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Professional Assn
of Innkeepers Internat'l
(PAII) INN MEMBER
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000
The Chalfonte has been welcoming guests for 130 years. Guests have experiences...they laugh, they perpetuate our collective history. There are stories upon stories that have become legend and lore for guests, staff, visitors and residents alike. We know that the walls can't talk, so we welcome you to enjoy and share your Chalfonte Memories! Here are some of our favorites. . .please send us yours and feel free to send pictures as well!
A WORK WEEKENDER'S STORY
Little did I know that my first visit to the Chalfonte for a work weekend, just one Autumn ago, would turn into so many return dates to such a neat home by the ocean shore for me and my children. My stories of the Chalfonte even lured my sister in Texas to come b e a guest of the place for a weekend. Arriving well after nightfall, just a little tired from our drive she peered out the car window, gleefully stirring awake and shouted how "beautiful it looked....just as you described it to me!" We enjoyed every single minute and experience of our visit. The food was so delicious...we ate till we felt like a couple of "Jabba-the-huts!" We walked in and out the doors constantly stopping to visit with someone on the staff or other guests. It seemed just like a household of family and friends all together again for awhile. When we weren't rocking on the porch, we were serving ourselves over-and-over-again endless doses of early morning, noontime and nighttime strolls along the shore. Listening to the different accents of the friendly staff - so many from other countries - made the everyday conversations we all take for granted a whole new experience. My sister found herself chuckling with other guests and chatting so effortlessly as everyone waited at times for their turn for a bathroom. It took no time at all for everyone it seemed to get the hang of it. I remember when I first visted the Chalfonte I thought this would be a great place to try to have my children and I gather for a yearly get-away. I was not sure though if our schedules would allow us to arrange such an escape. Now, after almost one year, not only have my two sons come to join the staff for the summer but even my daughter and I have returned for a Spring workweekend together and loved it. I've had my wish come true to find a way to gather my children here...thanks! —Joel Fuentes, Manassas, VA
We just returned from one of the best getaways we've shared in quite a while! Rick and I truly enjoyed our stay at The Chalfonte, and came home twenty friends richer, five pounds heavier, and darn right proud of our new chipping and spackling skills! We are quite intrigued by the overt simplicity of life at the Hotel, juxtaposed against such an intricate web of fascinating characters and gingerbread. The Chalfonte is truly endearing. Thank you very much for your extraordinary hospitality and for sharing your lovely monument to all things worthwhile!
Rick and Lisa King (1998 First-time Work Weekenders)
Back in the '60s, my mother and her friend (among others) worked in the Hotel in the dining room for the remainder of the summer after some staff had left and became quite close with the cooks in the kitchen. Now, every summer, my mother returns to the Chalfonte to stay. In the summer of 1996, I went with her and I had a romance with the bellhop! My mother told me that thirty years ago, she'd done the same thing. The Chalfonte is...an old-fashioned New Jersey shore good time!! Keep the tradition going!! — Jessica
I remember a good line from a story I once read. "When asked how long we'd be staying, I wanted to reply 'forever'." That's how I feel about the Chalfonte. as our children get older, our visits get longer, and NOT ONCE do they say, 'Mom...there's nothing to do." On vacation, you're allowed to sleep late, but no one wants to...the bountiful breakfast and guessing which server, from which country, will be our first memory in the making. Then it's off to the beach where the dolphins and the sea gulls put on a show for free. I'd like to thank everyone who makes dinner MY favorite past time. The magic in the kitchen, the hostess who remembers your name, and the servers with smiles always will be dear to my heart. It is they who put us in the place most important -- a family meal -- together. No work, no phones, no soccer, no baseball, no meeting, more important than this. As long as birds migrate to Cape May, so shall we. - The Buchalski Family
A FAMILY WITH HISTORY!
Our family stayed at this Hotel before 1934. My older brother Jim remembers going there when we were VERY young. I remember playing on the front porch while we were waiting to eat dinner. My younger sister, Ann (age 2) wouldn't eat unless the waiter fed her. My brother remembers seeing sheep in the back of the hotel and that night at supper they served lamb chops. None of the children would eat them until they took us outside and showed us that the sheep were still there. When we went there we went as a family and there were six children in the family. We either had rooms on the first floor or one the second floor with a roof outside our rooms. My brothers is at the present time writing his memories so he can give it to his children. He will be 80 this September and has cancer. He is looking for pictures to add to his memory book. I remember we used to go to Cape May one year and Atlantic City the next, Alternating each year. Finally the big Hurricane of 33 hit and ruined the beaches in both resorts and we bought a summer home in Anne Arundel County. When we visited there we would have been under the name James F. Garvey and family. There would have been six children at the time. — Betty Garvey Hession
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