I Have Greatly Overestimated My Powers

So first of my travel blogs. Yeah, I’m scrapping the whole Katie makes the recipes from the food blog thing because I need to get this done in advance so Kelly and I can spend the whole of August concentrating on writing our personality type home & life booklets. Tired yet? Because I am.

But we’re also about to break out with categories of tips, y’know like a proper magazine, Travel, Health, Home, Relationships, etc.. because we’ve been writing these tips for about a year and since I haven’t had a vacation in three years, we are going a bit wild this summer. I’ve got Jersey Shore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Malibu, Findlay Ohio, and Bethany Beach Delaware and that’s just ME. My little sis has been a bit of a jet setter herself lately, so I thought we should definitely start to think about using our own life experience, especially as it pertains to type. So. Bayhead.

It’s perfect for last minute, we’ve got to get our of here right now or we’re going to explode vacations, which is what we were working with after three years without sun and beach. (We had gone two years ago to the Jersey shore but in late September, so we had sand but no sun.) So the last minute, spur of the moment vacation would work best for Organic Freedom and Smart Freedoms like my husband and me. My Classic daughter freaked out when our free condo fell through and we had to book a hotel! So this type of trip would not be ideal for Classics. Funs would do well, although only travelling an hour away from home might not be enough of an adventure, but rest assured this beach town has lots of water sports available, so there are other things to do besides sit on the beach.

Walter and I were given a long weekend at The Grenville Inn in Bayhead NJ as a wedding present by some of his sweet friends and we checked it out as a newlyweds and had such a good time that we came again the following summer when I was pregnant with Dorothy. It was in The Grenville Inn that Dorothy first woke her father up in the middle of the night by kicking him. When he told his mother about Dorothy’s in utero back flips she said, “Get used to it.” And oh has he ever. 

It is a quaint and historic Inn. It is not a grand hotel, but more like a giant Bed and Breakfast. Some people have written that it has fallen on hard times, or is run down, and while it could probably stand a renovation, its not THAT bad. It’s clean, and whatever you need they will provide. Plus it’s a small enough hotel that I felt safe sending the 7 & 5 year olds down to get me coffee and a bagel every morning, and they relished the freedom and made friends with the wait staff. Everyone there was ridiculously friendly and sweet and we had a nice and relaxed time.

We booked last minute for the fourth of July weekend, and were able to get a room, however very SMALL…it was cozy and after the weekend we got a bigger room with pull out couch and lots more space. The pull out couch NEEDS TO BE, um replaced? Or completely fixed, but when Walter complained of this (the hammock on the bottom end of the bed was worn through and so if anyone over four feet tall slept on it, their feet were on the floor) they took off a nights charged.

People have complained of the Air Conditioning, but frankly we were there for the heat wave and we were very comfortable. There are free standing units in every room, and central AC, and I was very very chill. Also, the food is grand. It’s truly top notch and the snobby New Yorkers (of which I can be included. I have a highly developed palate and I love good food and it’s one of my favorite things about NYC) can suck it, because the food was good. Yeah, they had some “heavy” fare, but it IS New Jersey and our connoisseur loved the pork chops, and I loved the artichoke and goat cheese appetizer. And whatever fish special I had was divine and yummy and I ate the whole thing which is unusual for me.

Our other favorite spot for lunch, however was Dorcas. This little breakfast and lunch place has the sweet little teenage waiters — they all had ponytails, wore khaki mini skirts and green polos. (so yeah, your husband will get you whatever you want from this place, oh excuse me MY husband will get you whatever you want!) We were never able to sit together as a family, however because Meredith wanted to eat at the soda fountain and there were only three stools, so Dorothy and I had nice lunches together and when the weather broke we all had a nice lunch outside on their gravel patio under the awning. Best turkey club EVER.

We also found the best gift/souvenir shop in Cobwebs Gift Shoppe. We had to hold the girls back because they wanted to buy everything in the store (and me too!) In the end they got these very reasonably priced $10/each little porcelain mini boxes. Dorothy’s was of a mermaid on a dolphin with a starfish inside, Meredith’s was a bathtub with yellow duckies inside. They also got necklaces. Dorothy’s is a mini bottle with sand and beach glass inside. She has been wearing hers every day. I got these cool shoes called SwitchFlops. You can change the outside. I got the kitten heels which aren’t THAT comfortable, but they are sweet and I will be getting more outside ones, and probably the flat kind…

Also frequented Mueller’s Bakery! All in all a quite satsifying and relaxing and happy week. Highly recommend Bayhead.