Jersey Shore
I think last Saturday was one of the hottest days this summer. Knowing that it would be pretty hot, the Boy and I got up early and headed down to the Jersey Shore to cool off at the beach. We got to the Shore at around 10:30AM, and went straight over the beach at Belmar. As we neared the sand, a huge sea of brightly colored beach umbrellas dotted the Jersey coast. The place was packed and hot! Everyone was laying out with their sunglasses and bikinis, sipping cold drinks from their coolers and enjoying the sun.
When we got to the boardwalk, there was a wooden fence around the beach with people manning each opening. You have to pay to get onto the beach?!! Coming from the West Coast where almost every beach along the coast is free, we thought, "this is preposterous!"
After getting an iced coffee and some donuts in a wonderfully air conditioned Dunkin' Donuts, we walked along the boardwalk to check out whether we wanted to pay for Belmar or Sea(something), the beach right next to Belmar. Since they looked exactly the same, we each paid the $7 fee to get into Belmar. We figured, it was closer to the train stop and therefore more convenient.
We walked along the crowded beach along the water to cool down until we found our spot and laid out our beach towels. We didn't have a big beach umbrella, so we poked a little black rain umbrella into the sand to cover our faces as we laid out (quite a comical sight, I'm sure).
Despite the huge crowds of people at the Shore, the water was crystal clear and gorgeous! It got pretty hot under our little umbrella, so every half hour or so, we'd run into the water, splash around and try to ride the waves. This was the first time I'd ever tasted seawater, and it's definitely the saltiest water I'd ever tasted. Because I can't swim, I swallowed a lot of seawater each time a wave hit. Yuck!
We spent most of the day running in and out of the water and reading on the beach otherwise. Remebering the nasty sunburn I got the last time I went to the beach at Fire Island, I slathered myself with a heavy dose of BullFrog sunblock, but left some areas uncovered in an attempt to fill in some tan lines. My plan didn't work so well. By the end of the day, my skin was a ridiculous mix of brown tan tones, red sunburn tones and milk white tones for skin that had never seen the sun. I give up. I'm running to my bottle of sunless tanner to clean up this mess.
When we got to the boardwalk, there was a wooden fence around the beach with people manning each opening. You have to pay to get onto the beach?!! Coming from the West Coast where almost every beach along the coast is free, we thought, "this is preposterous!"
After getting an iced coffee and some donuts in a wonderfully air conditioned Dunkin' Donuts, we walked along the boardwalk to check out whether we wanted to pay for Belmar or Sea(something), the beach right next to Belmar. Since they looked exactly the same, we each paid the $7 fee to get into Belmar. We figured, it was closer to the train stop and therefore more convenient.
We walked along the crowded beach along the water to cool down until we found our spot and laid out our beach towels. We didn't have a big beach umbrella, so we poked a little black rain umbrella into the sand to cover our faces as we laid out (quite a comical sight, I'm sure).
Despite the huge crowds of people at the Shore, the water was crystal clear and gorgeous! It got pretty hot under our little umbrella, so every half hour or so, we'd run into the water, splash around and try to ride the waves. This was the first time I'd ever tasted seawater, and it's definitely the saltiest water I'd ever tasted. Because I can't swim, I swallowed a lot of seawater each time a wave hit. Yuck!
We spent most of the day running in and out of the water and reading on the beach otherwise. Remebering the nasty sunburn I got the last time I went to the beach at Fire Island, I slathered myself with a heavy dose of BullFrog sunblock, but left some areas uncovered in an attempt to fill in some tan lines. My plan didn't work so well. By the end of the day, my skin was a ridiculous mix of brown tan tones, red sunburn tones and milk white tones for skin that had never seen the sun. I give up. I'm running to my bottle of sunless tanner to clean up this mess.
posted by LANYTransplant at 7:14 AM
4 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Huh?
you have such great adventure stories! i love to read your blog! and, hey, slather on the sunscreen. hopefully the striping isn't too bad.
and, when you pay for the beach admission, do they really assign you a spot on the beach for your umbrella and all, or did i misread that? see ya soon!
No, no. They don't assign spots. You just have to choose which stretch of beach you want to hang out at.
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