Cape May- The Merion Inn

Well, this is it. Our last night in Cape May. It always makes me sad to realize that the week has gone by so quickly, and that we'll soon be returning to reality. It feels nice to get away for a few days. And we always end up wishing we could stay just a little bit longer. Next year we'd love to stay for two weeks instead of just one (one is just too short), but we'll have to see how that goes. I can only hope!

Tonight we had our final Cape May dinner at a perennial favorite, the Merion Inn. When Mom, Nina, and I visited in December, we dined at the Merion Inn as well. (You can see what we ate there in my very first blog post.)

We chose the Merion for a myriad of reasons. It's picturesque, it's reliable in terms of food quality and service (save the waiter we had last year...but that's another story...) and we've been going to it forever.

One of my favorite things about eating at the Merion is the phenomenal mini muffins and apple butter. You never know what kind of muffins they are going to give you, and I can't say I really eat apple butter anywhere else, but at the Merion Inn, these delicious morsels combine to make possibly my most highly anticipated dinner muffins of the whole trip. Now that's saying something.

There were a lot more than just four muffins...we were hungry....

I'm telling you, the nuttiness of the muffin coupled with the sweet, smoothness of the apple butter is pure goodness in bread form. When our waiter, Matthew, (who we really enjoyed) brought the muffins, they were warm, too. Warm, delicious muffins. How much better does it get?!?

As a side note, it's absolutely pouring right now, and I can't help but to think of that scene in The Sound of Music, where it's storming and Frauline Maria and the kids are all singing in the bedroom. That's one of my favorite movies ever and I feel like I could be in it right now! But back to the food....

My aunt and uncle let me try some of their ahi tuna appetizer.

I'm going to be completely honest and say that I am kind of luke warm on the ahi tuna debate. I don't LOVE it like some people, but I'm not grossed out by it either. I typically find the consistency a little weird, but I'll try most things. So when they offered some for me to taste, I said sure.

This was actually quite good. The noodles were a cold noodle that balanced out the heat from the wasabi on the tuna. And the tuna itself was so tender. It really fell apart in your mouth. Seared tuna always reminds me of something very buttery in that way.

For dinner, I ordered the Swordfish with Saffron-Parmesan Risotto Cake. While the fish was fine, the risotto cake was the real star of the meal.

The swordfish was a meaty fish. It was decent. I mean, it wasn't anything special, nor anything that I would seek out to eat again, but I didn't dislike it. And, ultimately, the risotto cake overshadowed it anyway. This was SO GOOD! The risotto was crunchy on the outside and warm on the inside.

Because leftovers wouldn't be able to handle the long car ride home tomorrow, I had to make a decision on which I wanted to eat more of, and the choice was clear. The risotto cake. I seriously could have made a meal off of that risotto cake, alone!

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves tonight. We reminisced about our week, and planned for the future, all while listening to the calming tunes from the piano player in the next room. It felt so final, taking my last bite of muffin tonight. I didn't want to believe that our dinner, or our vacation, was over.

The last bite!

It's so hard to leave a place that you feel such a strong connection to, and I will most definitely miss it. It really makes me sad. It's been such fun. And it will be a whole year before we return. :( I miss it already...

 Only one more sleep in our Cape May beds, and one more breakfast in the morning.

Sleep tight!