Yikes! It's December. This might be a good time to mention that I'm skipping Rhode Island, New York, and all of New Jersey north of Brigatine. Why? Because in a few weeks, I have to catch a plane from Baltimore to California. Because it's getting awfully cold. Because it's starting to snow up there. Because it's December.

Woke to brilliant sunshine but absolutely no clue where I was. Perhaps this is the time to mention that parks -- yes, parks -- have the worst maps. Why is that? Shouldn't maps come naturally to these people? And yet, inevitably, the worst maps. We circled the park for about an hour before finally emerging on the beach at Herring Point.

Cape Henlopen still bristles with World War II fortifications -- watchtowers and ammo dumps built into the sides of the dunes. (By flashlight, the rusted doors of the casement entrances look just like...well, like something really scary where really scary things live!) Apparently, it was thought that Lewes was a likely landing place for the feared German invasion. Of course it seems funny now, given that we know how history played out -- like the Germans were really going to sit through the Bay Bridge traffic...

From there, it was only an hour or so walk down the beach to Rehoboth. The tide was going out so the sand was nicely packed. We had the beach to ourselves so the dogs got to play leashless. Ended up at Gordon's Pond, a beach I've walked a million times (in the summer). We stopped again for dog food but by 3 were happily ensconced at Jewell and Michaela's house in Rehoboth. Michaela has asked if I would mind putting a few chemicals in the hot tub. Hmmm. Yes, I suppose I could do that...