If you have a kid who plays travel sports, you know how you end up in the most random places! And that's what I love the most, discovering some of America's hidden gems that I would never in my wildest dreams have the chance to visit, but ended up having a dang good time.
So Delaware. First state in the union, second smallest state in the USA, that's all I had on Delaware. It takes a lot of time and research, but when we visit random places for sports, I love finding an amazing restaurant or side trip so our family can experience something local besides the tournament.
From Atlanta, you can't fly into Delaware easily. We landed in Philadelphia and drove about 90 minutes to Frederica, Delaware for an amazing weekend of lacrosse.
Frederica a is a quaint, New England, picturesque town full of history. We didn't get to explore much since our lacrosse schedule was full. After a long day on the fields I always like to research a nice restaurant for the fam. Kinda like our treat for transporting our kid across the fruited plains to play his sport while we sweat, thrist, scream, and spectate. We settled on JP Wharf's on Bowers Beach because we all love seafood. It was on the water, with a view, and I was so looking forward to some oysters and cracking open some Maryland crabs. I even watched a youtube video so I knew how to crack the Maryland Crabs and eat them. But no, wasn't happening, they were not season, so no oysters or crabs but they did have an amazing low country boil with crab legs so it wasn't a total wash out.
My younger son got his beloved salmon and the whole fam was happy with their meals.
Always putting safety first, we decided to Uber because after a full day of lacrosse, we were ready for a cocktail or two! We arrived just fine but after our meal, we discovered there was no cell service! No Wi Fi, no LTE, like nothing. Enquiring
minds wanted to know so we asked the staff and yep, there is no cell service on that portion of Bowers Beach, so no Uber coming to get ya, yep stranded, stuck.
Thankfully our friends were there, so they drove four us to a gas station where cell service was beaming like a beckon of hope and drove our older son back to the hotel. There we sat at a gas station in the middle of nowhere trying to Uber with a note of desperation, "please help us, we are a family with kids, stranded on Bowers Beach, we are trying to get back to our hotel." Finally someone took pity on us and picked us up and we were back in civilization in no time. But oh, what a story, did not want to have to introduce my kids to hitchhiking after the stranger danger talk!
After a second full of day of lacrosse, we decided to kill some of the ten hours before our flight home at Rehoboth Beach. Slightly longer than the 90 minute drive Waze touted, we arrived to find the boardwalk and beach packed. For late October, it was hot, hot, hot in Delaware. My kids all walked away with bags of salt water taffy and my daughter discovered a press on sweatshirt shop with dog sayings, Heaven for her.
We strolled the boardwalk and stumbled upon an alley called Penny Lane and found the most random shops. In search of lunch that involved Maryland Crabs or Oysters, we found the Henlopen Oyster House. Amazing seafood and some of the best oysters I've had in my life. Apparently my kids thought the same thing since we had to order a second round. After the bill, I'm kicking myself for not just serving them chicken nuggets because their little foodie palettes for all the foods I introduced them to since the age of two, are now costing me a fortune in the teenage years!
So with bellies full, warm sweatshirts, and great memories, we headed back to Philly for our late night flight home to Atlanta.
Yes, it takes extra time and a lot of research, but I don't want to fly in and out of a place and miss a slice of America I may never have the chance to experience again!
Mixed in with some great lacrosse, we had an amazing weekend in Delaware, and I'm still craving that oyster sampler! And this was an interesting trip! I packed up everyone else, but halfway through packing process, I lost my train of thought and zipped my bag before I was done packing! I ended up with two shirts and two pairs of pants for the whole trip! Note to self, pack a hat for bad hair and a black shirt and you can match with anytime!!!!
