In June 2021, I took a weekend trip to Cape May with some of my girlfriends for what we dubbed a “wiferette.” My friend had gotten married during 2020, but had rescheduled her wedding to a year later, and never got much of a bachelorette party. We wanted to make up for it by taking a quick trip to the beach; we settled on Cape May because one of our other friends who was going had been there with her husband in the spring and highly recommended it.
I’d never been to Cape May before and was incredibly excited for the trip. I love traveling to new places; exploring the world is my passion. The pandemic has certainly narrowed the options on where to go, but even within just a few hours, there are some incredibly fun trips to take. My fiance and I have definitely decided to make it a point to try to seek out shorter trips that can be done in a weekend and take more time to explore areas closer to home – I’m glad I got the chance to check out Cape May with my girlfriends too. It’s a place my fiance and I are planning on heading to next summer.
We were just going for one night and drove from Philadelphia. Before we checked into our hotel, we visited the Cape May Lighthouse. You can climb to the top and have a beautiful view of the ocean and the State Park nearby. There’s also a small gift shop you can visit. There are public restrooms and a ice cream truck next to the parking lot.
We stayed at The Heritage Inn, a 3-star hotel that’s just a short walk from the beach. It was hard to find a place because we had planned the trip a bit last minute, but it was a good place. We had a small kitchenette in the room on the first floor of the hotel, with a pool right out front.
Once we got there, we unpacked our beach things and changed. We spent a few hours just relaxing on the beach, walking along the ocean, dipping a little bit into the water, even though it was still incredibly chilly. I spent a lot of time reading, some writing, then we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner.
It had been hard choosing a place to go for dinner, but we settled on Tisha’s Fine Dining, a BYOB New American cuisine restaurant, located on the Washington Street Mall. We took a couple of bottles of wine, got some appetizers, and then ordered our food. I got scallop, shrimp, and pasta dish which was delicious.
When dinner was over, we walked around Washington Street Mall, the shopping concourse. We got ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s, visited Queen May Jewelry, and various other souvenir shoppes. We checked out a small artist studio and I saw an incredible painting – a black frame with a ship and a lighthouse in a storm, all grays and blacks and whites. I decided to come back the next day to purchase it.
We walked to Congress Hall once the shops began to close. There was a wedding happening so there were people everywhere, music playing, and lights all over the courtyard area inside the hotel. It was gorgeous; definitely a place I’d love to stay at some point. We got drinks at the Boiler Room and then headed back to our hotel for the night.
In the morning, we were lucky enough to get into The Mad Batter for brunch, which was great. One of my friends had been there before and recommended it. We walked around a little more after that, I bought my painting, and we got some lobster rolls to take home with us.
It was a fantastic “wiferette” and I cannot wait for my next visit!