Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Groomers and Tags

The beaches up here in New Jersey seem different today than what I remember from my childhood.  Granted, I wasn't going to New Jersey beaches back then, but I have been to lots of beaches on the East Coast and I don't remember some of the things that happen up here, happening when I was a child.

First, you have to have a beach tag to go onto the beach.  You can buy a season tag for a higher price or one for a shorter duration at a lesser cost.  This was such a strange thing when I first heard about it last year.  "You mean you need to pay, just to be able to legally be on the beach," I asked?  From what I had experienced, you were expected to enter and exit the beach via public walkways as opposed to going through someone's private yard, but there was never a fee to be on the beach.

My brother-in-law and I were talking about the beach tags and he mentioned people have collections of them that go back decades.  I'm from North Carolina and I don't remember the beaches there having any tag requirement.  I'll have to ask friends who have houses at the beach if things have changed.  

One thing that those tags must pay for is the very nice grooming of the beaches that happens every morning.  For the last two mornings, I've been out on the sand early and I've seen these large vehicles, mostly tractor modifications that are being driven back and forth across the sand, removing large shells and trash that didn't make it into a trash receptacle.  They have a nice grooming end that makes the sand feel light and fluffy and a delight to walk on right after it's been "groomed".  

If keeping the beaches clean and neat and protected from erosion is what those tag fees are going towards as well as those nice life guards that help keep us safe, I would gladly pay the fee.  It seems to me like they have a nice thing going up here.

The Big Boy Update:  "That one has no Mickey."  Both children (who are sleeping in our room with us) woke up at six o'clock this morning.  In a desperate attempt to keep them somewhat calm until breakfast time an hour later, I asked my husband to put on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the television in our room.  Due to a connection problem and we had to move them to the living room and the main television.  As my husband told them to follow him, my son looked at me, pointed to the defunct TV and said, "That one has no Mickey."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Anti-birthmark?  She has gotten some sun over the past months (and yes, we have been putting sunscreen on her) that has given her a little color in her arms, legs and neck.  I noticed the other day that she has a lighter colored spot on the back of her calf.  It looks rather typical of a birthmark in shape (irregular and blob-like).  I wonder if it's an invisible or anti-birthmark that doesn't have pigment and only shows up when her skin darkens from sun exposure?

Fitness Update:  The early morning at the beach was spent at a fitness "boot camp" hour that's walk-up and join for a small fee.  I wondered if it would be an easy workout or a difficult one.  It was the latter.  I was with a collection of people--mostly on vacation like me--that were looking for a morning workout and who regularly worked out.  So this workout was not fluff.   I hear the main instructor is even more difficult.  Maybe I'll get to what she has in store later this week.

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