glorious summer

The nice part about going to Gunnison's Beach on a week day is that it is relatively tame. The people there are more about basking in the sun than some unsavory types, compleat with extraneous jewelry, trolling about the surf line as if on some impromptu "meet and greet". I much prefer the week day crowd because though some may consider a visit to a nude beach depraved behavior, it really is about basking in the sun on a glorious, perfect summer's day. Of course, there are always wacky people on such a beach and if you ever forget your book you can spend the day giggling at the incessant parade. If you are a reader of this blog you'll know about the game Janet and I play with making up names and I'll not go deeply into the day's ledger of characters. Meatloaf was there again arms akimbo and incessantly pontificating in his NYC nasalized tones, but we were alert enough to give him an especially wide berth and we sat upwind for him and could not hear him at all!

There was a group of people with a tent and a wind break around their campsite blaring music, mostly reggae, that, inexplicably, we never christened with a proper name. We did enjoy watching one of their number though, a rotund Asian woman who danced spastically and with no connection to the music. She flapped her arms about like a penguin in heat.

The other interesting person who caught our eye was a tall man with a full beard and long hair who walked up and down the beach with a walking stick decorated with a feather. At one point he stood shaman-like, facing New York, which could be seen in the distance. With one arm raised, the other holding onto his trusty shaman stick/peacepipe he was chanting something as we passed him. Perhaps we was blessing the city. Perhaps he was thanking the gods for delivering us this perfect, cloudless day. Perhaps he was trying to pick up Janet.

We gave him a wide berth too.

It was truly a glorious day. It was never too hot. Not humid at all. There were only decorative clouds in the distance. The water was refreshing. Sadly though it was nesting season for some protected bird on the beach. If you're interested I can probably get information about the bird to you, but because of it, we were corraled in a relatively small area of the shoreline. Ropes and signs told us not to venture further south, where there are a few miles of desolate, empty sand to stroll. Fortunately this doesn't last more than a week or two and once again we'll be able to saunter along this rare stretch of empty New Jersey shore.

We found a nice place for a drink after our beach day. We headed into Highlands, NJ, directly across Sandy Hook Bay and had a beer at Windansea. Right on the water, we sipped $4.50 beers as we watched boats head toward berths either on the Navesink or Shrewsbury River, as cool breezes graced our tawny skin and the swirling wisps of clouds danced and twirled in the last dregs of this perfect day.