cape May. Cape May is BEAUTIFUL. I can't believe I've been in New Jersey for almost 7 years and never went there before. There are Victorian-style houses everywhere, historic sites, cute shops, enormous beach houses and the cutest bed and breakfast houses I've ever seen. After half an hour, Manny and Janelle met up with us again (they'd braved the scorching sand of the beach.) We walked around the downtown area for awhile (where I picked up some yummy Vanilla fudge.) We all ate at an outdoor table at some dive called The Ugly Mug.

We had the fried platter with flounder, oysters, scallops and crab cakes. Even the tartar sauce and coleslaw was awesome. They had horrible service but really good food. Then again you really can't expect stellar service at towns like this because the waiters are all beach rats and beach bunnies who come down to party and wait tables on the side. After dinner, Manny and Janelle went home, but Geo and I (and the girls of course) took a quick walking tour of the Victorian homes in Cape May.

And then we went home after having lots and lots of fun on our very first family trip!!