You may have heard me say that the Sherlock Holmes
weekends, especially the November version, are my
favorite events of the year. I’ll say it again here.
Without exception, our guests that attend have a great
time. It is just one of those special events you come
across once in a while that is just plain FUN. Most
people that come to Cape May for this event, do it again
the next year.
So the esteemed Sherlock is
returning to Cape May the first weekend of November to
continue his proud tradition of sleuthing. This time
Holmes, Watson and his cast of characters will be
attempting to solve the mystery of an attack on our very
own president Benjamin Harrison, but he needs your help!
Why is it so much fun? Part of it is the mystery
itself, as presented in a stage performance by our great
case of characters. The main event, though, is the hunt
for clues through several bed & breakfasts all over
town, along with the cast (in character). There are
prizes for best and worst solution, and if you’re truly
inspired, don your best Sherlock outfit and compete for
the best costume prize. You’ll be in good company, as
the “Baker Street Irregulars”, a group of afficionados
dressed as street urchins and the like, prowl the
streets of Cape May each year attempting to solve the
mystery with you.
We only have 5 rooms remaining
for this weekend, so call us today to make reservations
for this wonderful weekend. This event ALWAYS sells out,
so don’t wait too long!
Anna Marie and I have so much to be thankful for, so
we’re always looking forward to Thanksgiving. Keeping
with tradition, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving here at
The Queen Victoria again this year.
Lots of folks think of family and home when they
think of Thanksgiving. For many of our guests, though,
spending Thanksgiving at The Queen Victoria is a
wonderful alternative when situations are a little
different.
When kids are off at college, or
maybe spending Thanksgiving with their in-laws, home
might seem a little quiet. For many families, The Queen
Victoria is a wonderful “nuetral” and central location
for a family gathering, especially for families spread
out and coming together for the holiday.
One big
bonus about spending Thanksgiving at The Queen Victoria
is that you get a head-start on Christmas. That’s right,
we’ll be fully decorated for the holidays by
Thanksgiving this year.
We help make the day
special by turning tea into a special hors d’oeuvres
holiday reception. Dinner at Union Park completes the
day with a wonderful and intimate 4 course dinner.
If you’re plans for Thanksgiving are up in the
air, give us a call. We’ll be happy to be your home for
the holiday.
Dickens Holiday Extavaganza
Sure, you struggled through a few stories by Charles
Dickens in high school, but if you stop and think about
it, you really do love Charles Dicken’s works. Admit it,
you could watch “A Christmas Carol” every year. Who
doesn’t love “Oliver Twist”? You’re definitely a bigger
Dickens fan than you realized. Charles Dickens was like
the John Grisham of his day (that is actually quite a
compliment to John Grisham). People literally waited in
line to purchase each installment of his stories, which
were often presented serially, one chapter at a
time.
The first week of every December Cape May
hosts the wonderful Dickens Holiday Extravaganza. This
event is a treasure that should be experienced by
anybody who has a true love of Cape May, the Victorian
era and Charles Dickens’ wonderful literature.
This year’s event promises to be one of our finest
with feasts, house tours (including the Designer Show
House), stage presentations and discussions and review
of Dickens’ fabulous work “Bleak House”, as well as
various aspects of Christmas in the Victorian
era.
This year, in addition to our traditional
hor d’ oeuvres reception, The Queen Victoria will also
continue the tradition of treating our guests to the
“Welcome” dinner. Did I mention the 10% discount off of
your room?
Christmas is THE original Victorian tradition.
Christmas as we know it really did originate in
Victorian England, popularized by none other than Queen
Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, who brought the
tradition from his German homeland. We honor and
celebrate that proud tradition every year at The Queen
Victoria.
In fact, The Queen Victoria has a proud Christmas
tradition of its own, spanning over 25 years. Each year
we welcome back many couples and families to share
Christmas together at The Queen Victoria. We’ve got
special holiday receptions, special Christmas Eve and
Christmas dinners, little elves with Christmas
surprises, and enough joy to fill any
stocking!
Christmas is a special time to spend at
The Queen Victoria. We’re still taking reservations for
the Christmas holiday, so call soon to reserve your
room.
