Willson Family Vacation

With Big Oak coffees in hand, lots of snacks packed, and a car full of excitement, we ventured off to Cape May, NJ for our first "family-of-four" vacation. Only stopped once on the way – a McDonalds in NJ – an hour well-spent refueling (Tobias let us know about 20 minutes prior to this stop that he was starving!) and getting out some 2-year old energy. We arrived in Cape May to sunshine and as soon as we were settled in our apartment, we headed to the beach. After about ½ mile on the board walk we finally found a life guard who reassured us that we did NOT need beach tags, so we took the jogging stroller right onto the beach. Lydia was in awe of the sand and water and hit someone else’s jackpot of large clam shells, which she immediately gathered into her arms and toted to the stroller.


Ate an early dinner at an authentic Greek establishment. The staff was very friendly, the food amazing (stuffed grape leaves – awesome!) but unfortunately Mark spent 20 minutes of the dinner running back to our place to get the travel booster seat and cash. After dinner we strolled through the pedestrian mall stopping at a Kohr Bros for some divine custard.

Tobias didn’t really understand the meaning of “vacation” – like more sleep and awoke at 5:15am Tuesday morning. After meeting his immediate needs I decided to take him for a stroller ride to chase the sunrise. I didn’t remember my geography correctly. The sun doesn’t actually rise over the beach of Cape May. I still got some great photos and Tobias was happy as a clam playing with his toes in the stroller.





We dodged the mosquitoes on the way back in to find Lydia on the sofa watching Clifford on the portable DVD player and daddy snoring away. ☺ After checking the weather forecast we decided this would be the best day for the zoo. We thought going to the beach prior to the schools letting out for summer vacation would be optimal – no crowds. We neglected to consider the Philadelphia schools taking their end-of-the-year field trips and were greeted at the zoo by 10s of school buses. Even though it was hot, we enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells of the wild animals. By the time we reached the zebras and giraffes (what I thought Lydia would ADORE), the kids were both fussy.


(We were all very sneezy in the zoo.)


We retrieved our picnic from the car and found a somewhat secluded picnic table. Too bad the seagulls found us. Lydia kept saying, “I don’t want the seagull to eat my sandwich” and trying to crawl onto our laps. Tobias, on the other hand, was THRILLED with the birds, particularly when one made his squawking noise to warn his fellow gulls that this was his territory. Almost immediately Tobias started mimicking the sea gulls’ calls.
Here we are revived after lunch.



Lydia had her eye on the playground but with 100s of elementary school kids running around and the heat, she was scared off. We decided to return to the park for the reptile house. Who knew this would be the hit of the day?! Lydia was in her glory. She would run from one aquarium to another shouting, “Daddy, Look! I found a lizard! Daddy, Look! I found a turtle. Daddy look! I found a big black snake.” We basically had the place to ourselves, which was perfect because Lydia took it over. Some have asked Lydia her favorite animal at the zoo and she responded, "The big yellow snake."

Tobias wriggling all extremities in excitement!





The afternoons were filled with naps, mommy’s trips to the library for their free Wi-Fi, shopping, reading, resting.

Wednesday morning we headed to the Nature Conservancy. We were greeted by 2 college-aged girls, “Are you looking for the bathroom?” What a strange question. She went on to say, “We have 300 students here today. It’s a popular question.” We responded that we were there for the exhibits. We went up into the tower and enjoyed the view of the bay, checked out a little nature room where we read a book and did puzzles, checked out the aquariums for the summer projects. In that little area a bunch of school kids ran up to Mark saying, “Where do we put the crabs we found?” And “Where is the bathroom?” I guess, even with kids, we blended into the crowd. Since we felt so much a part of the group, we followed them down to the water.

The whole time Lydia said, “I have poop on my shoes” (It was really just bay sludge) but it took priority in her mind.


Whatcha doin, daddy?

Ewww, he found a crab!


Off to the Cape May Lighthouse. It was hot and we were tired, but we took an amazing walk on the beach out to the WWII bunker remains before heading back for lunch. And we were so thankful to see a whole bunch of dolphins who showed off for us.




We ate early dinners each evening (more like afternoon) and headed to the beach for playtime in the sand without worrying about sunburn. As we anticipated, from our experience comforting a screaming 10 month Lydia during her 1st trip to the beach, Tobias was not a fan. When Mark put Toby’s feet in the sand, he was less than thrilled. In fact, he was down right angry. If he got too close to the waves, he cried, too loud. And the wind took his breath away. He wouldn’t even let us put him down on a blanket – he CLUNG to me for dear life. Needless to say, one of us spent our time on the beach cuddling with Tobias while the other played with Lydia. It worked out perfectly and we found something that made Tobias enjoy the beach: seagulls! Reaching for them and exclaiming, "Dah!"

There is something about the ocean that makes me marvel in God’s creation every time.





The morning we left, we walked to a coffee shop in the rain, took a couple hours to pack, and headed out. As we drove through Philadelphia, we decided to check in with our friends, the Manni’s to see if we could visit. Sure enough, they were game so after a quick lunch at Chic-Fil-A (found by our Tom Tom), we spent the early afternoon catching up with our friends, getting the tour of their lovely home, and letting our kids play. They proceeded to sleep the remainder of the way home and Mark and I rode in peace and quiet. What a perfect end to a simply lovely vacation.
Our family self-portraits.