Welcome Back, Asbury Park!

I saw running across my TV screen this afternoon news from CNN that the Asbury Park boardwalk re-opened for the first time since Sandy today. As someone who lived on the Jersey shore during my teen years and with family still there, I was as thrilled as a little kid getting ready to ride the bumper cars for his very first time!

Last Sepember just weeks before the storm, I walked that boardwalk with my brother. We stopped by the Stone Pony a block from the beach to have our picture taken in the doorway.

My first full-time summer job was just off the boardwalk there in a hotel whose glory had long since faded away. I prayed before Sandy we would be spare here in Chesapeake country, but was saddened and shocked by its destruction to the Jersey shore. 

Welcome Back, Asbury Park!