All right, it’s not the French Riviera.
They don’t wear a lot of cut-off jeans or shoot pumpkins out of cannons at St. Tropez or Cap d’Antibes.
But that’s the idea. Running for some 75 miles from the mouth of Delaware Bay to the southern tip of Virginia’s Assateague Island, the Atlantic shore of the Delmarva peninsula is what you might call America’s beach–casual, comfortable, unpretentious and, in many places, rather wild.
I don’t know if the late Norman Rockwell ever did a Saturday Evening Post seashore cover, but if he had been so inclined, he would have found ample inspiration here. So would Winslow Homer and John James Audubon.
Delmarva is junky and tacky in places, but also old and historic, and in several long stretches it has some of the most ecologically pristine coastline in America.
The mid-Atlantic climate is moderate, without the sultry summer sog of Florida and the Caribbean or the chill of Cape Cod and Maine summer nights. Water temperatures are warm and pleasant as well, and the surf, while often lively, is seldom dangerous.
And in its variety, it is remarkable, if not infinite. Among the shore points are historic Lewes, founded by the Dutch and one of the oldest seaports in America; Rehoboth Beach, Del., with its ever-teeming boardwalk; the quieter and more family-oriented Bethany Beach and Fenwick Island, Del.; tacky Ocean City, Md., the former refuge of disgraced Vice President Spiro Agnew; and the small fishing port of Chincoteague, Va., famous for Misty, one of the legendary wild ponies who roam the nearby marshes and grassy sands.
And in between these places, miles and miles of open, unsullied and undeveloped beach.
A peninsula bounded by the Atlantic on the east and Chesapeake Bay on the west, Delmarva takes its name from the three states whose boundaries run across it– Delaware, Maryland and Virginia (Va).
Connected to Annapolis and the Maryland mainland via the Kent Island causeway and the spectacular Bay Bridge over the Chesapeake, Delmarva and its beaches are within a three-hour drive of Washington and Baltimore.
To the north, across the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, are Wilmington, Del., and Philadelphia. And the 70-minute auto ferry ride from Lewes across Delaware Bay to Cape May, N.J., connects with such Jersey shore points as Atlantic City.
Though it has a quiet, pleasant beach fronting Delaware Bay, Lewes is essentially a river town and a very old one–discovered by Henry Hudson in 1609 and settled by Dutch colonists as a whaling station in 1631. An Indian massacre followed and then a war with the British, which saw ships sunk in the bay and the town yielded to the English. Some of the original Dutch architecture can still be seen on such structures as the Zwaaneedael Museum, located at Savannah Road and King’s Highway.
Capt. Kidd and other pirates were frequent 17th Century visitors. Though relatively unscarred by the American Revolution, Lewes was bombarded during the War of 1812, suffering as casualties a wounded pig and dead chicken. The Cannonball House Marine Museum, 118 Front St., still holds in its wall a cannon ball from that fracas.
The wharves and docks along both sides of the deep channel waterway that runs through town, formally known as the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal, are busy ones. A large fleet of charter and “head” boats (which charge by the “head” for half-day and day-long fishing trips) is based there, as is the Jolly Rover tall ship, which makes daily sailing excursions of the bay.
It’s a delightful walk-about town, full of interesting shops and galleries and much photographed 18th Century and Victorian houses.
Lewes is also a town of ghosts. At Fiddler’s Hill southwest of the town, some say, one can still hear the strains of violin music from a young swain who climbed a tree to scare a rival off with eerie fiddling but fell to his own death.
Another specter is supposed to loiter about Lubker House on Pilottown Road, where an early settler was slain by a pirate; his blood still stains the wooden floor. And locked doors at Cannonball House have opened mysteriously.
After Halloween, Lewes puts such ghoulish notions briefly aside for something much more fun–the World Champion Punkin’ Chunkin’, an annual event (this year: Nov. 1-2) in which entrants shoot pumpkins out of various forms of explosive cannons to see who can hurl them the farthest.
Cape Henlopen State Park, home of a ghost called the Bad Weather Witch, is just to the east and south of Lewes at the point where Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic. Its gentle, grassy dunes overlook the angry waters of many a shipwreck.
A lighthouse guards it now, but it otherwise remains beautifully desolate, with four miles of uncluttered beach and shoreline. Portions of the cape are fenced off late spring and early summer every year to provide nesting grounds for various terns, plovers and other seabirds making their migratory way north.
The drive down Delaware Highway 1 from Lewes to Rehoboth Beach is an unsettling change of pace. The road is lined with a glut of resorts, shopping and discount centers, movie multiplexes, go-kart tracks, miniature golf courses and the garish like.
Turning into Rehoboth Beach, one comes to a classic and great Atlantic beachfront boardwalk, which runs to fast-food joints, T-shirt shops and arcades, though it also has some nice hotels, an antiques and art auction house, a famous taffy shop and seaside amusement park.
Rehoboth Beach is well policed, safe and recommended for families. The south end of its beach and boardwalk has become a gay summer colony, however, which takes some visitors by surprise.
Local ghosts are honored here, too, at the Sea Witch Halloween Festival and Fiddlers’ Convention on the beach, an event (this year: Oct. 25-26) that for some reason includes equestrian activities.
Dewey Beach, just down the shore from Rehoboth, is a favorite for young adults, who carry on all summer the way youths do at some resorts only during Easter break (though during the day and early evening hours, they’re not so boisterous). Dewey Beach’s Ruddertowne complex has two excellent seafood restaurants, some nice shops and all manner of rental watercraft for use on the adjoining Rehoboth Bay.