If you can’t spend Christmas at The Queen
Victoria, but still want to experience Cape May at
Christmas, the entire month of December is “Christmas in
Cape May”. There are special tours, lots of lights,
great shopping, sleigh rides (actually, horse carriages
with sleigh bells), and lots of festivities all the
time. Don’t forget the shopping! Think about it. Doesn’t
Cape May sound better than “The Mall”?
Back by Popular Demand … Seasonal
Specials
Wow! Last year we introduced a few new specials for
the cooler months and judging from your response, you
really liked them. So this year we’re bringing them
back. Yes, all of our seasonal specials are back: “Gift
of Romance”, “Two for Two”, “Gourmet Getaway”, and
“Winter Weekend MADness”.
All of these specials are available starting in
November. The Gourmet Getway, Two for Two, and Winter
Weekend MADness run through April, while the Gift
of Romance runs into June (but is not available in Jan,
Feb & Mar). All except the “Winter Weekend MADness are weeknight specials, including Sunday
evening.
If you’ve spent much time talking to Anna Marie or me
you’re probably aware that we try not to refer to Summer as
“Our Season”. The reason, of course, is that every season is
special in Cape May. In fact, many of you look forward to the
end of Summer so you can return to Cape May for your favorite
time.
That not withstanding, I’m the first to admit
that we are busier in the summer than any other time. This
year was no exception, thanks to those of you who stayed with
us. We had a wonderful summer this year in every way. Our
weather, with the exception of only one week, was nearly
perfect. The water was warm and full of frolicking dolphins.
We met so many wonderful first time guests. Most importantly,
we welcomed MANY, MANY of you back again.
Anna Marie
and I can’t tell you enough how much we appreciate you
returning to stay with us. It isn’t just the fact that you’re
filling our rooms, of course. We know we have the greatest
guests and friends possible. You make this business a
wonderful way to spend our lives with your enthusiasm about
The Queen Victoria and your interest in our lives, both past
and present.
Cape May is for Wine Lovers
I’m calling it official. Cape May now has a wine
trail! I don’t know if I’m the first one to make this
claim, but I’ve never been shy about making bold
pronouncements.
Anna Marie and I stumbled onto a
new winery yesterday in our travels located right on
route 47 called Natali Vineyards, just few miles north
of Cape May (mile marker 12.9). We usually bypass this
section of route 47, but some divine intervention must
have inspired me.
This makes three wineries within 15 miles of The
Queen Victoria; Cape May winery, Turdo winery, and now
Natali. With three wineries don’t you think we should be
able to make the claim of a trail? Anna Marie and I are
brainstorming about ways to get a shuttle or trolley
tour that would travel to all three in a day. Stay
tuned, I think it is going to happen.
Natali is
the newest and smallest of the three vineyards, but I
was very impressed by their wines and their aspirations.
They’ve got plans to build a huge tasting room with
banquet facilities and some really cool wine caves (no
pun intended).
They also have lots of land to
plant new vines, unlike our established wineries, so in
the future they may actually be our largest winery. In
the meantime, I highly recommend a visit to Natali
vineyards. Stop in and taste some wines, and I’m sure
you’ll be taking some home with you.
This month’s room is already a favorite of MANY of
you, but I can’t keep it a secret from the rest. The
Prince of Wales room is the original master bedroom of
the Queen Victoria building, so it stands to reason it
should be a special room.
If you like a spacious room, great ocean views from a
turret window, and a room with lots of character, you’re
going to love the Prince of Wales room. Located on the
2nd floor of the building in the front left corner (if
you’re facing the front of the house), Prince of Wales
features a queen sized canopy bed, a large seating area
with as good an ocean view as you can get 1 block back
from the beach, a wonderful original vanity sink in the
bedroom, TV with DVD (not pictured because our
photographers have a thing about TVs in their photos),
and a large private bath with a clawfoot tub with
shower. Like all rooms in The Queen Victoria, it is
individually climate controlled.
If you like
this room, and I’m sure you will, you’ll want to book it
well in advance. At the date of this writing, the Prince
of Wales is booked all but 3 nights for the entire month
of October, making it our most popular room so far this
month.
The “Stay and Play” package is still going strong. As
part of our ongoing support for great theatre in Cape
May, we’ve purchased 20 season tickets to the Cape May
Stage. That means we have 160 tickets to give to our
favorite guests. Of course, our favorite guests are
those who stay for several nights!
