Day 147: Baltimore, MD to Rehoboth Beach, DE (and back)

Today we embarked on an exciting yet still relaxing Delaware adventure. On a day trip from Baltimore, we drove across the huge William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bay in Maryland and then across the state line into Delaware. We passed numerous farm stands, forest lined roads, and rolling corn, soybean and sorghum fields. We also saw lots of meat chicken factories. Did you know that there are 200 meat chickens for every human living in the state of Delaware?

Our first stop was a factory but, thankfully, not a chicken factory. Instead, we paid a visit to a beer factory called Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. We ate lunch on the patio and then took the 1 pm tour. We learned about the history of the company and saw how they brewed their beer.

Part of the tour was a beer tasting for the grown ups while the kids enjoyed diet soda. We splurged on pizza (because what goes better with beer and soda than pizza?!) and enjoyed our time relaxing at the brewery together. Ian said that the pizza was among the best he’s ever tasted, which is high praise since pizza is his favourite food.

Our next stop was a farm, though again (thankfully) not a chicken farm. Hopkins Farm Creamery used to be a dairy farm but is now mostly an ice cream factory. There was no tour here but we sampled their farm fresh ice cream in homemade waffle cones while watching dairy cows, sheep and runner ducks in the back field. We all agreed that the ice cream here had the smoothest texture that we’d ever tasted; like velvet. Delicious. I sampled Cow Pie (which tasted like peanut butter) and I will definitely try to reproduce this flavour at home.

Our final stop of the day was at Rehoboth Beach on the Atlantic Ocean. We parked at the North end and walked along the beach. The surf was huge! The lifeguards were actually keeping people out of the water because the waves were so big. We enjoyed seeing the waves crashing on shore and feeling the wind off the ocean on our faces. The boys played in the sand for a while before we headed back along the boardwalk to make the drive back to the campground. The weather and temperature in this part of the US at this time of the year is fantastic. It was beautifully sunny, warm but not hot, zero humidity, and just a first few leaves starting to fall. Seriously perfection.

Pretty beach houses.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset as we returned across Delaware, finally making it back to our campsite at Patapsco Valley State Park. We had no trouble getting the kids to sleep tonight. They were exhausted! It was a perfect day.