Jersey Shore Time

August 22 - 30, 2014   

Ah, it’s the Labor Day weekend at the Jersey Shore for us!  Well, anyway we were at the shore one of the weekend days, Saturday.  We go to a beach called Gunnison located on the Federal Recreation Area of Sandy Hook NJ. 

Gunnison is the only clothing optional beach in the NY/NJ metro area.  Due to its closeness to the NYC metro area, we had an estimated 5k people on the Saturday.  The beach has 4 parking lots as well as a passenger ferry from NYC to feed it.  In order to get a beach front area we needed to be there by 8 am.  Well, one of our friends went ahead of us and saved enough sand for about 10 of us who arrived later by 9:30 am.  Still, 9:30 am is pretty early for sitting on the beach.  As one would imagine, there are a lot of unusual sites and characters on this beach providing much entertainment!

I walked to end of the beach, about a mile one way and took this picture
looking back at the crowd.  Manhattan is in the background.

We started off the past week with a Luau party here at Cindy and Rob’s house on Saturday the 23rd.  The weather was a little iffy all day so they had a lower than expended turnout.  However, there was still over 40 people making it great for us to see and visit with many old friends.  We didn’t turn out the lights in the RV until 2:30 am!

Luau party.

Cindy serving cotton candy.

Me having a drink with probably the oldest of our beach friends.  Duke is 86 years old!

Patty with Jack.

Chas trying a hula hoop.

We made it to the beach a couple more times during the week.  We like the weekdays as they are much less crowded and we don’t need to get there so early.  We usually show up on the beach around noon and then stay for 3-4 hours.  A little note about this beach, it is about 1 mile from the closest parking lot to the beach ocean front.  Half of this walk is on soft sand so the walk, especially on very hot days, is referred to as the death march.  I just think of this my exercise for the day.

Wednesday of last week Rob and I got together with a couple of his friends for a round of golf.  I haven't played very much for sometime, maybe once every couple of months.  Anyway, that wasn't an excuse, but I didn't play very well.  I shot a 55 of the front 9 and then recovered a bit on the back with a 52. Usually, the 52 would be my high 9 but not this time. I just couldn't get consistent driving the ball and that is usually my strong suit.  Putting saved me this time.

Rob teeing off.

This past Friday the 29th we went with Patty's son car shopping.  As from the last post, his car was totaled and now he needs to get another one.  After looking at 3 different cars he chose a 2010 VW Jetta that was loaded with all of the bells and whistles.  The only problem is that the car has a manual transmission which he doesn't know how to drive.  I drove it for him for the test run. It was real fun car to drive!

First car Chas test drove.

Second car Chas tested.  Neither of these cars would be very good for NJ winters.

This past Saturday after the beach, we picked up Chas and his car for some driving lessons.  There is a large church parking lot behind where we are staying making it perfect for stick shift practice.  Mainly, there is only one real thing to learn with a manual transmission, starting from a stop.  
Shifting after moving is easy and you learn that pretty quick.

Chas with his purchase.

It just took about an hour for Chas to be pretty comfortable starting from a stop so we went for a drive on a secondary road with lots of stoplights and stop signs.  Now he was starting off with traffic behind him giving a little more stress.  He did fine with just a couple of stalls at first.  After another half hour he was ready to take the car back to his apartment without me.  Chas can now operate a manual transmission!

Last night we went out for Karaoke at Bahr's in the Highlands again.  This time we had the whole gang there. We had Rick and Pat and Billie Jo from Maryland, and Mike and Mandy.  Of course we had Cindy and Rob as they work the karaoke there.  It was fun evening/night.  Now just need to dry out a bit.

Billie Jo, Mandy, and Patty singing at karaoke .

Billie Jo, Pat, and Rick at Bahr's.

Patty and Michael doing duet.

I have a golf outing planned for Labor Day with my retired friend Tom from work.  Next week on Thursday we head back up to Buffalo for Patty's Nephew's wedding reception.  We are not taking the RV as we are only staying for 3 nights.

That's it for this edition.

Stay Tuned!