Rightcoastliving's Weblog

You mentioned some of my favorie things! Snow and Long Beach Island!

rightcoastliving — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:32:55 +0000

You had me at Snow & LBI! Love them both! Not that I necessarily like both of them together! Kind of like seafood and chocolate. Love them both but not on the same plate! Just started blogging and was wondering if 1- if anyone was out there and 2-if there were, would I have find anyone blogging with common interest. And there was a post http://www.schmuckraker.com/2008/10/suprise-youve-got-snow-snowstorm.html, so enticing had to check it out. So…this is my first attempt at a track or a trackback. I’ll cross my fingers and see if it works. Here’s something to ponder …if a comment is made about a post and the blogger doesn’t know how to trackback…will the comment ever be read??

Skiing or Snowboarding in October?

rightcoastliving — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:12:27 +0000

Not on the right coast, not this year. It happens almost every winter; Mother Nature teases us with a hope of ski resorts opening early. Yesterday a nor’easter dumped over a foot of snow in some parts of the Poconos! If that happened in the prime of the ski season people would be taking off work and ditching school to go ski & ride the powder. What are we suppose to do with a foot of snow in October? I guess if you live in the Poconos you can build a snowman, he won’t last passed Friday. At the shore we just got hit with a cold front, tidal flooding, rain and strong winds. No snow, but that’s ok. I never really want it to snow down here, the kids do to be sure, I just care that it snows at the mountain or is at least cold enough to make that captain crunch we all enjoy on the east coast. I tolerate the cold; it is a necessary evil in the production of frozen precipitation. In a perfect world it would be 78 at the shore and 28 at the mountain. Hmm, that sounds like the left coast to me, so what I’m not moving! So why am I whining because I’m just about to go to sit at the lexi’s soccer game and did I mention, its cold outside! In the 40’s and the wind is whipping! I’m so much better in the cold on the slopes than on a metal bench on a soccer field! Since they’re playing a series of games over the next couple of weeks for the state soccer championship, I need to get over it and crack open the winter trunk.

Let me guess, Carpooling?

rightcoastliving — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:20:00 +0000

Walking past the “green” spaces at our local Costco I had to giggle. I wanted to share the joke,

Boulevard lights are Off!

rightcoastliving — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:24:56 +0000

A sure sign that summers is over; the blinking traffic lights on the boulevard. That’s right, it will now take half the time to get to Beach Haven! We are now free to go up and down the blvd almost non-stop until it comes to a screeching halt (literally tire screeching at the reintroduction of the red light) around Memorial Day weekend. This leaves me time to ponder the question I always get when people find out I live here year round “What do you do in the winter”?

Contrary to many visitors’ beliefs, winter does not start the day after Labor Day. Actually the months of September and beginning of October are local favorites. The weather and the water are warm, no crowds on the bay or beach. Enjoying a cruise on the bay after work just as the sun is setting, not a soul in sight, or taking a long walk on the beach and the only sounds you hear are the gulls and the surf. Summer business owners can take a breath and kick it out of overdrive. Just as the rest of the world gets back to school and kids soccer games, so do we. We just get around a little faster (no bumper to bumper traffic this time of year); if something is 10 miles away, it should take us about 10 minutes to get there.

When winter does come to the shore, families continue their involvement in winter sports. For some it is basketball, hockey, swimming or track. Many who work through the summer take their summer break throughout the winter on warmer beaches. But for my family as well as other shore families (shout out to the Stone Harbor Crew), its snowboard season! That’s right we take the boards out of the water and bring them to the slopes. Instead of hosting the weekend warriors that visit our shores, we become weekend warriors and our journey brings us north to the mountains. It is perfect family time activity. When you’re on the slope with your family you’re not a spectator on the sideline but a participator. How better for both parent and child to get the others undivided attention but on a 5-10minute chairlift ride. Not to mention the thrill of the sport! So in the weeks to come you won’t hear me complaining about it getting colder. I am enjoying the beauty of the autumn but am anticipating the fun of the winter.

Chowderfest 08!

rightcoastliving — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:30:31 +0000

This is the second time in countless years I made it to LBI’s Chowderfest. Although I’ve been around since before its inception, the most recent years have found me at the VanMeters Harvey Cedar Chowder cook- off. The VanMeter’s, friends of ours from Harvey Cedars, started and had annually hosted a chowder cook-off traditionally the eve before the official Chowder fest. This Harvey Cedar version was always fun with healthy competition between friends and family. Eating great chowder and voting on the best family’s recipe. So naturally after cooking and consuming large quantities of chowders and bisque one tends to be done with that particular food group for while , opting out of going to the official Chowderfest the next day.

