Rehoboth Beach Day and a Stormy Weather

Hanna’s home! My sister is only home for a few weeks before she leaves for summer camp but I’m trying to steal as much time with her as I can. So far we’ve been working on my house and I helped her finally – after 6 years!!! – get her driver’s license. Hallelujah! The weather this week is looking less than pleasant with mostly rain expected but last week was gorgeous and we enjoyed my homemade stir fry out in our back yard with some homemade pineapple whips. 

We’ve been living here for 6 weeks now and we’re still exploring the streets of our neighborhood on our walks. Brady and I found a new area that has some great paths just around the corner and I could help but pose with these beautiful flowers. It wasn’t too hot outside but by the time we got back from this walk I was so hot I felt really sick and I needed water badly. Shame on me for forgetting a water bottle. 

On Saturday I was able to convince Brady that we needed an afternoon at Rehoboth Beach since we hadn’t been in a couple months so we dug out some lawn/beach chairs that the previous owners had left behind and left for the ocean. One disadvantage of living in Maryland is that you have cross the Chesapeake Bay on a 4+ mile bridge to get to the ocean – this is important to remember for later. 

There were a lot of events going on in Rehoboth and since parking is still free for another couple weeks, it took a little while to find a parking spot but eventually we were lazing on the beach. The water was too cold to do more than stick your legs in but there were a handful of people in the water down the beach. We spent a couple hours on the beach reading – I was reading my pregnancy book -, people watching, and playing frisbee before taking our stuff back to the car.

One of the must do things at the beach is getting Thrasher’s fries. I do not kid when I say these are the best french fries ever. We ended up eating a much too large bucket of fries for dinner and then stopped at my favorite beach hut Archies for some fresh raspberry lemonade. They make the whole thing right in front of you and it’s not flavored with syrup but actual raspberries! Yum yum. They also have amazing ice cream but I was really just craving a large fresh drink. After dinner we strolled down the boardwalk and through a couple of the side streets before heading back to the car. The temperature had dropped to the low 70s so it was pleasant and the evening glow was really beautiful.

By 7:15 it was time to start the 2 hour drive back home. Or so we thought. About an hour into our drive we were noticing bad weather to the north and soon learned that we were under a tornado watch and a severe thunderstorm warning. Eventually we were headed straight into the storms and at one point I started to panic a little because we got caught in what can only describe as a “strong wind patch with a tendency for spinning”. 

We reached Kent Island – just before the bridge – around 8:45 pm where the winds were strong and it was raining cats and dogs. I did not feel comfortable heading over the bridge because of the winds but Brady was still thinking maybe it would be ok. The local radio news station we were listening to popped up right then with “We are getting reports that travel on the bay bridge is currently treacherous with high winds and limited visibility.” Enough said. We pulled over into a gas station and eventually ran inside to get a few sustenance snacks. It was a very healthy day.

We tried to leave once the weather calmed down and ended up getting stuck a half mile down the road luckily right next to a different gas station. During the worst of the passing storm, a semi managed to overturn on the westbound bridge prohibiting traffic from getting across. We could have gone around the bay to get home but it didn’t seem worth the 2.5 hour drive since we were only a 30 minute drive from home. We also could have driven to his brother’s place in Delaware but I hadn’t brought my daily injection with me and ultimately didn’t feel comfortable waiting til the next day to take it.

I fell asleep a little after 11 pm and woke up during a traffic report to hear they’d just opened the bridge again. It took a while to get onto the bridge even though we were right next to it but we finally started moving and got home at 12:30 am. 

It sucks because if we’d skipped the walk and just come home after eating, we would have gotten home with no issues. In the end, I’m glad we didn’t try going across during the worst of the weather because who knows what would have happened. It just means that now we’re both feeling exhausted from our late night adventure. 

 

 

How was your weekend? 🙂