Baedeker: 2008 Summer Vacation

Rehoboth Beach, the Delaware Shore, and Cape May, New Jersey.

Part I – Rehoboth Beach

A multipart series chronically sites of my 2008 summer vacation!

The trip to Rehoboth Beach and the Delaware Shore actually began with a stop in Washington, DC and a drive over the Bay Bridge outside Annapolis.

Rehoboth Beach is a seaside resort town in southern Delaware that along with Lewes and some smaller towns make up the Delaware Shore. The history of Rehoboth is interesting:

"The City’s actual origins as a seaside resort go back to January 27, 1873, when ‘The Rehoboth Beach Camp Meeting Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church’ was founded here to provide for summer religious gatherings. Using that name, and led by a Reverend Robert Todd, thirty incorporators secured a Charter from the state Legislature to create a ‘Christian sea-side resort.’ Their plan was to encourage interested persons to take advantage of the seaside atmosphere and to fund the enterprise through sales of shares and property".

Eventually the Camp disbanded and in 1891, the location was incorporated and eventually named Rehoboth Beach.

Interestingly, the ‘Christian resort’ is now a favorite vacation resort for the Mid-Atlantic, particularly Washingtonians as Rehoboth describes itself as "The Nation’s Summer Capital". And even more curious is that it has developed as a destination for gays and lesbians.

Shops, restaurant, and bars are centralized around the main strip of Rehoboth Avenue, which ends at the Atlantic Ocean and the Rehoboth Boardwalk. The one-mile Boardwalk links the network of streets and the beach. The south end of the Boadwalk is more residential in nature with all the commercial activity near the center and larger hotels at the north end.Rehoboth was home base for the week and we rented a house one block from the beach.

Rehoboth Avenue ends at a large gazebo.

Rehoboth Avenue

Boardwalk looking north
Boardwalk looking south
Rehoboth Avenue & 1st Street
Beach from Boardwalk
Beach from Boardwalk
Houses on south end of Boardwalk
Next: Part II – Lewes, Delaware