The Fabulous Seven ascended on Wildwood for the third year in a row! We arrived at the beautiful Port Royal Hotel, on the beach, just in time to check in and meet for the welcome reception on the patio. Today the weather was picture perfect. 85 degrees and sunny. People were on the beach! This year Senior Excursions managed this event for the first time. The reception was excellent. There were beautiful platters of fruit, cheese, vegetables and drinks.
Sheila and Blanch brought along their dear friends, Bev and Karen, who joined us for the first time.
Once again this year, the hotel provided me with an efficiency unit so I could accommodate our group for Pre and Post Party gatherings.
As we perused our itinerary, we noticed that something was missing! Our transportation from the hotel to the Convention Center was not included. Not only that, but our transportation to Jersey Girl Restaurant for Wednesday evening was missing. Since this was provided in all the past years, the ladies were in an uproar. The beauty of this event was that you were able to park your car and leave it there for three days while they transported us to all of the events. This was not the case this year, however, I think the tour company received more than enough complaints and will correct this for next year.
The theme this year was “Mardi Gras” so we were prepared with our beads and masks. I arranged for a van to transport us from the hotel to the Convention Center so no one had to drive. There was a storm predicted and I felt it was the safest option for us. Not to mention the fact that we were looking forward to visiting the bar! Many of the other ladies drove their own cars.
Some of the get-ups on these women were outrageous! Here we are as we awaited our van. Not bad!
The two gorgeous gals above really went all out with their clothing! Wonderful!
We had an enjoyable evening although those of us that attended last year’s event felt that the entertainment and the food was not quite as good this time. But, our Red Hat Sisters all looked FABULOUS!
Notice all the feathers on the floor!
By the time we left the party, the rain had started, but I think the worst of the storm was over. We lucked out!
Here we are in the lobby, still sober and looking pretty good
after the Mardi Gras! 
The next day, we enjoyed breakfast in the hotel restaurant (which was excellent), and boarded a bus to bring us to Washington Street in Cape May for some shopping. The weather was threatening, but it didn’t stop these hard core shoppers from dressing in their best purple and red outfits!
The plan was for us to have some free time to shop, then meet back at the bus and go to lunch at Aleathea’s at The Inn of Cape May! But not before we redeemed our coupon at Kohr’s for some delicious ice cream! You can see by the look on Sheri’s face that she loves to be photographed!
LOL
Back at the Welcome Center while we waited for our bus, we amused ourselves by taking some silly pictures. OK, yes, we can be juvenile. But so what! We got some big laughs out of these!
“GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN”
Below is Sheila’s version of “SO BIG”!
LOL
We arrived at Aleathea’s after our succesful shopping trip!
The Happy Hatters went directly to the bar!
Our lunch was excellent and we all agreed that we would love to return here sometime in the future.
Senior Excursions surprised us with an extra event……a tour of Cape May with a very interesting guide as well as a stop at the Sunset Beach Gift Shop. By this time of day, we were getting somewhat worried about the timing. We were supposed to be at the Jersey Girl Restaurant by 5:30 and had to reserve our van and change clothes, etc.
We made a quick “drive by” of the Cape May Lighthouse. By this time, the rain had started.
We arrived back at the hotel at about 5:00 PM and had 15 minutes to change and meet our taxi. Senior Excursions tried to keep our day interesting, but underestimated how much we could do in one day. They were made aware of this and vowed to make some changes next year.
The restaurant was fabulous! We all enjoyed our meals and vowed to return to Jersey Girl in the future! Very good quality food and excellent service.
After dinner it was time to change and get ready for our Pajama Party! OMG – What a blast we had! These women know how to cut loose!
We made our grand entrance to the delight of our Red Hat Sisters!
Two of the ladies brought the beautiful wreath you see above!
We really had a great time at our first pajama party! The DJ was fantastic. She certainly kept the party going! I think she would have been great at our Mardi Gras party at the Convention Center the night before! What energy!
The next morning we were scheduled to take a tram ride along the Wildwood boardwalk. Except it was 54 degrees with a 15 mile an hour wind off the ocean, so the Happy Hatters decided to skip the tram and just relax for the morning. A barbecue was planned for lunch, but that needed to be brought inside because of the weather.
Although the weather wasn’t the best, it could have been worse. And we were somewhat inconvenienced with the transportation issue, we had a fabulous time and can’t wait to hear from the tour company to see what the plans will be for next year’s event. I think if these issues are solved, we’ll be back!
We made one more shopping stop on the way home in Avalon.
