Jersey Shore Vacation - Part One

September 5, 2018






Hello everyone.  I love the beach.  When I was younger I grew up living a minute walk to the beach.  Every day during the summer I would be there with my siblings, friends, or cousins swimming and having fun just trying to get the best tan.

Each year after I had my daughter we would take our family vacation to the Jersey Shore and stay on Long Beach Island.  We stopped taking our vacations there when Hurricane Sandy hit back in 2012.  The house we used to rent for the week was damaged and destroyed by the hurricane.

Over the many years, we have stayed in different motels and rented different houses on the Island.  We've stayed on the bayside and on the oceanside.  When you have a house or motel on the ocean you can just walk a short distance and be on the beach.

I really missed the beach vacations we used to take and we finally decided to start them up again last year.

Last year we stayed at a cute motel called the Sea Horse Motel that is located in Beach Haven, New Jersey.



Sea Horse Motel



The motel was nice and clean but we had to walk across a big highway to get to the beach each day.  I tried to book us into a motel located right on the ocean but the motels were all booked up.  I had waited too long and late in the season as you need to start booking a reservation in the winter.  I was happy when this motel was available and it was our first time we ever stayed there.  We had to take a short drive to get to restaurants, stores, and other attractions.

We still enjoyed ourselves and had a great time going to the beach each day, swimming in the pool, and going out to eat at different restaurants each night.






This year I made sure to call and make a reservation in May (which is kind of late too).  The three motels that are located right on the ocean side are the Sea Shell Motel, the Engleside Inn, and the Coral Seas Motel where we stayed this year.  They are all located in Beach Haven, New Jersey and in the heart of all the main local attractions.

I tried getting us into the Sea Shell Motel or the Engleside Inn but they were booked up.  I tried the Coral Seas Motel and we lucked out as they had two rooms available the week we wanted.

The Coral Seas Motel was lucky and not damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.  It's a cute motel that is located right on the beach.  It's clean and the decor reminded me of the 80's with yellow, white, and brown colors on the outside of the motel and the beach chairs by the pool.  The owner and staff were also very nice and pleasant.

We were lucky and they had two rooms right next to each other on the first floor that overlooked the pool.  The pool water was so nice and warm to swim in after we spent our long days on the beach.


We were gifted with a huge basket filled to the brim with goodies for our beach vacation from my daughter's friend who came on the vacation with us.  Her mom made the beautiful basket shown below for everyone to enjoy.

It was filled with so many awesome things such as a kite, sun hat, sarong, chips, chocolates, cookies, and other various snacks and goodies!!  We loved everything and enjoyed eating the snacks.





I couldn't wait to take a quick walk to see the beach and this was my view.  When I saw the beach and water I just knew we would all have a great vacation.






The motel is in a great location as it's a short walk to stores and restaurants.  On one of our walks, I saw this pretty sunflower.  They are one of my favorite flowers and they always remind me of August.






Long Beach Island is known for big old houses like the one below.  I love this house with all of the rocking chairs lined up on the porch.






There was even an old wishing well on the side of the property filled with pretty flowers.




Below is The Gables which is a famous Victorian Inn and fancy restaurant located on the Island.




This restaurant gets very crowded and it's sometimes hard to get a reservation for dinner.  We did not go there this year but we hope to try again next year.





It's a tradition for us to eat at a tavern called Buckalew's Tavern.  This restaurant is so popular and there is always a long wait to eat there.  We had to wait at least a half an hour which wasn't too bad.  To pass some time I visited some cute stores selling everything beach themed such as beach clothes, bathing suits, suntan lotion, beach chairs, and toys, etc.

This large restaurant has a fun atmosphere with live bands, a large bar area, and it also has a variety of different foods to eat.





I'm sorry I didn't take any photos of the food as we were all too hungry to eat dinner!  LOL!






After I had a really delicious crab cake sandwich and seasoned french fries for dinner we decided to take a short walk for ice cream.  I enjoyed eating my mint chocolate chip ice cream cone and it was the perfect way to end the evening.


NOTE:  I took a lot of photos of this vacation so I decided to break this up into two more parts.  Stayed tuned for Part Two coming soon.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of the week and weekend.




Click HERE to see the great parties I will be linking up to!


Julie



18 comments

  1. Sounds like a really nice vacation with family and I love how your daughters friends mom made yall a nice basket of goodies. How thoughtful!
    beautiful pictures. I love the beach!
    Lisa

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  2. It sounds so wonderful! It's nice how it all worked out for you with the hotel and the nice snack basket. Mint chocolate chip is one of my favorite ice cream flavors!

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  3. What a sweet beach basket and charming vacation!

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  4. What a great beachy trip! I haven't been to LBI in years. I miss it! I'm glad you all had such a nice family vacation!

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  5. I enjoyed reading about your LBI vacation, as it is a place I love, too! We've stayed at the Engleside a few times, and eaten at the Coral Seas. I really like the restaurant area at Coral Seas - it reminds me of a Caribbean destination! Glad you had a great time - looking forward to your next posts!

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  6. What a lovely place to visit, my friend. It looks so beautiful and relaxing...I wish I could jump into your pictures {{smiles}}

    Thank you for sharing with us and I look forward to part 2. Hugs!

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  7. What a fun vacation Julie. Being on vacation by the shore and beach is the best. So happy you had a great time relaxing on this vacation.
    xoxo
    Kris

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  8. The beach looks so good.
    Love your pics
    especially the ice cream :)

    Ann
    https://roomsofinspiration.blogspot.com/

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  9. Looks like you had a blast! Visiting from Take Me Away.

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  10. I would have taken a zillion photos at such a beautiful place! I'm glad you had fun. LOVE that basket filled with goodies! How sweet is that!!!

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  11. I love the beach too! I've always wanted to go to the Jersey Shore - it looks so beautiful. Hope you're having a great weekend!

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  12. I have never been to the Jersey Shore, but it looks lovely. My best friend just moved there and has invited us to stay for a visit. I can't wait to go see her and the beautiful beaches. Your vacation looks lovely and what a great treat basket. Stay dry this week!!

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  13. I'm so looking for part 2! This really looks like you had a wonderful relaxing time at the beach. I like seeing the hotels that you've stayed and the description of restaurants. I also love the thoughtful basket of goodies.
    Have a great week Julie!
    Ping xo

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  14. What a fun beach vacation, Julie. Wasn't that sweet of your daughter's friend's mom to gift you with that basket of goodies? Eating out is always a highlight for those of us that cook every night at home. I'm glad that you had a wonderful time.

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  15. Julie, this looks like a fabulous place for a family vacation. We love the beach too! In Texas, our beaches aren't fancy but we love them anyway. We spent a few days at Port Aransas a couple of weeks ago. There's just something about the sand and sounds of the ocean.

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  16. Thanks for sharing. It reminds me of the wedding we went to in Fairfield, Connecticut on Long Island Sound. It sounds like a fun vacation. Thanks for sharing at Keep In Touch.

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  17. Sounds like a wonderful vacation! When I was growing up, my family used to rent a house for a week in LBI each summer. We would always rent one in the Beach Haven, Brant Beach area and I have so many wonderful memories from those trips. It was so nice to read about your time there. Thanks so much for joining the Take Me Away Party for September!
    Shelley

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