Daycation Down the Shore: September Beach Day

I know it’s September, but hear me out. September is a GREAT time for a beach day.

I love being near the ocean, but I find that I’m only able to make it down the shore once or twice a year.

Summer is an extremely busy time at the Cottage; we’re hosting or attending BBQs, going to local street and craft fairs, or just working outside on the house and garden. By the time August rolls around, I find myself yet again not having been to the beach even once.

A quick aside for any non-New Jersey readers: “going down the shore” = going to the beach. Specifically, an oceanside beach. This phrase never applies to lake beaches, even if you’re visiting a lake that happens to be down the shore. If you say you’re “going down the shore,” everyone in New Jersey (and probably surrounding states) knows that you’re traveling to an oceanside beach in New Jersey.

Oh, and even if you live south of whatever beach you will visit, you’re still “going down the shore.”

My husband and I have developed a tradition of going down the shore the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. We live in Northern New Jersey, and shore traffic is horrendous in the summer. Driving down on a Friday night or Saturday morning is a foolish idea because of the traffic jams, and visiting on Labor Day Monday is a bad idea because you’ll get stuck in traffic heading home.

So, we’ve discovered that Labor Day Sunday is the best day to go down the shore. Minimal traffic both ways, and there is still plenty of summertime sunshine and warmth for beach activities.

And, September in general is a great time to be at the Jersey shore because it’s a lot less touristy, there are fewer crowds, and, while you shouldn’t go swimming (no lifeguards on duty), there’s nothing to stop you from enjoying the waning summer sunlight and dipping your feet in the finally-warmer ocean waters.

Husband and I like to go to Point Pleasant, NJ since it’s a happy compromise for we two very different beach people. I love to lie on the sand all day and soak up the sun. I’ll maybe get up to get refreshments, or to dip my feet in the water, but I generally will not move once I park myself on the beach.

I could spend hours in the hot sun, listening to the waves crash and the seagulls flying overhead, getting gloriously tan (though less gloriously so these days, now that I use SPF 50 sunscreen) and doing nothing at all. I don’t even read a book. It’s the only time I feel that my ever-busy mind is turned off, and I revel in it.

Husband, however, is the complete opposite of me. He’ll spend maybe 30 minutes on a beach, and then get restless if he doesn’t have something to do. And, reading a book doesn’t count as “something to do” — at least, not down the shore. So, Point Pleasant is a great compromise for Husband and I because I get my share of ocean and sunshine, we can eat delicious seafood and ice cream on and around the boardwalk, and there’s enough to do (aka, mini golf) to keep him occupied.

I have a good friend who is the same as me and whose hubsand is the same as mine, so she and I have a beach day together each year. We drive down together, blasting our 80s and 90s music, and just spend the day sitting on the sand in the hot sun and watching the surf. She usually brings magazines to flip through, while I sift sand between my fingers and try not to fall asleep like a cat lounging in the sun. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we don’t. Either way, we enjoy each other’s company and the scenery around us.

This year, my friend introduced me to a new shore spot: Sea Bright, NJ. It’s a little peninsula beach town that has a bay on one side and the ocean on the other. Parking is insanely cheap and wildly abundant — which, if you’ve ever tried parking in Point Pleasant after 10am on a Saturday, you know is a gift worth shedding sweet unicorn tears of joy — and the beaches are clean, calm, and wonderfully underpopulated.

This is an entirely different beach experience from Point Pleasant, which has a busy boardwalk, an aquarium, food stalls, rides and games, mini golf, etc. That place is tons of fun, but it’s not very relaxing, especially on a weekend when you have push through throngs of people to get anywhere.

Most of the time, when I go down the shore, I want just a peaceful, relaxing beach experience. No boardwalk, no hordes of people, no electronic game sounds drowning out crashing waves.

Sea Bright delivered on this. This may be my new favorite beach spot, at least for visiting with my friend. There are plenty of restaurants and shops on the main street for after-beach fun, but the beach itself is wonderfully quiet. It’s the perfect place to go if you just want to connect with nature and turn your brain off for a few hours.

In fact, while we were there, we saw something I’ve never experienced at the shore before. We had been lounging on the sand for maybe 30 minutes, when suddenly flocks of seagulls started squawking and whirling overhead, hovering over where the surf breaks upon the sand. Of course, everyone was a little alarmed and started trying to figure out what was happening since the noise was INTENSE; it was like all the birds had gone crazy for absolutely no reason.

I ran down to the water’s edge and immediately saw what was causing the ruckus. Hundreds of tiny, silver fish were washing up on the shore. It might have even been thousands, because the phenomenon was moving down the length of the beach, like a cloud passing overhead.

As the fish were washing up, the seagulls would swoop down and scoop them up like it was an all-you-can-eat buffet. There were infinitely more fish than birds, though, so, sadly, many of the little fish ended up dying on the sand, still glinting the sunlight off their shiny scales.

People tried to toss the fish back into the crashing waves, but we all soon realized that our efforts were outnumbered by the amount of fishing washing up. And, there were even more seagulls hovering over the waves as reverse rain drops exploded out of the ocean; the same little silver fish were jumping out of the water and into the air — and into the waiting mouths of birds — as they rode the waves to the shore.

Eventually, people abandoned their resuce efforts, and we all just stood back and watched with fascination at the circle of life revolving around us. As the birds and fish swept up the shoreline and the air re-settled over the beach, things gradually went back to normal, and all was peaceful again.

Apart from experiencing that bit of nature’s fury, the rest of the afternoon in Sea Bright was wonderfully uneventful. The sky was blue, the ocean was calm, and although it was a balmy 88 degrees outside, there was a refreshing breeze off the water that kept you from getting too hot. My friend and I stayed for the afternoon and left as the sun was shrinking beyond the horizon.

Do you have any plans to head down the shore this September? What’s your favorite beach to go to? Comment below!