Photos: E.W. FAIRCLOTH / For the Daily News
Drivers leave the Cape May-Lewes Ferry (above) after arriving in Lewes, Del. At right, shoppers scope out the Tanger outlets near Rehoboth Beach.
See the sights on the way to the beach
The amble down to the Delaware beaches and Ocean City, Md., can take the better part of three hours, the roads themselves having little distinctiveness, so it is often a good idea to break up the journey along the way.
Before getting too far from Philly, a good stop is at Longwood Gardens. There are more than 1,000 acres of flora, with 20 indoor and 20 outdoor gardens. Many Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 9:15 throughout the summer, there will be a "Festival of Fountains," a water and light show in the main Gardens area.
Just head south on U.S. Route 1 (aka Baltimore Pike); just past Route 52 (Kennett Pike), there will be signs for Longwood Gardens on the right. The Gardens (www.longwood gardens.org) are open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays, and 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
While it certainly doesn't have the glitz or extent of Atlantic City, Dover Downs does have 24-hour slots and virtual games where a beachgoer could drop a few real bucks on the way down.
Take I-95 to Route 1 South, the road gets you to the beach eventually. Get off at Exit 104, which is a 50-cent toll, and turn left onto U.S. 13 South for about two miles to Dover Downs (www.doverdowns.com).
There is no horse racing until the fall at the track, and most of the weekend headline entertainment is suspended for the summer, too, though the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra will be there July 31.
Delaware doesn't quite get its due in a lot of ways. Mostly people just seem to go through it on the way to somewhere else, along undistinguished highways past chain whatevers. Yet for a tiny state, Delaware does have a good amount of preserved land and wildlife areas.
One such place on the way to the beach is Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Head off Route 1 at Exit 114, Smyrna-South, and get on Smyrna-Lepsic Road, which merges with Route 9 South. Go 5 miles to Whitehall Neck Road and the park entrance.
With luck, a visitor can see some eagles, though the babies usually start leaving their nests in late June. The water lilies should be blooming, along with cardinal flowers and meadow grasses, and the diamond-back terrapins should be protecting their eggs. There are ducks galore in Bear Swamp Pool and large flocks of wading birds, with whitetail deer on the shore.
Keep heading down Route 1 until the Route 9 turnoff for Lewes and just outside of town head south for Cape Henlopen State Park. Cape Henlopen will be significantly more crowded than Bombay Hook. People go swimming there, but there is also a 3-mile bike trail and nature walks. Check out the osprey-cam online henlopen/osprey.asp.
The beachgoer prepped for Shore shopping might want to take a trek back to Lewes, which has promoted its retail district in recent years with the usual nautical/beachwear/gifty array of stores.
Lewes is also the southern terminus for the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, a more scenic, if a bit more pricey and time-consuming way of getting from the tri-state area to the Delaware and Ocean City beaches. It is a 17-mile, 80-minute cruise taking both car and foot passengers (www.capemaylewesferry.com and 800-64FERRY for rates and schedule).
South from Cape Henlopen, the Delaware beaches all lie on or next to Route 1, which continues in Maryland toward Ocean City as Route 528. The 30 miles or so between Lewes and Ocean City take the beachgoer through, in order, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, South Bethany and Fenwick Island before crossing the state line into Ocean City.
If going to Ocean City directly, though, it is probably better to stay inland on U.S. 113, which merges with Route 1 near Milford and then forks off to the southeast. Once into Maryland, go a few miles to the Ocean City Expressway, Route 90, east into Ocean City. *
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