Dover AFB

I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the base in Dover. It is one of the smallest bases I have been on. The base is split... one side of the highway has the housing area, the other has the rest of the base. There is one main road that has most of the buildings on it. There is a shopette, bowling alley, movie theater, commissary, and BX.

The base has a Family camp. It has only 10 sites, 3 are electric and water, 7 are full hookups. It is way at the end of base... after you go past the archery range, and firing range. It sits right on the end of the runway. Where we were staying we could look out our window and see the huge planes sitting right next to us. There was also an aero-club that has small planes. It sat next to the campground as well.

When we were there, the weather hovered at around 95 degrees... with about 95% humidity. The campground had a couple of trees, but for the most part there wasn't much shade. We ran the air conditioning in the motor home constantly, and it wasn't much help. The sun beat down on the motorhome and it got so hot! UGH!

The one saving grace was the pool on the housing side of base. There was a pool for the housing itself, but you had to be living in housing to swim. The other pool cost $3 per person per day, but it was open to anyone who had access to base. The pool was huge and had a great big water slide. We went there 3 times during the week we stayed in Dover.

Sky in line for the slide

Sky ready to jump in the 5' area

Splash!

Skyler and Liam's swimming got so much better this summer. They both basically got over their fear of the water and actually started to swim, tread water, and float. The slide dumped into the 5 ' part of the pool, so Liam chose to wear a lifejacket while going down it... but he would take it off and actually swim as well.

Liam giving me the thumbs up

from the top of the slide

Liam hitting the water

"That was AWESOME!"

I loved that every 45 minutes they had an adult swim! They made all the kids get out of the water, and no-one under 18 was allowed in the pool. It was great because I got a chance to swim and go down the slide. The kids didn't think it was that great... but they made the best of it by playing in the kiddie pool.

I know we will find cool things to do while in Delaware, when we are there. I have always found good things about every state we have visited or lived in. So... goodbye Delaware for now. We'll be back to explore!

Bowers Beach, Delaware

After spending the day at Rehobeth beach, we decided to try one that was closer and maybe less crowded. We went to Bowers Beach which is about 6 miles from Dover AFB. Not being an "ocean" beach kinda girl, I forgot to check the tides. The beach was at low tide... so much for SWIMMING! We could have walked out a mile and it still would have been knee deep.


Bowers Beach at low tide

Even at low tide, the kids enjoyed the beach. We were talking to a guy that had a camp on the beach. We learned all about the beach. The beach is a mating beach for horseshoe crabs. About 5 weeks previous he said there were about 2,000 horseshoe crabs up on the beach! I wish I could have seen that! The kids found some of the crabs that didn't make it. They carried them up onto the beach and had a horseshoe crab display set up for us.

The boys and a new friend

with their horseshoe crab display

Huge horseshoe crab shells

Smaller horseshoe crab shells

One lady was out walking on the beach and found that some of the horseshoe crabs had started to hatch. If you look closely at this photo, she is holding a baby horseshoe crab. It was small than her fingernail! The kids were amazed that something so small grew to be so big!

Baby horseshoe crab

It was a fun morning at the beach even though we didn't get to swim. The kids saw jellyfish, and lots and lots of snails. They built a sand castle and gathered shells and rocks. Then we drove back to the base and cooled off in the pool.

Rehobeth Beach, Delaware

We decided to check out the famous Rehobeth Beach and board walk while we were visiting Delaware. I was so glad that I went online and checked it out first! It was a nice drive down to the lower part of Delaware; the beach is located where the bay empties out into the ocean.

The entire beach and boardwalk area is lined with parking spots all with parking meters. The areas of town that don't have parking meters, you need to go and get a parking pass (which costs money, of course) to park. We didn't park on the main street... because I got tired of driving around and around waiting for an open spot. The place we found to park was fairly close to the beach so we didn't have far to walk. I had come prepared with a roll of quarters!

When we came up to the beach, all I saw was wall to wall umbrellas! It was early afternoon and the beach was full of people. The photos that are shown here were taken later in the day when the beach cleared out a little....

I let the kids splash in the waves but, because they are not strong swimmers, I wouldn't let them actually swim. I was watching the water and there was a pretty good undertow and current. There were lifeguards every 20 feet or so along the beach.

Sky and Liam checking out the waves

Building a sandcastle -

next time we need to bring shovels and pails!


After enjoying the afternoon in the scorching hot sun and getting sunburned, we decided to go check out some of the shops and walk on the boardwalk.

Liam and Sky with candy filled stomachs

enjoying a fresh squeezed lemonade

Posing for a photo on the boardwalk

We stopped at the candy store and bought some fresh made candy. Then we had fresh squeezed lemonade. We bought some shovels, beach mats, and a castle making mold for the next trip to the beach.

It was getting late, it was SO hot, and we were all getting irritable. It was time to get in the air-conditioned car and drive back to Dover. It was a fun trip. Next time we will stay later into the evening and hit the carnival on the boardwalk!