Beach again! Rehoboth and Lewes

Tim -- a friend of mine from the newspaper -- was on vacation this past week.  He'd rented a beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and he invited me to visit.  The weather was perfect, and work not pressing, so I took him up on the offer.  For the second time this summer, I went to the beach!  (How extravagant!)

I left early this morning in hopes of avoiding the Labor Day exodus.  It worked -- I flew through the Bay Bridge toll lanes (which is normally an enormous bottleneck) and on into Delaware.  But then, in a three-light town in the middle of nowhere, I hit this:

The entire town was a gridlocked parking lot.  Why?  Because apparently it was town-wide yard sale day.  Every single house I passed had all sorts of junk set out in front, and people were everywhere.  They must have come from miles around.  It was pretty horrifying.

Of course, I kept an eye out for hidden prizes (maybe a lamp?) but didn't see anything, and so kept pushing on to what I really wanted:  breakfast at Jimmy's Grille!

Jimmy's French toast is amazing.

After breakfast, I finished the rest of the drive to Rehoboth Beach and, with some assistance from Tim, found the house.  (Someone neglected to read the detailed driving directions that had allegedly been sent to him...)  Having already exhausted the entertainment options in Rehoboth Beach during the past week, Tim suggested that we rent bikes and ride to Lewes Beach, another beach town about eight miles up the coast.   

Salt water marsh

WWII Guard Tower
(one of several built to watch for German naval attack)

Dutch museum, built in 1931 to commemorate
the 1631 massacre of Dutch settlers.

After riding around the town and nearby state park, we were famished.  To our great surprise, we found a perfect Italian deli.  It was full of delicious salamis and marinated olives, and in one corner a guy was making fresh mozzarella.  I ordered a pizza with artichokes, prosciutto, mushrooms, mozzarella and basil -- and it was was the best pizza I've eaten in years; in fact, probably one of the best pizzas I've ever eaten. 

After lunch we spent a while on the beach.  It was sunny and warm.  About twenty feet away from us, a bunch of kids were digging a trench to rival the Suez Canal -- all under the supervision of a driving nine year old taskmaster (who was incredibly effective).  After that, we headed back to Rehoboth Beach to return our bikes (with 26.3 miles on the odometer!), lock up the rented house, and head our separate ways home.  Unfortunately, I was too late to have dinner at Jimmy's Grille (I got there 5 minutes before closing), but I was able to get a bag of their delicious dinner rolls!

From Jimmy's Grille, it's still a good two hours to home.  In an effort to ward off the sleepies, I turned on the radio and hunted for something to capture my imagination.  What did I find?  Biblical geneaology read verbatim!