Collecting Shells

The Monday after Hurricane Irene hit us here we took a road trip “down the shore” as people from North Jersey say. Monday’s are our day off to be with each other. Chris and I (and my sister) all work weekends so Monday is our day. To spend time doing things or not doing things but just being with each other. Mike(my sisters husband) had a bunch of Monday’s off in the summer and we had planned for the 2nd year in a row to take a day trip to LBI at the end of August. Last year it rained. Then this year the hurricane came and we couldn’t go in the water that Monday so instead we got in the car and drove. Road trip. The sun was shining, the ipod was on and we drove down along the coast not really knowing where we would end up.

The first stop was the free beach at Monmouth Beach- up and over the sea wall. Broken pieces of steps and railings and lots of sand in the roads. There must have been millions of shells on this beach that day. I can remember as a girl my sister and I would walk up and down the beach for hours looking for shells and sea glass- I still have a jar filed with seaglass in my bookshelf. One time we convinced my mom to let us bring home star fish in buckets(how we convinced her I don’t know!) We wanted to dry them out and save them forever. Well a few too many hours in a bucket in our driveway and they turned to mush, not to mention how bad they smelled. We had to dump them down the sewer in the street- which now that I think of it probably wasn’t the best idea. SO we weren’t allowed to bring home any more sea creatures, but shells were OK. I even had reference books so I could look up the shells- OK so I was a little weird as a kid, but who isn’t? I also wanted a metal detector so I could find things in the sand- I don’t know why I never got one? There were a few people out on the beach with them this day. As time went by and I grew older and I still had a passion for the beach I thought I wanted to become a Marine Biologist, that is until I had to dissect something in marine biology class in high school. Scratch that idea! To this day I could walk along the shoreline for hours looking down at the sand trying to find those hidden treasures nestled in the sand.

These photos on the beach were taken with my phone. Not sure why I didn’t bring my “real” camera. Luckily camera phones these days are pretty good for outdoor shooting.

Then we were getting hungry and wanted Windmill hotdogs- drove past 2 of them in Long Branch that were closed because they had no power and ended up at the one near the entrance of Ocean Grove. Then we headed to Asbury Park and sat on the boardwalk to digest. The beach was pretty empty since you weren’t allowed into the water and they were still charging people to sit on the beach.

Off to a secret spot in Deal- there were tons of surfers here. We had to climb down those rocks to get to the beach.

I was zoomed in for this next shot with my phone so the image quality is very grainy- but I like how it looks painterly.

And this is what I collected that day. Not too much sea glass- which made me sad. We even found some pieces of real glass not yet worn down by the tumbling in the sea- yikes!