A midweek Fourth of July doesn’t slow Shore crowds
Though some complained about having to take extra days off, tourists still found their way down to the Shore on July Fourth.
Debra Scolieri wasn't going to let the calendar ruin her July Fourth.
"It's a pain in the butt," the Mount Laurel resident said Wednesday from her beach chair in Ocean City, N.J., waves crashing a few yards away. "But we'll make it work any way we can."
The high-water mark of the summer this year came in the middle of the week, the least convenient date for vacationers looking to make Independence Day into a long weekend. Still, the recent sweltering heat had the beaches packed from Long Beach Island to Cape May, with crowds of day-trippers filling booths in restaurants and determined families filling rooms in hotels.
It just required, as Scolieri said, a little bit of adjustment.
She normally gets two days off from her job managing a hair salon at this time of year: the Fourth and the day after. This year, she took two extra days in order to book her trip, but it meant leaving behind her son, who wasn't able to adjust his work schedule.
"It's not worth fighting the traffic just to come down for one day," she said. "And I have no choice but to leave Sunday — everyone else has to go back to work."
On a different stretch of beach an hour north, Walter Wynne felt the same way. And he didn't mince words.
"It just sucks," Wynne said, his sisters and their families flanking him in a crescent of beach chairs and umbrellas in Ship Bottom. "When it's in the middle of the week like this, our family can't all be together, and that's just disappointing."
Still, Diane Wieland, Cape May County's director of tourism, had gone into the holiday with optimism.
"Historically, see, we get the benefit of both weekends," she said. "It's actually kind of a gift. It's not a 'one and done.' and we like that."
Instead of one definitive holiday weekend, some visitors to the Shore split their time between the weekend before and the weekend after. In fact, Wieland argued that a midweek holiday is actually better for business: With the number of visitors divided, highway traffic is cut in half on both weekends.
Dan and Lori Malay certainly don't mind a midweek Fourth. Their coffee shop in Surf City, How You Brewin Coffee Co., has been steadily packed each morning since June 29. Wednesday was no exception.
"It's been like a weekend all week," Lori Malay said during a break from the early rush. "And from what we're hearing from people, this coming weekend is the real holiday that people are booking their stays for."
Scott Turner would agree with that prediction. Turner's family runs the Ocean View Resort Campground in the town of the same name, a business his grandfather started in 1960.
They still carry out some half-century traditions, like using handwritten charts to show bookings and openings at the 1,173 campsites at the facility. And the facts don't lie: The campground was at about 75 percent capacity Wednesday, with a wave of campers checking in for stays through Sunday.
"This has been nice, because it's spread out," Turner said. "It's not like Memorial Day, when you have 300 families all checking in at once. That's enough stress to make you pull your hair out."
The Geisewhite family was feeling no stress Wednesday. Except maybe patriarch Don, who was trying to soak up as much sun as he could before heading back to work Thursday morning in Flemington.
"We had to change our plans a little bit. Normally we're down for the whole week," Don's wife, Chris, said Wednesday as she sat beachside at Ocean View's lake. "It's tough to extend your vacation when the Fourth is in the middle of the week."
But the Geisewhites couldn't break their 24-year tradition of coming to the campground, swimming in its shaded swimming hole and grilling over an open fire. Even if it meant burning through a few extra days off. Even if it meant Don's having to wake up a little early for the two-hour drive home Thursday morning.
Then, of course, there were families like the Wongs, who decided to simply wring as much as they could from the Fourth itself.
"We could only come down for the night, but it's enough," Carmen Wong said Wednesday morning in Ship Bottom, between taking photos of her daughter, Kristen, posing at the crest of the path down to the beach.
"Actually, we like it better this year," she added. "Not nearly as much traffic on a Wednesday."