On the Beach

[elSicomoro]

...and I don't mean the Nevil Shute novel.

I didn't have a whole lot going Monday, so I got some stuff done early, and Rho and I headed to the Shore (the New Jersey shoreline, which fronts the Atlantic Ocean).

There's a great little town about an hour east of Philadelphia called Belmar. It's not overly touristy, like Ocean City, MD or Virginia Beach, but has enough to make it interesting. We took pictures on the beach; I played in the waves and drew in the sand. Not a lot of good seashells this time around though. The weather was great--mostly sunny, temps in the mid-70s, a mild breeze.

After spending most of the afternoon in Belmar, I decided to head south along the Garden State Parkway. A huge fire had broken out in Double Trouble State Park near Toms River (about 60 miles south of NYC), which lies near the GSP. Signs along the GSP had noted to watch for heavy smoke.

And they weren't kidding. You could see the smoldering remains of the fire, both along the shoulder, and in the median of the parkway...this lasted for about 5-10 miles. The trees and ground were black, the smoke heavy, but visibility wasn't too bad. We saw a few pockets of flames as we drove along.

We wound up at the south end of the GSP, in Cape May. Cape May is an old historical town at the southern tip of New Jersey, about 100 miles SE of Philadelphia. The town itself is nice...it reminds me of Annapolis. I wasn't overly impressed with the oceanfront there though. The sand is rough, and doesn't feel so good on the feet. But it offers some great views...and there was a pretty good surf by the time we got down there (about 7pm). And maybe it was just because it was an early Monday evening in June, but the street along the oceanfront looked a bit forlorn.

I'm also a bit claustrophobic, and Cape May brought a bit of that out in me. As I mentioned, it's at the very southern tip of the state. The next major city is Atlantic City, which is about 30 miles north. And there's really only one major route out of town inland in the event of a hurricane (although there are other minor routes).

It was a great day though, I didn't spend a lot of money, and I should have some pics up at Sycamoreland this weekend. And once again, I've discovered that the state of New Jersey has some redeeming qualities.