Land Cruising

Yesterday when we went to pick up the car, we had no idea we were on an odessey. With the sound track from Annie playing, we drove over the (Chesapeake) Bay Bridge–when I see a sign to the Bay Bridge I think I’m going to Oakland. It was so beautiful, so A Time of Wonder; we were on our way to the Delaware seashore, Bethany Beach. The three hour drive took five hours because of traffic. As soon as we got to the beachy town we raced to the sand and touched our toes in the lovely water under a twilight sky and gorgeous moon. We pounded our way, with mallets, through a fabulous crab dinner, at a charming place where they toss the crab on a brown-bag covered table and bring you hush puppies and buckets of cooked-but-not-shucked sweet corn. Peter and I had a glass of pinot gris that was perfect. This place wasn’t crusty at all, really cute and the food was really some of the best I’ve ever had. I enjoyed watching Peter eat every last crab leg.

After the crabfest: we discover that this is the busiest week on the eastern seaboard. At first we think the lady at the Holiday Inn is exagerating. But after checking a few places in Bethany Beach–all full, and one no vacancy sign after another–we faced facts: there was NOWHERE to stay. The owner of the restaurant made a phone call for us and struck out. We drove down the coast to two other towns, running in and out of lobbies, getting turned down. At 11:00 pm, we finally turned inland. We checked every hotel on the road home, and ended up all the way back in Washington. Our place is the closest place to the beach we could find! The whole three hour drive home, (at least there wasn’t any traffic) we kept pulling into hotels behind people shaking their heads, also being turned away. One sight that really had us going in an only-at-2-in-morning kind of way: passing by a teenager leaning over her car door throwing up in a McDonalds parking lot. “Do you think it was the food?” Peter asked me. We stopped at six hotels on the way home. All full.

Got home at 3:30am. Would have gotten home at 2:30, but no, had to get lost in DC first. This was our first time navigating the city by car, and we got totally turned around. After a harrowing one hour drive through DC’s seedy side, all the recent high-crime rate Washington Post articles running through my burned-out brain, we finally found our hotel. I was never so happy to be home to the Washington Suites. A valet parked the car. Bliss.

Peter and I have never NOT been able to find a room. Antibes, France in August. Showed up and got a room. Has this ever happened to you? Oh we did find one place, sort of early on, so we were feeling not the beggers-can’t-be-choosers that we were: it was $450 a night. The website says Bethany beach is quiet and affordable.

Today we drove a short way and had a hike and a picnic under the trees, by some falls. I was surprised, but after lots of tea/coffee/juice and working our way through the Sunday paper and watching a couple rounds of Nick Jr, everyone wanted to go somewhere in the new car!