Unfortunately, the Harvey Cedar chowder cook-off became so large, and for the VanMeters, too much work to do every year. No Harvey Cedar Chowder cook-off this year L. So this past weekend left me yearning for indulging in a vast amount of chowder. What’s a girl to do? With only one chowder head from my family, my youngest daughter Amie, in tow we headed off to Beach Haven. My middle, teenage daughter and her friend tagged along but they don’t “do chowder”. They just wanted to walk around and look. I don’t think it was bargains they were looking for since collectively they only had sixteen dollars, but I digress, as usual. Thirty minutes of driving around Beach Haven and after a switch to relieve my permitted-daughter from the wheel, I finally found a parking space!

Now I’ve been out of the Chowderfest scene for a while, so to my dismay, the line to purchase tickets was hundreds and hundreds of people long! What a fool I was, it was 1:30, prime chowder eating time, way too late, I should of came earlier to purchase a ticket. Then I thought, what am I thinking? I live here year round, at any time in the past couple of months I could have bought tickets! Oh I was rusty, and realized it wasn’t going to happen this year. Just as I told my youngest we were going to have to purchase chowder at a restaurant (we were not going home chowderless!) I received a text from my friend MaryAnne, “Where r u?” “Just Leaving, no tickets, not waiting”. I replied. She then told me to hold up. Her friend Lisa had extra pre-purchased tickets! Shut the front door! We were going to partake in the festival!

Lisa not only had extra tickets, she was a true chowda head, a pro at Chowerfest! I believe she told me she hadn’t missed one in twenty years. We all followed Lisa as she navigated thru the crowds of people up the sides and in between booths. With Lisa at the helm it took us all of twenty minutes to taste all the reds and whites. Phew! It was over in a moment. I thought to myself, as I left I probably wouldn’t even be at the front of the line should I have chosen to wait. So thank you MaryAnne, and thank you Lisa. A great time was had by all, well almost all. I have to shout out to my oldest daughter Aaren who is attending college in Vermont and missed this year’s Chowderfest by a couple of days L. Sorry babe, see you on Wednesday.

I was curious to find out how many people where at the chowderfest, so I called the chamber of commerce this morning to find out the official tally, but was told that the data had not yet been calculated. I left before the winners were announce so I looked up the results. 2008 chowder winners:

New England (white)- Manhattan Red

Grand prize: California Grill & Pasta Grand prize: Stefano’s Restaurant

1^st runner up: Country kettle chowder 1^st runner up: Bistro 14 Raw Bar

2^nd runner up: Howards Restaurant 2^nd runner up: Green house Café

3rd runner up: Mud City 3rd runner up: Sweet Jenny’s

I love my morning commute!

rightcoastliving — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:41:58 +0000

On Friday morning on my 5 minute commute to work I looked across the bay I marveled at the beauty I encounter every morning. I thought I am blessed. My family, husband Randy, three daughters Aaren, Lexi and Amie live at the Jersey Shore. (Actually my oldest daughter is a junior in college in Vermont so she lives with us only summers and breaks.) My commute is across the Barnegat Bay to LBI. There was no one on the bay and on this clear sunny day all I saw was sunlight glistening off the calm bay and seagulls soaring. (Seagulls aren’t my favorite bird but they sure added to the scenery)

We have a real estate business on LBI so I guess you can say in essence we do share the beauty of this place by selling a piece of the shore. The jersey shore has been a part of my blood since I can remember. Memories of weekends spent on a cabin cruiser on Silver Bay and later summer homes further south on the shore. Traveling up and down the parkway on Friday nights and Monday mornings; sunburn sticking to the cars vinyl seat, sitting in long gas lines on odd days, bumper to bumper traffic on the GSP; Monday morning classrooms that rock back until sea legs are established. These are memories from my childhood.

At the age of 13 I went from weekend warrior to local; my family moved year round to the shore. I am not sure if you have to live here year-round for the ocean to get into your blood, but I do know this, once she gets in your blood, no matter where you go, she will call you back home; from college in the Midwest to a job in a city, you will feel her you as she does her tides. You will hear her call like a sea siren calling a fisherman to sea, whether it’s for a week, a season or for life.