If you book a 4 night weekend stay or a 3 night
weekday stay, we’ll be pleased to share our tickets to
the Cape May Stage with you. These tickets have a $28
face value, so this is definitely a great deal. In fact,
it is the only package we offer until November. Be sure
to ask about the tickets when you reserve your
room!
A new production called “Turn of the Screw”
was just introduced last week and we’ve been hearing
great things about it. We usually don’t get to the new
shows right away, but that just leaves more seats
available for you! It sounds like this is another
production you won’t want to miss if you’re visiting in
the next month. I need to warn you, though, that it is
supposed to be pretty spooky.
If you’ve been in Cape May in the last few weeks
you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say that there
are a lot of Monarch butterflies in town. I’m not
talking about clouds of them, but it seems like every
time I look up I see one of these beautiful creatures
fluttering around our gardens or along the beach (who
thought butterflies liked the beach?).
Every year in late September millions of Monarch
butterflies pass through Cape May Point on their way
south to Mexico. Lots of people come to Cape May at this
time of year to watch birds, and many have discovered
that the butterfly watching is just as wonderful and
beautiful. Imagine seeing an entire tree covered with
bright orange and black butterflies!
They
apparently flutter down the coast into Cape May and
await favorable winds before crossing the Delaware Bay
on their way south. It amazes me that these creatures
which were just caterpillars a few weeks prior
instinctively know exactly where to migrate to during
their short life of about 11 weeks.
I haven’t
seen it yet, but would you believe they actually capture
and “band” butterflies as a way of tracking their
progress. That has got to be a pretty tedious
exercise!
Anyway, the migration of these
wonderful insects is yet another reason why September is
such a magical time to visit Cape May.
Interesting Guest Photos
I usually call this section of the newsletter
“Favorite Guest Photos”. I’ve changed the title this
month because my favorite photos of houses are actually
of our buildings. I don’t want to sound petty, I’m just
being honest. In any case, this is an interesting photo
because it is THE photo of Cape May’s beach front.
Everybody takes this photo. What makes it particularly
interesting now is the fact that the anchor house in
this photo is no longer there; at least not for a while.
One of the most frequently asked questions this
summer has been “What happened to the Sea Mist?”. You
have probably figured out that the biggest, brightest
house in this picture, the red and white one, is the Sea
Mist. Alas, if this photo were taken today it would
contain a house that is certainly taking the shape of
the Sea Mist, but is actually a rebuilt version of said
structure.
Back in late March or early April the
new owners of the building starting taking it apart,
piece by piece. Work was halted by the city temporarily
for some reason, but soon resumed. Aparently in order to
convert the building from 15 apartments into 8 condos
some major structural improvements were required,
starting with the foundation. At this point I don’t
think anything remains of the original building. It has
been interesting to watch them replace each wall, from
the ground floor up, while keeping the structure above
in tact. The owners are saying that the building will
once again look exactly like it did before. From the
looks of it I believe that is true.
Doug & Anna Marie’s Restaurant
Pick Of The Month … Freda’s Cafe
Have you ever asked me about restaurant ideas while
staying with us? If so, chances are that the first
restaurant I mentioned to you was Freda’s Cafe. Anna
Marie and I love Freda’s. It amazes me that anybody can
even get into this restaurant. Just step inside and
you’ll know you are in a charming, special place.
Freda’s undoubtedly serves some of the best food
available in Cape May, which is saying a lot. I can’t
tell you how many guests this year have told me that
their best meal was at Freda’s. A few of you have even
told me that it was the best meal you’ve ever had in
your life; high praise indeed, considering most of you
have had a few good meals in your life.
So what
is good at Freda’s? Everything! Our favorites are the
Crab Cakes (I’ve never had better anywhere), the Shrimp
and Scallops Pesto (Anna Marie likes her’s without pesto
for a version they refer to as “Pesto, no Pesto”), and
the Chicken En Croute. Dinner is served with a nice
salad and all the home baked little loaves of bread you
can eat. Freda’s is also a BYO, which is the final
feather in its cap.
Freda’s is open year-round,
and usually has a Monday night “Buy One, Get One”
special in the winter, making it a mandatory Monday
dinner spot for Anna Marie and me all winter
long.
Make your reservations today for a romantic getaway at The
Queen Victoria Bed and Breakfast. We are looking forward to
helping you plan your next visit!
