Bill – Page 2 – West Fenwick Island

December 21, 2019

Delaware Lighthouses

Listed here are three Delaware lighthouses, only one of which is in Fenwick Island.

Delaware Breakwater Lighthouse

Location: Lewes Harbor / Delaware Bay entrance
City: Lewes
Owner/Manager: Us Coast Guard / Delaware River & Bay Lighthouse Foundation
Current Use: Active aid to navigation / historic site
Open to the public: Yes, but limited to tours by reservation; fee charged
Access: By boat
Contact: 302-644-7046 or tours@delawarebaylights.org

Fenwick Island Lighthouse

Location: Delaware/Maryland border
Nearest City: Fenwick Island
Owner/Manager: Friends of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse
Current Use: Museum
Open To The Public: Museum open on selected dates or by appointment
Access: Between Delaware Route 54 and 125th Street in Ocean City, MD.

Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse

Location: Lewes Harbor / Delaware Bay entrance
Nearest City: Lewes
Owner/Manager: Delaware River & Bay Lighthouse Foundation
Current Use: Active aid to navigation / Historic Site
Open to the public: Yes, but limited to tours by reservation; fee charged
Access: By boat
Contact: 302-644-7046 or tours@delawarebaylights.org

August 17, 2019

Mallard Lakes Townhome Community

One of the best kept secrets in the Fenwick Island area.

Mallard Lakes is an older community made up of two story townhomes surrounding several lakes. Each home has a screened porch that backs up to one of the lakes. While the community had been around for several years it is maintained in exquisite condition.

The homes in Mallard Lakes are two-story 2-bedroom, 1.5-bath townhomes. The first floors have a living room and dining area, well-equipped kitchen and half bath, as well as the Florida room with a view of a lake. The second floor has two bedrooms and full bath.

A restaurant, bakery and pizza shop are within walking distance of the community. By car, Mallard Lakes is only minutes to restaurants, shops, beaches and amusements of Fenwick Island, Delaware and Ocean City, Maryland!

Contact: Mallard Lakes

Phone: 302-436-6434
11 Mockingbird Land
Selbyville, DE 19975

August 16, 2019

The Overlook Homes & Community

A West Fenwick Boutique Resort Community

This new community, The Overlook, is just west of Fenwick Island on the north side of Route 54. It is located in Sussex County, Delaware and is in the Indian River School District. With NV Homes doing the building and sales, this development has become quite popular with its bayside/waterfront amenities and beautiful houses. Is is now “old enough,” however, that occasional resales are taking place.

However, Sadly…

Sadly, the “ghost” of this fox looks down on where his home used to be – **before the bulldozers decimated his home** while clearing land for **The Overlook**. Yes, this exact fox – was photographed just about where that first house is located – while this photographer stood where “The Overlook” sign is located. (A 300mm telephoto lens was used to capture the photo.)
This fox was part of a large community of foxes with many burrows, or dens, throughout this (what used to be) farmland. The underground dens provided cooling in the summer and a warm place in winter and were a good place for the vixens (female fox) to raise their young, like the little dude in the photo above. Sadly, the bulldozers made quick work of crushing the dens and exterminating the fox families.

There are great choices for dining right along Route 54 and, of course, in Fenwick Island.

Contact: NV Homes at The Overlook

302-988-2185
30068 Sanctuary Drive, Selbyville, DE 19975
Website: https://www.nvhomes.com/neighborhoods/de/sussex/west-fenwick-island/overlook

August 13, 2019

Bayville Shores

A family oriented resort and residential community

Bayville Shores is a quiet community of town homes in southeast with each home having either lake or bay/river views.

A quote from ResortQuest Real Estate, a local sales/rental company has: “These resort homes offer scenic lake or bay views from spacious three or four bedroom luxury townhomes that features 1st-floor master suites, vaulted ceilings, fireplaces and attached garages, with care free exteriors and maintenance free landscaping.“

Bayville Shores Partial Aerial Photograph — While this aerial photograph only shows a small portion of the Bayville Shores community, you can see how each of these townhomes has a lake view. There are other, similar, lakes and some of them back up to Little Assawoman Bay or Dirickson Creek.

August 13, 2019

Bayview Landing, a Residential Community

An established community in West Fenwick on Route 54.

Bayview Landing is a comfortable community close to the beach, Fenwick Island and Ocean City. The community is geographically two miles from the Atlantic Ocean – making it wonderfully convenient for beach-goers yet far enough inland to be protected from severe coastal storms.

The community consists of groups of townhome “villas” and many individual single-family homes. The main amenity is a beautiful, well-maintained pool and clubhouse. Homeowners are responsible for their own lawn care which is good because the homes typically have larger yards than in communities where lawn care is part of the community association duties (and, resultant, higher fees).

Bayview Landing Community Aerial Photograph — This aerial photograph of Bayview Landing shows the layout of this 220-home community. The road to the right of the image is Route 54 and the Atlantic Ocean is two miles above the top of the image.

August 13, 2019

The Grove at Fenwick Island New Homes

The Grove development replaced a large grove of wetlands trees.

