Long Beach Island, NJ

We keep getting barraged with articles warning that the recession is far from over, but when I recently called a Long Beach Island Realtor to refer a client to him, he told me that (1) most of the best summer rentals are gone, and (2) my client would have to spend over $2.5 mil to buy a home near the ocean. When I told him I'd prefer he look in Mantaloking, West Point Island and Bay Head, he told me the price would go up substantially to live on the ocean in one of those towns. What in the world has happened in my old stomping grounds?

When I was growing up, in Asbury Park, Spring Lake was THE TOWN --- where all the "rich people" lived. Anything south of Point Pleasant was considered "the boonies We would occasionally take a ride to the boonies to swim in the Metedeconk River (it felt like we were camping in the wilderness), but the idea of buying a summer home there (not that we could afford one) would have seemed crazy. How things change.

But, for someone who grew up in Asbury Park when it was still enjoying its finest hours, the towns of Ocean County still don't hold any allure for me. My friends have a home, in Beach Haven, and visiting there is anything but peaceful. Day and night, the streets are swarming with people and noise. I may be showing my age, but that kind of ruckus still isn't found, for the most part, in Spring Lake or Avon (where I was born).

I'd like to hear from those of you who vacation in NJ. Where do you go, and what's the lure?

All New People, a play set in a luxury Long Beach Island home, is the hit comedy written by and starring Zach Braff of Scrubs and Garden State fame, has become the highest-grossing play of all time at the King’s Theater in Glasgow.

In All New People, it’s the dead of winter and the summer vacation getaway of Long Beach Island, is desolate and blanketed in snow. Charlie is 35, heartbroken and just wants some time away from the rest of the world. The island, during off-season, seems to be the perfect escape until his solitude is interrupted by a motley parade of misfits who show up and change his plans. A hired beauty, the townie fireman, and an eccentric British real estate agent desperately trying to stay in the country suddenly find themselves tangled together in a beach house where the mood is anything but sunny.

Before it's international run, All New People played off Broadway at the Second Stage Theater. The New York Times titled it's review "At the Jersey Shore, at the End of His Rope" and said of All New People, ”a slick and slight but lively new comedy (where) the jokes, some emerging smartly from character and others simply slapped on for the fun of it, come thick and fast, and are delivered with the precision of ace dart throwers..."

All New People’s Glasgow run comes to an end on Saturday February 18th, before it next week begins a 10-week run at the Duke of York’s Theater in London.

Find your own Long Beach Island Home, which you would, undoubtedly enjoy more than Charlie. (Is it ironic that a Long Beach Island Real Estate Agent is blogging about a play set on Long Beach Island that has a real estate agent as a central character?)

I was out in my backyard near Long Beach Island and saw a Monarch Butterfly; thinking the migration ended earlier than October, I decided to do a little research and came across an interesting site.

Monarch Butterfly Migration Tracking Project which asks volunteers to help track the monarch butterfly migration each fall and spring as the butterflies travel to and from Mexico. You can report your own observations of migrating butterflies to real-time migration maps.

Last year, Long Beach Island, NJ, saw one of the most abundant showings of migrating monarchs in years -- if not decades. Light westerly winds had blown them over to the barrier island. There are far too many to even estimate a count.

Monarchs are especially noted for their lengthy annual migration. In North America they make massive southward migrations starting in August until the first frost. A northward migration takes place in the spring. The monarch is the only butterfly that migrates both north and south as the birds do on a regular basis. But no single individual makes the entire round trip. Female monarchs deposit eggs for the next generation during these migrations.

By the end of October, the population east of the Rocky Mountains migrates to the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests in the Mexican states of Michoacán and México.

The length of these journeys exceeds the normal lifespan of most monarchs, which is less than two months for butterflies born in early summer. The last generation of the summer enters into a non-reproductive phase known as diapause and may live seven months or more. During diapause, butterflies fly to one of many overwintering sites. The generation that overwinters generally does not reproduce until it leaves the overwintering site sometime in February and March.

It is thought that the overwinter population of those east of the Rockies may reach as far north as Texas and Oklahoma during the spring migration. It is the second, third and fourth generations that return to their northern locations in the United States and Canada in the spring. How the species manages to return to the same overwintering spots over a gap of several generations is still a subject of research; the flight patterns appear to be inherited, based on a combination of the position of the sun in the sky and a time-compensated Sun compass that depends upon a circadian clock that is based in their antennae. New research has also shown that Monarch butterflies can use the earth's magnetic field for orientation.

See the migration from your own home on Long Beach Island.

Today is September 30th. That might be just another day on the calendar to most, but here are the Jersey Shore it's a big day. It means Chowderfest on Long Beach Island is just around the corner. It held annually the first weekend in October, and has been for 23 years. That takes place tomorrow and Sunday (October 1st & 2nd).

But October 1st has another meaning for Jersey Shore canines and their people...

23rd Annual Chowderfest on LBI
Saturday & Sunday, October 1 & 2, 2011

This annual extravaganza gives you a chance to be the judge of the best Manhattan and New England style chowder on Long Beach Island. Competition is fierce — and delicious.

Enjoy unlimited chowder tasting and live music, children's entertainment, and a food court are all part of the event. The Chowder Cook-off will be held rain or shine at the Taylor Avenue ball field, Ninth Street and Taylor Avenue in Beach Haven (across from Schooner's Wharf and Bay Village) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, October 2, 2011.

This family fun festival features live music, activities and unlimited Chowder tasting with the opportunity for each ticket holder to vote for their favorite red and white chowder.

The event is nestled in Beach Haven surrounded by beautiful views of the bay and plenty of year end discounted shopping. It has become a tradition for family and friends to gather together to say good bye to summer and welcome in the fall.

Always the weekend before Columbus Day Weekend, this year join us on October 1 for the fabulous Merchant Mart where hundreds of vendors offer the best deals of the season and Sunday for the Chowder Cook Off.

General Admission Tickets - $20.00
Children's Tickets (Ages 4-12 ) - $10.00
VIP Tickets - $50.00