A Trip to Cape May

The Ocean, the Zoo, and the Octopus

I love the ocean, and I have a healthy fear of it.

My earliest memory of the ocean is getting sick after swallowing sandy seawater at the Jersey Shore, probably at Seaside Park. I had undergone surgery on my eardrums to drain my Eustachian tubes that year, so I had to wear a bright blue bathing cap, so I looked like a bald alien sea lion puking in the surf. Thankfully, I have good memories as well.

In a good year, my mom and family rented one of the ramshackle houses far from the beach, thanks to my uncle Paul chipping in. We’d rent crab traps and bait them with chicken wings, and Grams would boil our catch of blue crabs in a pot, to be cracked in half and tossed with linguini marinara. I remember pulling up a trap with an Atlantic Eel lunging at the bars; peering through hazy binoculars and seeing shapes on the horizon that must have been ships, but resembled sea monsters to my young eyes.

As a teenager, I read The Old Man and the Sea while a storm blew waves sideways along the barrier island, piling foam on the shore. Now Long Beach Island is expensive and crowded, and like many visitors, I’m choosing to go elsewhere with my money. I’ve always liked Cape May; my mother took us there as children once, and seeing the wreck of the USS Atlantus on Sunset Beach has always stayed with me. The Atlantus was a concrete-hulled ship built for cargo in World War II, when steel was in short supply. It capsized in a storm, and has remained off the beach ever since.

If you look closely, there are two kayakers fishing near and inside the wreck.

The beaches of Cape May also have a lookout tower that dates to the war, and a concrete battery. The water here is still churned and cold in comparison to the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean, but the constant heartbeat of the Atlantic’s powerful waves reminds you that it is a living thing, and not to be taken lightly.

Tony Maffatone, the executive bodyguard for stars such as Sylvester Stallone, was my father’s good friend. He was a wreck diver, who died when his equipment failed. That’s been enough to keep me from trying scuba; I have gone snorkeling off the North Shore of Hawai’i, and I really enjoyed it. After reading The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery, I’m thinking that a trip to Cozumel or one of the other popular snorkeling destinations is in my future. The book is a wonderful read that will make you swear off takoyaki and pulpo forever. Octopuses are as close to an alien intelligence that we can encounter, with six hearts, eight legs, and nine brains, and a curiosity to match. I’m waiting for a rainy day to visit the Camden Adventure Aquarium.

Cape May doesn’t have an aquarium, but the county runs a zoo that is free to the public and quite nice. Compared to the Turtle Back Zoo in Essex County, it’s somewhat smaller, but it made the $20 entry fee to the Turtle Back seem excessive, for residents. It was another scorcher of a day, so the river otters were again loafing, and the big cats yawning in the shade, but the other African and Australian animals shrugged off the heat. And they have capybaras!

That most chill of rodents, who doesn’t love capybaras? I didn’t feed the giraffes this time, but they were striding about, reminding me of my favorite Buddy Hackett one-liner: A giraffe walks into a bar… and says, “The highballs are on me!”¹

Leucistic Wallaby, Zebra, Ostrich, Giraffe, shedding Bison, Wield's Marmoset.

The town of Cape May itself keeps a Victorian flair in its archiecture, and works hard to remain walkable and bikeable. I brought The Gorn, my Trek Marlin 5, and pedaled from our motel to Sunset Beach, snapped a few photos, and rode back. I normally avoid road biking, but it was quiet enough on a Monday that I never felt terrified. There food is good, if pricey, but the beach was less crowded than LBI, there was less traffic, and parking was easy to find and not expensive. You do have to buy a beach tag, but the beach was clean and combed, and you can rent chairs and umbrellas if you need them. We had to endure some pickleball, but no one was camped out with a loud radio or with political flags, so that was nice.

What, no birds? The Red Knot migration is best in May, and the other shore bird migrations usually pick up in August, so I didn’t ride to the observation decks. Cape May is only an hour drive, so I may return to birdwatch soon.

Currently reading: Finn Family Moomintroll, by Tove Janssen; The Way Home: Two Novellas from the World of The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle; The Firmament of Time by Loren Eiseley; The Lure of the Unknown by Algernon Blackwood.

1. Mister “Shapoopie” from The Music Man and the goofball from It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World was also a filthy, hilarious comedian. I recommend his HBO special, from whence the giraffe gag came, very highly.