When I took a hiatus for most of March, I hoped I’d return with fresh eyes, but I haven’t. Photoblogging has been a thorn in my side for the past 6+ months.

With this post, I am freeing myself from the shackles of daily posting. I’m not ending the blog, but I’ll post less often.

…This probably didn’t require a formal statement, but I don’t like to bail on commitments I’ve made without an excuse.

Thank you for your patience.

But you can dip your toes in the water for free before 9am or after 5pm!

Do you recognize these?

Did I mention that they’ve rebuilt the Asbury Park boardwalk near the casino? I probably did.

Also: I just discovered last month that those funny bicycle-cars are called “surreys.”

But yeah, new construction, totally.

If you happened to drive through shore towns during May, you might’ve noticed crazy pink lines down the middle of the road.

“Paint the town Pink” is “an annual community-wide effort to raise awareness of the importance of annual mammography.”

(Breast cancer awareness in May, basically.)

It is pretty attention-grabbing!

As promised, the inside of the Asbury Park casino was cleared out and reopened as a pedestrian throughway in time for Memorial Day.

Memorial Day weekend on the Jersey Shore! Time for everyone to put Sandy behind them and start enjoying the unofficial start of summer!

Unfortunately, the unofficial start of summer has been about 55F at best. Nobody wants to lay out in weather like that.

Today, at least, the sun is out; it’s been rainy and overcast for the past two days. But all the boardwalkers and joggers are dressed in sweatshirts, long pants, fleece jackets, gloves. It’s not beach weather.

Lining up to buy beach passes in Asbury Park

Shore towns have pushed themselves to rebuild hurriedly, to be ready for tourists and beachgoers and commerce-bringers at the beginning of the summer season… and the summer season comes with a tiny fizzle.

Well. Shore towns will have the rest of the summer to catch up, I hope.

I wish I knew what kind of tree this was. I don’t. I think it’s something ornamental, something you’d find in a garden. Thoughts?

Yay Riptide! I like that photographer in front, too.

Here’s what the Riptide looks like in a shorter exposure:

I think that’ll do us for this year’s Our Lady of Peace festival. ‘Til next year!

I still get a kick out of non-horse mounts on carousels.