A Day at Ocean Grove and Other Reflections

I’m fairly certain that I blogged about our visit to Ocean Grove last year about this time, but it merits repeating – Ocean Grove is a great place to go if you’re looking for a quick day trip to the Jersey shore.

We spent the day there yesterday in what has become our favorite Jersey shore place to be. As I floating out past the breakers with Hannah, I was reminded of my countless visits to the shore as a youth. I was very blessed to grow up 45 minutes to an hour from another one of Jersey’s treasures – Island Beach State Park. Especially when I was in college during the summer, my friends from Mt. Holly would all load up in the Braun family van with our chairs, blankets, food, and volleyball net. The beauty of Island Beach State Park was that it cost $6 (or $7) per car, so we were often paying less than $1 per person to get on the beach. Usually we’d get there between 8 and 9 AM, so we could set up our volleyball net. A typical beach day would include several games of volleyball, a catch with the softball with Brian Willem, some form of football, ride waving, sitting around talking, long walks on the beach, and constant snacking on whatever food we brought. Usually, we would pack everything up around 2 or 3PM, so we could head back to the Mt. Holly area to get cleaned up before enjoying a barbecue or a night out at the movies. These memories were a big part of my youth.

At any rate, now I’ve got by own beach bums. I’ve never seen a kid who likes sand more than Hannah. And it was truly a joy to see Isaac floating in the waves on top of his buggie board. I can’t wait for our next visit to Ocean Grove.

Until the next post…