Another of the new(er) developments in the West Fenwick area is The Grove, a community of “carriage homes” along the Route 54 corridor. This community of 59 beautiful townhome designs is located convenient to the beach, to Ocean City and to nearby food stores and restaurants. The Builder’s website mentions “minutes away” – and that is not far off. We experience about 10 minutes to the beach – except on Saturday in the summer when traffic grinds to a halt.

The community offers a variety of home styles with varying levels of amenities.

The Grove Mulch Pile Graphic — The Grove actually replaces what was a large grove of trees in a wetlands area. A ton of money was spent to cut down hundreds of trees and grind them into mulch – to make room for these new carriage homes/townhomes.

Countless loads of “fill” was brought in to raise the land. Our worry is what may happen several years down the road – as the substrate changes because of the changes that were made to the surface. It might lead one to recall that the City of New Orleans was not below sea level when it was built.

Contact: The McKee Group – The Grove at Fenwick

302-775-0803
36209 Glenveagh Road, Selbyville DE, 19971
Website: https://thegroveatfenwick.com/

August 12, 2019

Royal Farms on Route 54

Royal Farms Gas Station and Convenience Store in West Fenwick

If you need gas for your car or some killer fried chicken this Royal Farms Gas Station and Convenience Store is about as convenient as can be. No matter where you live in West Fenwick this should be within minutes of your home. If you happen to buy one of the new Seashore Villas town homes it is, literally, right across the street. In fact, depending on which way the breeze blows, you may be able to smell each new batch as it gets finished. LOL

Royal Farms Gas Station and Convenience Store on Rt 54

August 12, 2019

Seashore Villas New Homes at Royal Farms

A development by Capstone Homes on Route 54 in West Fenwick

Entrance sign to Seashore Villas behind the Royal Farms gas Station on Route 54.

This new development is made of very attractive two story townhomes with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a one-car garage. The the website claims that all homes back to either a beautiful pond or the woods. While that may be true – the pond is large and it is beautiful – but they don’t mention that many of the homes will front to the back side of a Royal Farms gas station/convenience store. Unfortunately, some of those homes are being built directly across the street from the dumpsters.

Amenities are listed as a pool, a pond and irrigation/lawn care. The location is about 10-12 minutes from the beach and 15 minutes to North Ocean City (except on Saturdays in the summer when that could increase to an hour).

Contact: Capstone Homes – Seashore Villas

302-684-4480
32045 Seashore Way, West Fenwick (Selbyville), DE 19975.
Website: https://www.capstone-homes.com/our-communities/fenwick-island/seashore-villas/

August 11, 2019

Waterfront Dining in West Fenwick

While the West Fenwick community is not actually an island…

Waterfront Sunset View at Crabcake Factory Bayside — Magenta skies of a typical sunset as viewed from a bayfront deck at the Crabcake Factory.

…as Fenwick Island proper is, it does have a LOT of water. This can be seen in photos on this site and elsewhere. There is Assawoman Bay to the south and the Fenwick Ditch to the east (separating West Fenwick from the actual island). The “Ditch” leads to Lighthouse Cove and Little Assawoman Bay to the northeast, which flows into Dirickson Creek to the north. There are also dozens of canals, small creeks and even a few lakes in the West Fenwick Island area.

However, there are only a few places for waterfront dining in West Fenwick. Two that we tend to patronize on a regular basis are…

Crabcake Factory Bayside

CCFB is a comfy place with an awesome view of Assawoman Bay to the south and incredible sunset views to the southwest.

Catch 54 Seafood Restaurant

Catch 54 is located on Fenwick Ditch where it joins Lighthouse Cove. It provides excellent water views with boating activity and a skyline view of Fenwick Island to keep you entertained while dining or hanging at the bar. The new(er) Papa Grande Mexican-flavor place also has a fine view of The Ditch.

The view from just every table at Catch 54 is one to savor – right along with your dinner.

August 11, 2019

A Painted Lady at Live Bayside

The Live Bayside Community…

…has a unique bay-front access and recreation area called The Point. It has a boardwalk with access to a beach, a pavilion (under construction), a boat-launch ramp with piers, kayak/canoe storage racks and a marsh/bayside nature trail.

You never know what you may see along the trail – or anywhere at The Point, for that matter. You should, however, always have a camera with you. The other day we found these colorful butterflies feasting on the nectar (or whatever cocktail was being served) of some large blossoms by the side of the trail.

We didn’t expect to have a show but the butterflies, giant bumblebees and dragonflies seemed to enjoy having lunch on this ol’ plant – and being entertaining while they dined. We didn’t have a clue about the type of butterfly, thinking it might be a Monarch – but only because that’s the only real butterfly name that came to mind. However, an evening Internet “search” by posting the picture on Facebook yielded some responses. After being given the name of “our” butterfly we were able to find plenty (53,000+) other pictures on a Bing.com image search.

Sooo, welcome to the Painted Lady Butterfly, which is, evidently, a regular here in West Fenwick and Lower, Slower Delaware.