Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Delmarva??

Visited June 12-15, 2022

By Janell

Delaware is the second smallest state by area, measuring 1,954 square miles; (behind Rhode Island, at 1,045 square miles). 

Take a look at the shape of Delaware below. The two bodies of water (or Rorschach test inkblots) on the southeastern shore of the state are Rehoboth Bay (northern body) and Indian River Bay (southern body); our campground was located on that little piece of land that juts out right between the two bodies of water.

So, what and where is Delmarva? You remember me telling you about Kentuckiana, right? Well, this is much like that. Delmarva is a large peninsula comprised of most of the state of Delaware, and parts of Maryland and Virginia. 

Above is a map of the Delmarva Peninsula. The southern yellow area is the eastern shore of Virginia; the orange area is the eastern shore of Maryland; and the northern yellow area is part of Delaware. And there you have it: Delmarva!

Back to our campground: it was more of a resort than a campground, although as per our usual, we didn’t spend much time doing things in the campground. When I booked the campground in late January it was called “The Resort at Massey’s Landing”, and somewhere between then and our stay in June, the name changed to “Sun Outdoors - Rehoboth Bay”. Sun Outdoors has 175 locations in the U.S. and Canada. While I'm sure the place probably warranted the term "resort" back when it was called Massey's, I'm also sure Sun made some improvements that made it even more resort-like.

The campground had many little cottages like these pink ones. Different rows of cottages were different pastel colors. 

Look at the fleet of golf carts for rent! We were here at a fairly quiet time, and even so there were quite a few golf cart families tooling around, back and forth to the pools, etc. We couldn't even imagine what a zoo it would be if all of these golf carts were in circulation.

Sunset at the campground.

I know it seems as if it should be sunrise, given that we were on the east coast and all, but I was there . . . it was definitely sunset. There are a lot of inlets in the area, and apparently we were standing at one and facing west.

We rented a canoe at Trap Pond for a couple of hours. Trap Pond is home to the northern-most, naturally occurring stand of bald cypress trees. Never having heard of a "bald cypress" before, I had to look it up. Wikipedia says: It is native to the southeastern United States. Hardy and tough, this tree adapts to a wide range of soil types, whether wet, salty, dry, or swampy. I guess so, because these trees at Trap Pond are literally standing in water, and they don't seem to mind. 

We saw a lot of blue herons, like the four above.

We also saw a lot of painted lady turtles at the pond, but we didn't get any decent photos of them, unfortunately. They seemed a little camera-shy, slipping into the water just as we snapped a pic.

Canoeing on Trap Pond was a little eerie, but it was awesome!

After our canoe trip, we headed to Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in the nearby town of Milton, DE.

The Steampunk Treehouse, outside of the brewery

The Steampunk Treehouse was created in 2007 by artist Sean Orlando and the 5-Ton Crane Arts Group of Oakland, CA. It was first exhibited at the 2007 Burning Man festival in Nevada. It was displayed at a few other festivals before finally finding a permanent home here at the Dogfish Head Brewery in 2010.

The tree is 40' tall, 40' wide, weighs 8 tons, and was crafted in part from recycled and reclaimed materials.

The interior of the treehouse is restricted to Dogfish Head employees only. They use the space to "share ideas in a creative environment". Sounds like a really cool place to work!

On another day, we bicycled 17 miles on the Junction and Breakwater trails and through part of Cape Henlopen State Park. This is a viewing platform overlooking Gordons Pond.

Do you see the two towers on the horizon to the right of us (above)? We wondered about them.

Wonder no more:

There are thirteen of these concrete observation towers, and they were built between 1939 and 1942. Two towers are on the coast of New Jersey, and the other eleven dot Delaware’s coastline. They were built to protect the entrance to Delaware Bay during World War II – and to last about 20 years. They are still standing some 80 years later! 

The towers have been abandoned since the early 1960’s, with the exception of Tower 7. Tower 7 has been renovated and is open to the public; as it was a fairly warm day, we did not go out of our way to pedal over to Tower 7. 

On our way back to where the car was parked, we pedaled through the town of Lewes (pronounced like "Lewis"), and then we had lunch at the Big Oyster Brewery. 

Did you know that Delaware considers itself the "first state". It was the first state to vote in favor of the Constitution, to ratify it, on Dec. 7, 1787. Pennsylvania followed as #2 five days later. 

Lewes, Delaware considers itself "the first town, in the first state". It was first settled by the Dutch in 1631, so I guess by 156 years later when Delaware became the first state, Lewes was a shoo-in for first town. 

We also checked out Rehoboth Beach, which is a beach town similar to Santa Cruz, CA. Like Santa Cruz, they have a boardwalk, loaded with tourists and plenty of tacky shops selling T-shirts, ice cream, etc. 

They have amusement rides and a video arcade.

And most important, they have a beach, of course! A beach with rules regarding what kind of shade structure is allowed. They literally have size and shape limitations. Check out the sign above. 

Now you can see why they need to restrict the size of shade structures; and this is before the season really gets underway. We were told by a shop owner that things really get busy about the third week of June. We were here on June 15.

Our "campground" had a couple of pool areas, one of which had a swim up bar! Seriously! That's a first for a campground, in our experience. So, on our last night we made a point of going to the pool, just to say we did. We didn't swim up to the bar though -- it already had a crowd going, with all those golf cart folks. Fortunately for us, it was also accessible from dry land.