Bethany Beach: My Home Town

In its December edition, Delaware Today magazine did a Bucket List in which they listed the 50 Things Every Delawarean Must Do. I was so inspired by this list that I not only resolved to do as many of the 50 as possible, I added to the list using various books and pamphlets I have picked up since August. My Bucket List has 79 entries on it, impressive when one considers that our Small Wonder is only 96 miles from point to point. Now, granted, there is some overlap; but, I wanted to ensure that everything I have thought about doing was written down somewhere.

Number 46 on the Delaware Today List: Ride through Lewes, Rehoboth and Dewey beaches and go the extra half hour to spend a week in Bethany Beach. The “Quiet Resorts” are just that, and if you’re having house guests, it’ll probably be the only time in your life that your directions will include “turn left at the totem pole.”

Our Totem Pole

I have spent the past twenty years of my life living in two of the biggest cities in the world. While I love cities and loved every minute I spent in New York and London, I have discovered that I am a small town girl at heart. I have been home since July and am simply loving the pace and the joy that comes from living in the small town where I spent so much time as a child.  I am also loving unfettered access to the beach.  I try to walk the beach every day. Sand between my toes and the sound of the surf in my ears inevitably cheers me up and sets me straight.

Mom and Lynn's house, the house where we spent our childhood, is about a mile south of the totem pole (looking at this picture, you turn left) in a town called, appropriately enough, South Bethany.  As soon as we could ride bikes, however, Bethany became where we go to shop, eat and play.  Very little has changed since those days.

This is a perfect example.  I have been coming to this post office to pick up the mail for as long as I can remember.  In fact, my family has had a mailbox here for so long that our box number only has two digits!

This is our town hall, one of the things that has changed.  It is much fancier now than it used to be!

This is my church.  Although it is on the same site as it was when I was a child, it is now about twice the size.

Our Town Center. Like any beach town, Bethany is filled with shops and restaurants.  Being December, however, a lot of them have either closed down or will by the new year.  There is then a very quiet couple of months, but things start to come back to life in March as everyone gets ready for the Memorial Day kick off to summer.

One of my favorite parts of Bethany is the boardwalk.  It's a great place to walk when the water is too high to walk on the beach and there is a great little cafe just behind where this photo was taken that makes hot chocolate to die for!