exploring the beaches of new jersey

Before the summer slips away, Steve & I wanted to squeeze in a little road trip & decided on the New Jersey coast.  It’s just a day’s drive away & is full of festive beach towns & shopping areas… a perfect combination for my exploring soul.

Our first stop was Ocean City.

I don’t know what it is about amusement rides paired with beaches that makes me happy… but they do.

I’m also a sucker for pretty painted shops that have garage doors as their entry way.

The 2 mile long boardwalk really comes alive at night & offers loads of entertainment options, a variety of shops & all kinds of eateries.

Like this place that serves ginormous pies… have you ever seen such a large piece of pizza!?  It was quite tasty too :-)

Next we headed south to Cape May.

This very popular beach town has many streets lined with colorful Victorian homes.

And lots of sweet storefronts.  The layout reminds me of something Disneyland would try to recreate… but this is the real deal.  One of my favorite stops was Bath Time… their displays were dynamite!

It was an overcast day while we were there, but the beaches were still beautiful.

Next we turned north to hit the classic Seaside Heights boardwalk.

This boardwalk had more of a fair feel because it was full of those games where you play to win insanely large stuffed animals.

But my favorite part of this stop was the skyride.

And the free fun house mirrors were quite amusing too.  What can I say… I’m a kid at heart.

Another 25 minutes north and we hit Point Pleasant.

More cute shops (my favorite was Stella Luna) & another boardwalk.  Turns out they have fireworks on the beach every Thursday night so we bought a bag of salt water taffy & enjoyed the show with sand between our toes.

Two smaller towns not to miss are Stone Harbor & Avalon.

After soaking in the sun & jumping some big waves, we headed over to Pirate Island for a mini golf dual.

And what would a summer vacation be without some delicious ice cream from the local creamery, Springers?  Plus can I say that pretzel cones are the best invention ever!?  I need to scope out if any ice cream parlors offer these in Metro Detroit.

I hope you enjoyed this instagram tour of our time away.  If this type of vacation looks like fun to you, check out this great website that describes all the great beach towns in New Jersey.

Like to see where I spend my time away from catching fireflies?  Then sign up to receive blog posts like these in your email inbox HERE