Wild is the real reason I go anywhere. Especially why I choose almost everywhere off-season. There’s probably no place people are less likely to expect to spend Christmas than Cape May. That’s why I go.
What I want to see more than anything else, really, –maybe even more than birds–, is snow on sand.
Growing up in lower Michigan, it would take us all day to get to sand, and that we would never attempt in winter.
It’s 3 hours to Cape May and I’ll be there by lunchtime tomorrow. Maybe whelks, blued by ocean-time and wintertime, will await again at the Jetty.
Wondrous and unexpected beauties await. They are more startling and more austere; therefore wilder and more thrilling, in winter.
I’ll stroll Beach Avenue reaches, where a patrol of gulls studies the emptiness.
I’ll check out the Jetty, where beachcombers had lined up whelk shells as though waiting for, or left by, Santa, a Christmas or two ago.
I’ll walk the sands Christmas morning, like this father and child, going for the gifts that really matter:
I’ll be downtown a little bit, for the stark contrast of this storybook town and the wild reaches I’m combing for birds.
A few years ago, when it was by no means this hot, I found the literal Christmas rose:
I’ll check out St. Phillips-by-the-Sea, isolate and welcome as a lighthouse on a blustery Christmas Eve.
Of course, I’ll make pilgrimage to the Hawk Watch Platform, maintained by Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO) of which I am a member.
Not much open water for the birds at the platform:
I’ll stop for restorative meals, also replete with beauty, at the Blue Pig, named for a tavern of yesteryear, and the Lobster House. This was Christmas Day dinner, next to the tree at the storied Blue Pig. (Note, my Sibley is always at hand.)
I’ll go down to the sea again and look for last light effects, so intensified by winter.
This Sand Really WAS Pink and Blue
Farewell to Christmas in Cape May
A simple wreath on a simple motel says it all.
Wild and simple – it just doesn’t get any better!
njwildbeauty 
Sounds like a wonderful way to spend Christmas Carolyn. I hope you enjoy every minute of it and experience the joy of nature and a peaceful heart. Thank you for your post on my blog. I fret about the ice polar caps as well! Enjoy your Cape May visit. Happy New Year!
Thank you for your good wishes, Angela — we are so connected. I am trying to come to terms with non-stop fog, three-car-lengths the total visibility the entire time I was down there and most of the way back north. Three swans, one of them immature (mutes), two vultures (have I ever seen a vulture at Cape May), heard a jay, a crow or two, and some fog-smeared gulls. Very very very odd time. There has to be a purpose in there somewhere. Best always, c
Very odd time indeed! Always an experience no matter what. The best to you in the New Year!