Junction Breakwater Trail

Lewes Beach

Laughing full

Cute beach houses with fancy gardens. I like the frog statues. I was warned that the place I was staying was covered in tree frogs and the noise from them was deafening. My friend has a frog aversion. I like frogs and am disappointed that it is the wrong season for them

Crape myrtle. Everybody around here has at least one tree of it. Would not grow in Michigan 

Don't know what these are called. Smaller versions can be grown as an annual only at home

Lots of boats along the canal

I am amazed at how much Wild hibiscus grows around here

Historical house of some sort

Compulsive Sue would love to have an odometer on my borrowed bike. I use an app instead that maps where I've been. Downside: a battery drain

It is so hot and humid here.  Note outdoor temp.  Today is supposed to be hotter. I was out at 6 am to run and later we will ride bikes to Rehoboth and back as traffic on the roads especially on the weekends make car traffic and parking impossible

The junction breakwater trail runs zigzagging between Lewes and Rehoboth. It's about 7 miles long. I am staying closer to the Lewes side and fortunately near the section in deep woods so I can run in shade. I was told that my friend had no intention of exerting outside yesterday because of the heat so off I went by myself. A good ride

Tomorrow we return to DC where I will immediately go stay with a high school friend in nearby Maryland. Looking forward to seeing her. 

Rehoboth

One of the many alleyways off the Rehoboth Boardwalk

The beach

The boardwalk

Cool door back in Lewes

Steve has been busy picking my tomatoes back at home

Dahlias back at home

Butterfly 

Old Dutch church which is now a museum

Seafoods restaurant in Lewes I had crab cakes

Church with cemetery 

Lewes and Rehoboth are about 5 miles apart. There is an incredibly busy road connecting them and running parallel in the dense woods, a bike path which I've been spending plenty of time on either running or biking. The bike I have been provided with here is much nicer than the DC bike. It's been so hot here and more humid than Michigan. At least there we have a bit of coolness in the early morning before it gets steamy. No coolness here. We have also spent time in the pool in the evening. so a bit of time spent shopping and sightseeing. I've been enjoying myself

Cape Henpolen

Deer in the dense forest behind my friends house

Rehoboth farmers market where we bought supplies for dinner

Junction Breakwater trail between Lewes and Rehoboth. The coastal road running parallel is a traffic jam surrounded by outlet malls and tourist traps

Those concrete towers were used to try to spot German uboats 

Wild hibiscus plants all over

The state park trail goes over wetlands

Small dunes to the side

The canal separating the mainland from the barrier beach lands

It was plenty hot as we set out for our 18 mile loop bike ride. This area has many paths which is good as some of the main roads are extremely busy. The first half of our ride went through the nearby state park through dense forests, beaches, sand dunes and wetlands. we stopped at Gordon's pond, a bird sanctuary but I didn't see much. I did see laughing gulls, a southern species smaller than the common sea gull , with black heads. I was also surprisingly by the many hibiscus in full bloom growing wild. Wish I had stopped to photograph the denser stands of them. The sparse bushes I did photograph  were surrounded by poison ivy so no close ups. We were hoping to pick up supplies at the Rehoboth farmers market by bike but they weren't allowed to sell anything for 2 hours. We had biked a mile or two by Rehoboth beach mansions. Lots of money there. We returned later by car

My friends friend came for dinner. she recently dealt with breast cancer so it was thought we would have that in common

On the beach

Steve thought Allie would like a life sized bear for her birthday 

Georgetown row houses

Georgetown university 

Steep stairs that the priest in The Exorcist died on

Crape myrtle in bloom all over DC

Bridge across the Chesapeake Bay

New beach house where I will be staying for a bit

The beach

I started my mind numbing journey here early Sunday making good time to DC in slightly over 8 hours giving us plenty of time to walk the steamy streets of Georgetown that afternoon full of very upscale shops. I got up early yesterday morning to run through the semitropical cicada humming streets up one street down another. My friend wanted us to go on a bike ride before we went to Delaware, on the Capital Crescent trail which I have run on many times but is tricky to get to through the neighborhoods. Too many sharp turns on narrow sidewalks and rocky paths for me on a skinny tire bike that had dicey brakes. We took it on the unpaved part between Bethesda and Chevy Chase to a bike shop to make a few quick repairs. Turns out I will be riding a different bike here in Delaware  I can see they have paths going all over the place here. I am skipping my run this morning to have a long bike ride instead once my friend gets up

We drove through Lewes last night it looks very New England settled by the Dutch in1617   very cute.  My friend had this house built just last year. Although it is probably worth about what ours is, the taxes are one tenth of ours.  Not sure where Delaware gets its money but many are finding it a good place to retire. My friend will eventually stay here full time but as his partner is still working in DC they will have 2 houses. It is very nicely decorated and has a screened in porch overlooking dense woods. We took a walk on the beach as the sun was setting. Very nice

Mutant barn swallow nest

While waiting on Josh's porch he other day, I looked up in horror to see what I thought at first glance was a hornets' nest. But it was made from mud, not paper. His resident barn swallows have had bad luck building nests: two earlier attempts resulted in the nest falling down, the last time with young babies in it. With  this bizarre nest, they were able to raise 2 babies to adulthood. Never saw one like it before.

Daniel is to keep an illustrated diary over the summer. This is his entry concerning the mosquito larvae in my fountain. He is 6, soon to be 7.

my morning glories live for an hour tops

when pigs fly

By this time tomorrow, I will be half way to DC hopefully. I assume Monday, once the traffic clears, we will be on our way to the Delaware coast. Excited but I am always afraid I am forgetting something. I thought I was to be crossing the Chesapeake Bridge that goes on forever and disappears in midstream into a tunnel looking like you are diving headfirst in your car into the abyss but it turns out there are two Chesapeake Bay bridges and I will be taking the more boring one which isn't even as long as the Mackinaw Bridge.

The only chance for rain for a 10 day period dove south of us. Dry as a bone here but at least a bit of the heat cleared.

My nails are now a bright reddish orange with sparkles. I'll be stylin' on the coast.

Not sure of my internet situation outside of DC

Back to packing

The matzoh ball makers

The girls had a sleepover here last night. Here they are trying their hands at matzoh ball making. Note huge variation in size of finished products. Did they want to eat the find product? Nah. I took a quart of the soup over ot my friend battling  graft versus host issues

Yep is hot and humid here. I looked up the weather for my beach vacation next week: highs are 5-10 cooler but the lows aren't as low as here

Could you believe someone threw out this 7 foot  sailfish? After it is cleaned up, it will live on the basement walls

The girls love to play dress up

And play computer games

Very pretty Murano glass free form dish. yeah, it is pink but looks fine on top of the orange marble

How to entertain 2 little girls when it s too hot to play outside? Let them run wild in the basement, watch The Minions on TV, make matzoh balls, eat fun meals, pick grandma's squash and tomatoes, play dress up, play on the iPad. What they didn't want to do is sleep...it was just too exciting being with each other.

This has been the hottest summer in a long time. I don't think it reached 90 at all for the past 2 years. I have to run as soon as there is a little light so not to bake. And no rain.

Yesterday, Daniel told me I had tadpoles in my small fountains I have on the porch.  Ugh, not tadpoles but squiggly mosquito larvae. It takes 3 days from eggs to adult so I dumped all the water out. I regularly replace the birdbath water (birds gotta drink too) but my now frog free pond, no thanks to the snake, probably has wigglers in it too. I put in bleach and now am careful to aerate the pond so those things will die.

I got word today that my uncle, who I visited 2 months ago died at 92. Sad.