End of Summer 08 - Part I

I took three vacation days and combined them with the Labor Day weekend to have a nice end of summer respite this year. I liked it so much, I may do it again!

On Wednesday we went to the Shore. Those of you not from this area would probably say we went to the beach. BUT you'd be wrong. We went to the Shore (with a capital S). I've probably been to the Shore at least for a day every year since I was 9 or 10. Except in 2007. At the end of 2007 I realized I had not made it to the Shore even once for a day. And I came dangerously close to doing it again in 2008. That is what made the trip on Wednesday (8-27) so important.

We entered Ocean City, NJ (not Maryland.. don't even get me started!!) over the 9th Street Bridge as we planned on using the 13th Street Bathhouse to change so the 9th Street Bridge entrance made more sense than 34th Street. So first we had to get past Somers Point Circle. Follow the link to my previous post on replacing the Circle with a regular intersection!!!! To preserve the circle to memory I had to take some pictures. We pulled off into the Point Diner and took these.

As luck would have it, we were also stopped by the raising of the drawbridge which I believe will also be gone as part of the causeway project. I wonder why no one has thought to put an advertisement on the bottom side of the bridge. We were a captive audience for a few minutes. You know something like what used to be on the airplane banners for Noxema or local restaurants. By the way, we only saw one such plane the whole day. It flew an ad for the Cape May-Lewes Ferry.

The weather was P-E-R-F-E-C-T. You could not ask for a better day. Low humidity (almost none at home and very low for the Shore), breezy, a few clouds and the water which has been cold most of the summer was very nice. Just a slight coolness when you first entered and then it was fine. The waves were so-so. I did ride a few and one it took me all the way in and gave me a minor scraped up knee.

We spent a good 4 hours on the beach then headed to the Bathhouse to shower and change. Before hitting the beach we had breakfast at Litterers (of course!). After cleaning up we walked the boards for a bit eating dinner at Del's. The lines for Mack and Manco's were forever long at all three locations!! We shopped for a Christmas tree ornament which we found not in the Christmas tree shoppe but in the "Old Salt" store. We also found a gift for someone there. (Not telling you who!). We didn't make it to Kohr's for an orange and white cone. We had already walked the lenght of the boardwalk one and half times and it was time to get on home.

Now that I've taken up running, I have put on my to do list to run the boardwalk. But I was not prepared for that on this day! Mostly becaues I did not have sneakers with me. I think i'll do it when I'm 50. (16 months to go for those of you trying to do the math!)

Dave got too much sun on his upper body and back of his legs. He's been itching for the past few days. I have learned my lesson and only showed skin when I was in the water and then only after lathering up!