More About the Shore

I was looking at the map of New Jersey and was surprised at just how many shore towns there are in Jersey and how many I had never even heard of. I spent a lot of time in Seaside Heights and some in Ocean City and Wildwood. 

As I mentioned, I really liked Seaside Park; I felt comfortable there. It's low-key and small--only .81 square miles--and narrow. Our condo was three blocks from the ocean on one side and one block from the bay on another. It made our walks so nice, especially in the mornings. 

One thing I noticed was that a number of houses have names. As I've mentioned before, I hate named houses. In my walks, I saw Shore Thing, Beach Baby, Heavenly Afterglow, Shore Edition, Bay Angel, and  Valente Villa. Valente Villa isn't too bad. I like the alliteration, but it had two signs--one right above the other and was a bit much. Sea-Renity was the house name that bugged me the most--too cutesy. It was not in Seaside Park, but somewhere on the road between Point Pleasant and Lavallette. I also saw Sunshine Daydream in either Avalon or Stone Harbor; I liked the homage to the Grateful Dead song Sugar Magnolia. 

Sea Isle City is over three times the size of Seaside Park at 2.75 square miles and much busier. While I didn't see all its neighborhoods, I didn't notice any of the small bungalows that predominated in Seaside Heights before Hurricane Sandy and can still be found in Seaside Park. I saw a few modest houses, but primarily duplexes and McMansions. 

Sea Isle did not have a similar number of named houses. Many had signs with family names. The home where we were staying had a sign, Happy Chappy's. I also saw Cead Mile Failte or a hundred thousand welcomes.

However, Sea Isle City is big on flags as are some other Jersey Shore towns. In Sea Isle, the American, Phillies, and college flags, especially Penn State, flags predominate. I was happy to see one or two University of Delaware flags. 

I'll have to visit more of the shore to see what the other towns feature.