Ocean City, MD to Rehoboth Beach, DE

This morning I drove the short distance North to cross the state line to Delaware, the second smallest state.

This is not the first time that neglecting to consider U.S. holidays has taken me by surprise. While Rehoboth Beach is a teeny town in a small state, apparently it is a magnet for holiday beach goers, especially on Memorial Day weekend. I passed through the boardwalk and beach area on my way to my hotel, which is blessedly a few miles North. Normally the boardwalk provides photo opportunities, but today, it just looked like mass chaos.

Because of the holiday, I had to wait to check into my room until mid-afternoon. I spent the time at The Point Coffee House and Bakeshop . Independent coffee houses are always much nicer and more fun than Starbucks, so it was nice to discovery another one.

After finally checking into my room, and briefly considering a trip down to the boardwalk, I opted for visiting Gordon’s Pond a short drive from my hotel location. This turned out to be a good decision. This is a very pleasant trail (in spite of the small risk of poison ivy and ticks - easily minimized by taking appropriate precautions). It winds through woods and around Gordon’s pond. While it is mixed use, with lots of bikes, they were all courteous and the trail was plenty wide to accommodate everyone.

I the short hour I was there, I saw a deer, horseshoe crabs, a lovely green heron and a small tortoise. While photographing the crabs and heron, I met Deb, a local and also a photographer. We had fun shooting together for a few minutes and talking about my trip. All in all, it was a much more chill and productive experience than would have been the boardwalk.

Tomorrow I plan to visit Prime Hook NWR, a short distance North of Rehoboth Beach.