World's Largest Elephant and Beach Diamonds

Sightseeing was on the agenda today (due to the red skin..and the need for a small break!)  We started with Lucy the Elephant.  We kept seeing this sign by our hotel:

horrible picture, I know. : (

And Ches and I were talking about who Lucy was..and Clay piped up and started telling us!  He’d seen in on Disney Channel 411, and told us all about the two-story building..that is Lucy.  Well, if we were so close, we had to go see her!  I mean, she’s old (1881), and deserves some respect!

You have to admit.  It IS an architectural feat. ; )

Her trunk in a barrel of water!

Good thing she can't trample them!

So you can see the individual pieces of metal it took to make her!

Can you see our paper Dr. Storms?  He loved Lucy!

She’s huge, and made of metal and tin (heehee, I can make a miniature with my leftover tin!), and you can go inside her!  My kids cracked up at the big window in her...umm..bottom.  Her tail is swished to the side, and you can see her heinie.  There are postcards of a man on a ladder up cleaning the window, haha.  I don’t go for the potty humor so much, but when coupled with the strange sign at our hotel..

I DO see a pattern.  Ok, so back to the I Love Lucy show!

There’s art inside her, and a gift shop at her feet.  Tons of elephant memorabilia..and we had to partake.  Ches’ mom’s favorite thing is elephants!  We also got some postcards to send out. : )  We’re also toting a Dr. Storms (a paper cartoon of our orthodontist) (kinda like Flat Stanley), and taking his picture with us.  We’re going for most original/most creativity/US Landmarks contest for the summer. : )

Then we headed to south Jersey to Cape May to look for “beach diamonds” (rolled quartz) and to see the Cape May Lighthouse.  We stopped at the edge of the ocean to beach shop, eat lunch in the amazing breeze outside, and then to sift through the rocky sand to find quartz!

There is a sunken war ship right off the coastline, and Mary Claire got a picture of it!  We also saw the flag, and ooooo...it’s really a veteran’s casket flag. : (  Can you imagine allowing your husband’s flag (or your son’s) to be out and weathered?  It would be a honored item, and I’d not want it used..I think.   Anyway, it made us think and appreciate our fallen heroes.

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Gross is the appropriate word.  Preserved Porcupine Fish. : P

He begged for the Trilobite Fossil.  Only $50.

I seriously came around the corner to This. ; )

Having Lunch. (Frizzy hair pulled back)

Mary Claire got a pix of the sunken war ship.

Searching for pink beach diamonds.

Volcanic Rock!

The beach here reminded me of Nice, France.  It was smaller pebbles, but similar.  All tumbled rocks and minerals brought in by the sea.  This is Atlantic coastline, but it meets Delaware Bay (between Delaware and New Jersey).  Just gorgeous little rocks.  From whitest white to clear (the beach “diamonds”) to pink to gray to light-as-air black volcanic rock.  We collected cups full to bring back.  Some we looked carefully for, some we scooped up at water’s edge.  Clay and I were really enjoying the hunt, but everyone else was ready to move on.

Then we drove a couple miles away to see the Cape May Lighthouse and the WWII bunker still there.  We took some pictures of the bunker, then the Men went up in the lighthouse.  We girls got nervous.  I said I’d go, but Mary Claire saw that teensy skinny tube of stairs up the center and changed her mind!  We did some museum store shopping, and learned all about the lighthouse.

A Baleen Whale Jawbone!

Sweet Clay..finding nature.  It's a huge Luna Moth-just absolutely gorgeous!  The moth stuck right with him: crawled around on his clothes, and never left him.  He even came back to Ocean City with us.  (Clay's uncle Joe told him the moth had lived his purpose-he'd flown, reproduced, and now he'd die..well, not exactly in those words) ; )

Isn't it pretty?  With natural camoflauge-its wings look like branches with buds!

I had just pulled a big, long splinter out from under Mary Claire's thumbnail-yep, a deep one. : (  Then my nice tweezers fell between the boards.  Gone.  My eyebrows will be looking creepy in a couple days...

All the way at the top-157 feet up! : )

That scratch on my lens is really bugging me about now. : /

There are two walls, and inner and outer.  The outside wall is cone-shaped, and is 3 feet, 10 inches thick at the bottom and 1 foot, 6 inches at the top!  It was built in 1859, and is the oldest still standing at Cape May Point (the first two built are now underwater due to erosion.)  It’s 157 feet tall, and 217 steps to the tippy top.  And yes, the beacon still continues to operate!

Totally an aside..but isn't this cool?  They put black/white pictures up in the upper windows! : )

Finally, we headed back to Ocean City to let the boys all swim, and we girls?  We went shopping! :)  Mary Claire got a couple little things for her American Girl doll, and we stayed at the bookstore for a l-o-n-g time! (till our meter ran out)

We had played games, sang songs, told stories, had dinner at Rita's beach house, then we walked up the street to Johnny B. Goode's ice cream shop.  They have entertainment every night, and it's The place to be!

After we all got ice cream (cake batter, cocoonut Mounds, cotton candy, and Mississippi Mud!), there were GaMeS!  This is a line dance.  Remember those?

In the gray is Eric, the kids' cousin!  Clay is grinning-and dancing! : )

Hula Hoop Contest!  There were so many kids, they spilled out onto the sidewalk!

Sweet Camille, my great beach friend! (Ches' cousin, John's wife!)

Starting the Limbo!

Can you see Ethan all bent backwards?  He stayed in for a long time!  Clay was tied for last place.  He got frustrated, but I made him go congratulate the other kid-all in the name of friendly fun. : )

Another Wonder-Full day, and we are tired again! : )  Tomorrow?  More beach and boardwalk time tomorrow night!