The first state

We only did one day of unpacking so we could have a day of exploring while my brother was still with us.
Our new state is the first state and the second smallest in the country. The east side is all coastline, 117 miles of it to be exact. So we thought we'd go to the beach. Apparently that's what people do here.

Now you can imagine that our desire to drive any distance was limited, so we thought we'd try for the coastline in our county. Just as a reference there are 3 counties in DE and we are in the northernmost. The most popular sandy beaches are in the southernmost, in fact they are about as far away as you can get from our little town and still be in the state--and that's saying a lot. Go ahead look at a map, and come back.

We found a very nice fishing pier with a small stretch of sand. We also found a crab shack that fully embraced both the art of alliteration and homonyms to create a raunchy yet kid friendly atmosphere. Blech. But they did have some very nice patio seating and seafood, which we took as our consolation prize for not going in the ocean. We did see the Atlantic at least, which was enough for Blake.

I want to emphasize that for this place, this is tame

At the pier

We also stopped at a different seafood shop on the way out of town where I bedazzled the staff with my complete ignorance of soft shell crab--"I'm from the PacNW you see, we eat the dungeness kind there" I explained. Meh. Anyway we brought home some soft shell, which I fried up and was delicious but somewhat eerie to behold:

It still looks like a crab.

We also sampled a new restaurant in town that boasted "craft beer"--I think they're still working on their beer menu. IPA fail.

can you spot the error in the IPA?

Joe and I tried again this past Sunday to see about some beach, we traveled through every county (and seemingly every state road--there are a lot here) in our state and instead of going to the most popular beaches, which we had been to before as younger people, we opted for a less claustrophobic setting. It wasn't really a good swimming beach (okay for me!) and there were many rocky spots, but that kind of made it feel like home a bit. We did wade out a bit, me somewhat less than Joe (surprised?) and in the end decided it would be a good place to go if you didn't want to worry about waves and/or excessive amounts of people.

It's about 2 feet deep for a few hundred feet

Joe waded out to the end of the sandbar/ledge/whathaveyou and bathed on the other side, while I sat on the beach in my eternal mental rocking chair.

sand and breeze

Meanwhile, Joe has begun work, so we're sampling his new wares and I am trying to put my office and my fall semester class together. Occasionally we consider unpacking the few remaining boxes that are scattered about.