Page 18 - 2023 Southern NJ Vacationer

16 SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY VACATIONER
beach, plopped your chair in the sand, and spent the day soaking up too much sun on these narrow beaches before heading home.
Sea Isle City is an active community with special beaches designated for kayaking, rafting, surfing, volleyball and sailboat launching. The Promenade allows landlubbers to engage in bicycle riding, jogging or a leisurely stroll.
The pace is a bit slower along the Seven Mile Beach, home to Avalon and Stone Harbor. Avalon’s scenery is spectacular with lush dunes lining the beaches from 72nd to 49th streets. Native shrubbery, dune grass, cedar trees and bayberry bushes cover the sand mountains that cushion the coast. Catamarans can often be seen off the shores of the tip of Stone Harbor, known as Stone Harbor Point, and it’s a nice place to spot birds.
The biggest beaches in the area are just over the Ocean Highway Bridge in North Wildwood, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest. North Wildwood’s beaches are family friendly with gazebos, swings and playgrounds to persuade kids to take a break from swimming and sandcastle building.
Turn from the ocean for a minute and you can marvel at giant roller coasters, Ferris wheels and other amusements on piers that extend from the Boardwalk that stretches along the beach in North Wildwood and Wildwood for more than two miles.
Wildwood’s massive carpet of sand hosts unique sporting events. In May, the Wildwoods International Kite Festival will fill the sky
with huge, colorful kites from all over the world on Memorial Day Weekend. Come June, Wildwood has visitors kicking up the sand as country music’s biggest stars take one of five stages set up on the beach at the Barefoot Country Music Festival, and mibsters from all over the world vie for top honors in the sport of marbles. The National Marbles Tournament competition is played on ten marbles rings permanently planted right on the beach.
Cape May, Cape May Point and Sunset Beach rounds out the Jersey Cape. Beautiful Victorian homes provide a gorgeous backdrop for sun worshipers on the beaches in Cape May. The resort’s beaches are a favorite with surfers and families and the Promenade is the perfect place to take a stroll, cool off with an ice cream cone or watch dolphins frolic not too far from the water’s edge. At the south end of the Promenade enjoy the wonderful gazebo that offers picture-perfect views of the Cape May Lighthouse and St. Mary’s by the Sea, one of the few places on the East Coast you can watch a sunrise and sunset over the water from the same beach.
Although not a swimming beach, crowds gather most summer evenings at Sunset Beach at the very tip of the Cape May County – where the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay meet – to watch spectacular sunsets and enjoy a patriotic flag lowering ceremony. The beach is also filled with shiny pieces of quartz popularly known as Cape May “diamonds” and offshore, pieces of a concrete ship, the SS Atlantus, are still visible.
There are numerous beaches along the Delaware bayside areas from Cape May Point all through Cumberland County. These areas are perfect for jet-skiing, windsurfing, stand up paddling, kayaking, and fishing. Visit the “weakfish capital of the world also known for its expansive and peaceful view. Bayside beaches also exist in Atlantic County, including Brigantine and The Cove which faces Atlantic City along Absecon Inlet. G