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By JUDITH W. WINNE
Courier-Post Staff
Forgive Eunice Taylor of Atlantic City for her recreational chauvinism.
If you ask her what visitors who have just a day to spend at the Shore should do or see, she suggests there's no place like home - her home and its neighbors.
"You're not going to ever match the beaches of South Jersey, ever," says an emphatic Taylor, who visited Monaco and found the beaches nearby painfully rocky and inferior. " We have the best beaches in the world."
As luck would have it, those who live in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties are close enough to enjoy the sand and the sea, even when time allows a mere day for R&R.
Why just one day at the Shore? Why not?
A day trip can be a refreshing and cost-effective break from the mid-summer blues. Best of all, you can choose a cloudless day promising sun and warm, not stifling, temperatures.
Think about it - if you make reservations at a motel or bed-and-breakfast for the weekend or week, chances are you' re going to have to fork over a deposit. If the weather forecast is gloomy and you opt not to go, you can probably kiss that dough goodbye.
So, ditch any lingering embarrassment about being a shoebie, the old-fashioned term for a local who carried his lunch to the Shore in a shoebox.
Planning a day trip to the Shore is a day at the beach. Your day log can be as exhausting as exercising at 8 a.m. on Sixth Street on Ocean City's beach or as calming as a ride in a rolling, wicker divan on New Jersey's most storied boardwalk.
"You sit in the chair and relax and just enjoy the view," says Plamen Nedyalkov, an Atlantic City chair pusher.
What else can you do? Like the ladies in clean smocks offering tastes of fudge on the boardwalk, we serve up an irresistible sampler.
Water, water everywhere
In Ocean City, the Chiumentos of Atco visit Gillian's Waterpark on 3-year-old Kasey's birthday. The day is hot and sunny and the park is stuffed with visitors waiting to whoosh down slides. Nearby, 18-year-old beach tag checker Katie Medernach notes: "A lot of people go half day there and then on the beach."
Throughout the Shore, the landscape is dotted with places to rent watercraft. At Beesley's Point, across from the Tuckahoe Inn, you can whip around in a Jet Ski off Mad Beach. (609) 390-1113. At Cape May Water Sports, you can arrange to pilot a Waverunner or more calmly make your way through the water in a kayak. (609) 884-8646.
The Sea Star Fleet at the South Jersey Marina at the entrance to Cape May features fishing trips for experienced seamen and landlubbers alike. There are four-, six- and eight-hour voyages. (609) 884-3421.
"First-time fishermen will go on a short fishing trip, just in case they don't like it or feel good, as far as being seasick," says captain/owner Bob Schumann.
Also at the South Jersey Marina, for the more adventurous, there is Peg Leg Parasail. (609) 898-1600. Go up, up and away, flying single, or double with a friend.
Nearby is the Cape May Whale Watch & Research Center on Wilson Drive. Vessels from the center ply the water throughout the day and early evening looking for whales, dolphins, osprey and more. (609) 898-0055.
Sometimes, though, you want to get in the water, instead of gazing at it. Nancy Seitzinger of Bridgeton, who visited Ocean City recently on a day trip with the Vineland YMCA Adventure Camp, says young visitors like to get wet. Where do kids go?
"Boogie boarding in the ocean," says Seitzinger. "You can bring or rent boards. The kids like skim boarding, too," she says, referring to surfing at the shoreline on a thinner board.
A long day's journey into night
Maybe you don't have to hurry home when the sun goes down. Ocean City has numerous musical acts booked at the Music Pier, including the Ocean City Pops Celtic Festival (Aug. 12), with Irish step dancers, Scottish bagpipes and soloists; a salute to Bill Haley by the original Comets ( Aug. 13); the Manhattan Rhythm Kings (Aug. 22), and Arlo Guthrie (Aug. 27). (609) 525-9300 and (609) 525-9248.
Walter Stevenson, who staffs an Atlantic City boardwalk information booth, suggests you plan a day in casino town with a bit of everything.
"A little gambling, then lunch," says Stevenson, who is partial to the Sands' buffet. "If you like the beach, you could go on the beach and enjoy the surf. Afterward, you can catch a show."
