The view from the deck this past weekend at Long Beach Island; the in-laws have rented a house on 18th Street, in the block on the beach, for the week in Surf City, while my brothers-in-law have rented a house on the beach around the corner from the in-laws.  We dropped in on Sunday morning, and spent the night before returning home late on Monday.  These photos were taken while relaxing and sipping mojitos, late Sunday afternoon…

The house the in-laws are staying in is one that they’ve rented on many previous summer vacations; I distinctly remember being at the house some 16 years ago back in the early 90’s while the Missus and I were still dating, hanging out her then school-aged brothers and sisters, who are now grown, some married, with multiple kids of their own.

W. and K. both had a great, albeit too short, time.  The shore was experiencing the effects of Hurricane Bill, and the surf was pretty rough with a wicked rip-tide, so there wasn’t much swimming going on.  W.’s swimming had really progressed this past summer, thanks to his twice-weekly swimming lessons at the Princeton YWCA, but he settled for the chance to try out his new boogie board along the shoreline. W., his Grandfather and I spent a few hours fishing off the bulkhead at Barnegat lighthouse, but again Bill’s effects were too much to allow us even a nibble before we decided to pack it in.  Later, he and Grandpa played mini-golf while K. played with her half-dozen or so girl cousins at her Uncles’ house on the beach.  On Monday morning, we sipped coffee on the beach as the sun rose over the Atlantic, before we took the kids to see Old Barney, where W. and I climbed up all 217 steps to enjoy the view from the top of the lighthouse.  The rest of the family established a compound on the beach, which we joined a little after lunch until late in the afternoon, spending time alternating between reading and collecting shells and starfish in the surf near the jetty. 

All in all, it was a nice time, and as much as I’m not truly a beach-person, it was great for the kids to spend time with their cousins at the same beach where my wife spent endless summers with her brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and friends.  I like the idea of our kids growing up and building some of those same sacred memories of summers with family at LBI, and we’re already looking at renting a place with the rest of the family for next summer’s vacation.