Sunrise, Sunset

It was an ambitious plan: me and Steve Chernoski, he of New Jersey: The Movie set out to film one day of Jen at the shore, starting on the Atlantic City boardwalk at sunrise, and ending in Cape May at sunset.

I'm happy to say that we made it -- barely. Part of that fault was mine. I went to hit the Wawa in Collingswood at 4:50am only to see that it was closed -- a Wawa, closed? What the heck? So I detoured to the Bellmawr Wawa off Rt. 42, which got me a nice cup of coffee but had me going 90 down the Atlantic City Expressway and running through the Showboat to make it on the Boardwalk at 6am (a friend who works at Harrahs said I was lucky not to get tackled by security). Glad I did it, though. What a lovely sight -- though I snapped this a little after sunrise:



Because I want you to say "wow,cool" when you see the videos that came of yesterday's trip, I'm not going to write too much about it except that:

1. My favorite part was getting kicked out of the Pier Shops at Caesars by security at 7am. Hey, the door was open! What was I supposed to do? NOT go in?

2. Sun Rose Words and Music in Ocean City, which is hosting my first book signing on May 3, is doing a wonderful job of promoting the book (thanks ladies!) Here it is in the window:



3. The Flanders Hotel in Ocean City has a lovely special events room. I gave a minute talk at the Women in Business luncheon -- and it turns out the honoree of the afternoon reads my blog. Thanks for stopping by my table to say hello!

3. I'm glad I stopped at Avalon Campground to sign copies of my book. I stayed at the campground for a very long time, and I got to walk back to what used to be my family's campsite:



4. The Fudge Kitchen has pretzel cones, and they're open weekdays in the off season (at least in Stone Harbor).

5. By the time I got to the Wildwoods, I was ready to curl up on that big, wide beach and take a nap.

6. Lesson of the day: Don't talk about being in shape near people who are not, or else you'll get yelled at while having an end-of-day beer.

7. Watching the sun go down on Sunset Beach was the perfect way to end the day -- and not just a filming day, but any day. Not one person sitting on Sunset Beach in Cape May was angry or stressed or mad. It was the perfect end of a long, tiring day.

8. Congress Hall has my book, and they put it next to a blue stuffed pig (a pig I have). The gift shop was closed, but I managed to snap this picture:



I got home some time after 10pm and am still feeling weary. But it was worth it -- I had a great day, met a lot of people (and dogs -- hey Clancy!), and got to talk about instead of write about why I love the shore so much. I hope to run the videos on the blog some time in June.