One long-running casino show at Bally's Park Place, Legends in Concert, features popular impersonations of celebrities. Sundays through Thursdays, there are early 7: 30 p.m. shows.
And after a jam-packed day of casino action, beach, buffet and entertainment? "By then," notes a smiling Stevenson, "you should be tired or broke."
Jersey journey
Get off the Parkway, at least for a few miles. Route 9 is like a step back in time. Slow down. Stop often.
Here, from Marmora to Cape May, are the antiques stores, old churches with their faded cemetery headstones, homey eateries and Jersey peaches so ripe that if the fruit juice doesn't drip down your chin, you've stopped at the wrong place.
On your way home, if it's not too late, stop at a fruit stand for something sweet and juicy picked that day. Better than Cape May diamonds or caramel corn, a fresh fruit may be the best souvenir of your trip south.
Book it
If watching the waves puts your brain in neutral, what do you do? "Read books," says Nancy Wyatt, who, not surprisingly, manages an Atlantic Book Shops store in Ocean City. "Read on the beach. Read a happy book on the beach."
Need a suggestion? Julie and Romeo by Jeannette Ray, a tale of middle-age romance. "It's just the funniest, sweetest story," says Wyatt, who adds: "If you want to laugh, (try) A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson."
And don't worry about not paging through War and Peace.
"You're on vacation," Wyatt says soothingly. "You shouldn' t be reading Tolstoy."
Park land, Jersey style
Book shop manager Wyatt isn't the only one who understands that gazing at the waves until your skin develops a leathery texture doesn't interest all.
"The water parks are really, really good," insists Sean Glynn. Glynn should know. He works in Wildwood, although he lives on the other side of the Atlantic - Ireland.
"It's easy to get bored on the beach," says the Irish lad. "They just have the sand and the sea."
Wildwood has its Raging Waters Waterparks at Morey's Piers. (609) 522-3900. In Atlantic City, 12-year-old Sammie Johnson favors the local Steel Pier.
"I like the rides and the food," says Sammie. "I like the French fries. I like the roller coaster.
Food
This isn't the day to calorie count. Going to the Shore to nosh on rice cakes and carrot sticks is akin to ordering a tuna melt at Le Bec-Fin.
The beach, especially if you're in town for just a day, is a place for first class fun food - rich, custard cones, sticky caramel corn, chocolatey fudge, soft pretzels, crispy pizza and steak sandwiches.
Nick Faucher of Cherry Hill has found the creme de la creme of steak sandwiches at the landmark White House Sub Shop on Arctic Avenue in Atlantic City. (609) 345-1564.
"I think it's the best-tasting cheesesteak I ever had," notes the 18-year-old. This is, however, one savory sandwich you may have to wait for. Notes Faucher: "The line was out the door."
Catch up with the past
"I think people should see the Victorian homes in Cape May," says Barbara Brookshier, wife of ex-Eagle football player Tom and owner of a Stone Harbor condo. "Cape May is so unique."
Cape May's a no-brainer for anyone remotely interested in history or architecture. You can walk, take a tour, but why not bike? It's the best way to cover a lot of territory and still scan the streetscape at a slow pace. Don't miss tree-lined Hughes Street in the center of town, a street chockablock with Painted Ladies. Stop at the Physick Estate on Washington Street, (609) 884-5404, designed by Frank Furness, the architect who fashioned the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
Other possibilities: Lucy the Margate Elephant, touted as "the only elephant in the world you can walk through and come out alive," (609) 823-6473; Leaming's Run Garden in Swainton, which includes a Colonial farm, (609) 465-5871; Historic Cold Spring Village, a re-creation of the past with appropriately dressed crafters and tradespersons, ( 609) 898-2300; and the Naval Air Station Aviation Museum at the Cape May County Airport in Rio Grande, (609) 886-8787.
Keeping it simple
You may not want to work too hard at relaxation.
When 7-year-old Jennifer Snover of Barnegat was asked what she likes to do at the beach, she offered a one-word reply: "Seashells."
Collecting shells requires little effort. But there are rewards to working up a sweat.
Recently, Maggie Slovonic, a tall, 16-year-old blonde from Pittsburgh, walked the Ocean City boardwalk with friends and talked about vacation sports and other extracurricular activities.
"We met some cute boys playing volleyball," she said.
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