Down the Shore

When I was in high school, way before I ever thought I would be living in New Jersey, I had a few friends who had moved to Miami from there. They had moved mainly during their high school years so most of them had grown up there and for whatever reason (probably the rest of the Cuban family living in Miami and the fact that Cubans and winter don't mix) their families had decided to pack up and move south. Most of these people were guys and they always talked about their Summers on the Jersey shore. Their descriptions of a beach sounded a tad foreign to me what with all the talk of boardwalks and rides and taffy and so on. And after all, that was up North, I grew up in Miami, what the heck were they always bragging about? Frank grew up in New Jersey and moved to Miami during his senior year of high school, I heard endlessly from both he and his mother about their summers spent in Wildwood on the Jersey shore. I always found it interesting too how they all said "down the shore" as opposed to "down on the shore, or down to the shore". Quite the affectation if you ask me. Once we moved after we were married I was quite curious about all these paradises. Our first Summer we drove down to Wildwood,

 a short skip and a jump of 5 hours. Ouch, to go to the beach???? Are they crazy???? There was a boardwalk, cute, and extremely cold water. Another time we went to Sandy Hook

with friends, one of the first "Shore points" on the Garden State Parkway which means not 5 hours.
Overcrowded, freezing water, not real clean water, ugh. Once we tried Seaside Heights

now made famous by the Jersey Shore show with people who are not even from Jersey, ugh again. I grew up going to Miami Beach, are they joking? On other varied occasions we've ventured in that direction but not very often. Needless to say going "down the shore" was not going to be part of the plan. Number one, the traffic is nightmarish since that seems to be all everyone wants to do on Summer weekends, number two the water is freezing and number three...well I'll skip number three. I did think the boardwalks and the rides were cute in a cheesy tacky way but that's not enough to entice weekly summer sojourns that take inordinately long amounts of time to got to a beach where the water is so cold I won't go in and is usually wall to wall people, and again I won't touch number three. Except that a friend I work with has a family home down the shore and they also have a boat and they go every weekend and this weekend they invited us and other friends for some fun, frolicking, fishing, boating and eating...and eating...and eating. So off we went and immediately hit bumper to bumper traffic on the Garden State Parkway but then after a while it subsided, I never understand that it's the same amount of cars, anyway we were riding along at a nice clip, then we hit bumper to bumper again for a little while, then not, then again, then not...you get my drift. In the end a drive that should have taken 1 1/2 hours took 2 1/2, not bad for a Saturday morning going down the shore. Luckily they were waiting for us with grilled burgers and some bruschetta so the eating began. Shortly after we all piled onto the boat and sped out into the bay with the wind blowing in our faces and making a mess out of our hair. Found the perfect spot according to captain Manny and the boys put the rods into the sea. And lo and behold not two minutes into his first fishing trip ever fisherman Frank pulled up this fluke

and we all thought it was a fluke until in his next turn he pulled up another one just like it and then he took a rest

before he went back to work

and caught a robin fish

and then a crab that managed to let go as he realized his fate while being pulled out. We had our dinner, time to go eat. So we started with a luscious shrimp ceviche I made from here

and some more of that bruschetta and Buffalo chicken dip, and grilled chicken wings; yes eclectic I know but that's where the fun part comes in. Then some grilled octopus and grilled freshly caught by my husband the fisherman fluke (which I took a picture of with my phone but somehow disappeared) accompanied by my famous Lemon Rice Salad.

rice pudding and brownies for dessert. Thank goodness we didn't pile into the boat after that or it would surely have sunk. I guess going down the shore is sometimes worth it.

And where was Max? He could have come along but didn't since he prefers his boats to have a couch and be stationary.