Jersey Girl Goes "Down the Shore"

Born and raised a Jersey girl, I've spent my share of summer days "down the shore," as we Jersey's like to say. It's just not summer until you ear rhythmic waves and eye the masses tied with beach towels at the waist, flip flopping their way to the next concession stand off the boardwalk. A whiff of coconut oil was a mainstay when I was a kid. Nowadays you more often smell the likes of SPF 40 on passers by. Sounds like motor oil, doesn't it? Still, there's no place on earth like the Jersey shore in the summer time, or any time. Off-seasons down the shore are great too! It's not so hot or crowded. There's lots of room to stretch your body and to think while walking the water's edge.

At the moment, it is 91 degrees at Point Pleasant Beach and a perfect Jersey summer weekend. There are a few gulls flying over the stands. How do I know? The online "beach cam!" It provides live views of the action. I get to sneak a peak at the garb the girls are wearing this year before venturing out. Everyone looks sufficiently tanned. I see a couple of kids building sand mounds. I see tables, footprints, and umbrellas. I see lots of people on the boardwalk, some sitting on benches, others parading by.

Sitting next to me is a jar of shells that I've collected over the years. It reminds me of the hours I spent canvassing the shoreline as waves caught my feet and left me sinking. A wave would pull out a good-looking shell and I'd try to snatch it before the next wave pummeled me. Exhausted bodies with sunburned shoulders and sandpapered knees, evidenced you spent a good day at the shore.

The beach and the boardwalk really do define summer in Jersey, and Wildwood does it best with its white, sandy beaches. They seem to grow ever wider with each wave as sand erodes from nearby beaches and deposits on Wildwood's shores. There are no "taggers" to interrupt your tanning either. And this is where the rides are! One of the first things you'll spot when almost there is the old wooden roller coaster, the "Great White." The Ferris wheel and the Merry Go Round were also among my favorites (still are). Once high up in the Ferris wheel you can see across the Atlantic. On a moonlit night, there is no better view, and it's breezier up there. The lighted rides and whiffs of hot dogs and popcorn mixed with ocean air are unmistakably Jersey shore.

Shore towns are hotspots in the summer in New Jersey. My favorites are Point Pleasant Beach, Wildwood, and Long Beach Island. But take your pick. The list is long:

Absecon, Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Atlantic Highlands, Avalon, Avon by the Sea, Barnegat, Barnegat Light, Bay Head, Beach Haven, Beachwood, Belmar, Berkeley Heights, Brant Beach, Bricktown, Brigantine, Brielle, Brigantine, Cape May, Cape May Point, Chadwick, Forked River, Harvey Cedars, Highlands, Holgate, Island Beach, Island Heights, Keansburg, Keyport, Lanoka Harbor, Lavallette, Long Beach Island (LBI), Long Beach, Long, Branch, Longport, Loveladies, Manahawkin, Manasquan, Mantoloking, Margate, Neptune, Normandy Beach, North Wildwood, Ocean Beach, Ocean City, Ocean Gate, Ocean Grove, Oceanport, Ortley Beach, Point Pleasant, Point Pleasant Beach, Rumson, Sandy Hook, Sea Bright, Sea Girt, Sea Isle City, Seaside Heights, Seaside Park, Ship Bottom, Sommers Point, South Belmar, Spring Lake, Stone Harbor, Surf City, Toms River, Tuckerton, Union Beach, Ventnor, Waretown, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest

See what I mean? Many local businesses in these towns have parking right off the beach. Tuck in a camper or a conversion van and you'll have all the comforts of home, just like having your own beach house. There are a few nearby campgrounds where you can stay for a good, long weekend too! There's the Wildwood Historical Museum to give you a blast from the past when you need a break from the sun. It reveals secrets about how the Lenni Lenape spent their own days on the beach. Getting lost in the heydays of the 50s at the museum and gawking at the old architecture are my favorites. The lighthouses like the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse in North Wildwood, built in the 1800s in Swiss Gothic architecture are spectacular structures. But at night the shore comes alive with Doo Wop music, parades, and you name it. Someone holds movies on the beach off Schellenger Avenue on Friday nights; and there are ocean-side fireworks too! It's all just a hop, skip, and a jump off the Garden State Parkway, headed south.

Ahh, the Jersey shore! Bruce Springsteen's album, "Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey" is a tribute to his growing years there. He shows up on occasion with the E Street Band for live appearances. But his songs, like "Jersey Girl," commemorate my own lifetime of memories. A Rowan University professor's book on Jersey shore ghost stories is a must read, especially if you are staying at a nearby campground and you are permitted the customary campfire. Some say that ghosts, like just about all of us, are magnetically drawn to the waves; and the 127 miles of shoreline has seen its share of shipwrecks in its history. Be prepared to mingle among the murdered pirates and sailors and be tapped on a shoulder inside a lighthouse, if you wonder off alone.

I know one thing for certain. Before the summer ends, this Jersey girl is going "down the shore." I'll definitely stop off at the Barnegat Lighthouse and get some traditional salt water taffy at Lucielle's Oh Fudge Candies while at Long Beach Island, an area that has been a summer refuge for sea goers across Jersey and all the way to Philadelphia. Over half of the shore visitors still come from northern New Jersey and metro New York. Around two dozen communities share summer and year round living along Long Beach Island's roughly 20 miles of surf. The homes are more than the usual bungalow style beach house. Some homes in the Loveladies area are worth a whopping $9 million!

The area is crowded, but you never know when you'll sit across the bar from someone famous. Among the ghosts, Long Beach Island is a popular celebrity haunt. Refurbished areas like Yellow Fin in Surf City and Raimondo's in Ship Bottom are attracting some high brows these days. Ray Romano rents a house nearby. Jersey's Bon Jovi has been sighted at a bar or club a time or two. The beaches are clean and protected and the crime rate is low. But it's not about the clientele as much as it's about the sights and sounds of summer that remind us of our childhood and a time when life was easy "down the shore."
Grab your flip flops, sunscreen, and a beach towel, and I'll see you there!