That wide expanse of pleasant backwater is separated from the Atlantic by a narrow strip of barrier reef, of which seven miles has been preserved in a wild state as Delaware Seashore State Park.
Delaware 1 runs down the middle of this reef, with several points of public access to beaches on both ocean and bay side. The most notable is Tower Beach, guarded by two gigantic World War II-era machine gun towers installed to repel the Germans.
Further south, a humpback bridge carries Delaware 1 over a cut called Indian River Channel, providing access to the ocean for bay-harbored “head” boats and deep-sea charters working the offshore fishing grounds.
The beach here is haunted by “The Girl of the Dunes,” a recently discovered wraith of a lass who reportedly wears a turn-of-the-century bathing suit and calls out, “Help me, please help me,” to those who encounter her at night.
Bethany Beach, next down the shore, has campgrounds that have been turned into a quiet–and, in some places, expensive–family resort. It, too, has a boardwalk.
Another wild stretch of barrier reef, set aside as Fenwick Island State Park and the Assawoman State Wildlife Area, separates Bethany from Fenwick Island, which sits on the Delaware-Maryland state line. Lying between the ocean and a tranquil backwater called Assawoman Bay, it has boat rental facilities and a famous lighthouse. A more raffish, barefoot version of Bethany Beach, it, too, caters to families and has some nice restaurants.
Running the rest of the length of this section of barrier reef is the long, junky, throroughly urbanized resort of Ocean City, Md. After his denouement and resignation, Agnew spent much of his time here in a waterfront condo. Though it has some good accommodations on the end close to Fenwick Island and an amusement park with a roller coaster at its south end, Ocean City–which some find rather like Atlantic City without the gambling–is definitely an acquired taste.
A recent survey by the National Resources Defense Council deemed Ocean City’s bacteria testing “inadequate,” and it’s easy for kids to get in trouble there. Police have been known to arrest first and ask questions later, especially in the boardwalk area.
Running south from Ocean City, but separated from it by water, is the 33-mile-long barrier reef called Assateague Island, one of the most magnificent stretches of shoreline on the East Coast. Part state park and part national seashore, it’s protected throughout its length. It is connected by road and bridge to the mainland via Maryland Highway 611, and there is a trail–best navigated in a 4-wheel drive vehicle–on it connecting six camping grounds (including one called Tingles and another called Jims Gut). About 12 miles of beach is open to off-road vehicles, though some conservationists would like to put a stop to that.
On Assateague’s southern, Virginia end, vehicles are prohibited from the beach for the last 11 miles of the island. And on Tom’s Cove Hook, the curved, sandy point at the very tip, the beach is completely closed in the spring and summer to keep crowds from disturbing the wild creatures.
But otherwise this section of Assateague is laced with scenic walking trails, which is of special moment in that portion set off as the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge–home of the ponies made famous by the children’s book “Misty of Chincoteague.”
It’s not certain whether they’re descendants of horses come ashore from a wrecked Spanish fleet or of horses exiled by early colonists to avoid a grazing law, but the ponies are a breathtaking sight when come upon browsing in the marsh grass. They are wild, however, and have been known to bite and kick.
The Tom’s Cove Visitor Center has extensive nature exhibits on virtually every form of wildlife to be found on the island and in its surrounding waters. Virginia Highway 175 and a causeway over Assateague Channel connect the south end of Assateague to Chincoteague Island and the village of Chincoteague, one of the South’s most charming little water towns.
Continuing west across Chincoteague Bay, and traversing NASA’s mysterious Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia 175 intersects with U.S. Highway 13, the main north-south route through Delmarva that will eventually take you back to the big cities.
If you can bring yourself to leave.
DETAILS ON VISITING DELMARVA
Lewes, Del.
Lodging: The Inn at Canal Square, 122 Market St.; 302-645-8499.
Dining: The Lighthouse, Anglers and Savannah Roads; 302-645-6271.
– The Rose and Crown, 109 2nd St.; 302-645-2373.
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Lodging: Boardwalk Plaza Hotel, 2 Olive Ave. (at the boardwalk); 800-332-3224.
– Henlopen Hotel, 511 N. Boardwalk; 800-441-8450.
Dining: Adriatico Ristorante, 6 N. 1st St.; 302-227-9255.
– Garden Gourmet, 4121 Delaware Highway 1; 302-227-4747.
Dewey Beach, Del.
Dining: The Rusty Rudder, 113 Dickinson St.; 302-227-3888.
Bethany Beach, Del.
Lodging: Bethany Arms Motel, Atlantic and Hollywood Avenues; 302-539-9603.
– Blue Surf Motel, 98 Garfield Pkwy.; 302-539-7531.
Dining: Harbor Lights Restaurant, Delaware Rt. 1 at Delaware Seashore Park; 302-539-3061.
Fenwick Island, Del.
Lodging: Fenwick Islander, Delaware Rt. 1 and South Carolina Avenue; 302-539-2333.
– Fenwick Sea Charm, Oceanfront and Lighthouse Roads; 302-539-9613.
Dining: Tom and Jerry’s Seafood Restaurant, Delaware Highway 54, 1 1/2 miles west of Delaware Rt. 1; 302-436-4161.
Ocean City, Md.
Lodging: Sheraton Fontainbleau, 10100 Coastal Hwy.; 410-524-3535.
Chincoteague, Va.
Lodging: Channel Bass Inn, 6228 Church St.; 757-336-6148.
Dining: Beachway, 6455 Maddox Blvd.; 757-336-5590.
