At this writing, we are sitting on the porch of the Bath Avenue House in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, talking about this and that, as one tends to do at the beach. The Bath Avenue House is a Bed & Breakfast of the sort where all the guests eat breakfast together and chat. We met the granddaughter of the founder of Russ & Daughters, an old Jewish smoked fish deli on the Lower East Side, near Yona Schimmels. Last night, at the big oak dining room table, one of the guests was checking the galley prints of an article for the Journal of Religion. Dara points out that this sort of bed and breakfast was just the sort that Loralei and Rory stayed in on Gilmore Girls, afraid to leave their room for fear of being forced to play parlour games with the other guests, to the point where, starving in their twee room, the fought over a linty Certs from the bottom on Loralei's purse.
Yesterday we spent the day on the beach, a bit in the chilly water and quite a bit playing ultimate frisbee in the sand, first kids vs. adults (kids 3, adults 2) and then Ari, Dara & Rachel vs. Micha and Noah (2 to 2). Then we walked to Asbury Park for Dinner at Old Man Rafferty's restaurant. (Rachel to the waitress: "Is the owner really old?"; Waitress to Rachel, "No, and he's not Rafferty either). Then Micha and Abba went off for twilight on the mini-links (about which score, the less said the better).
This being vacation, Susan and Noah went to Target, naturally.
Ocean Grove was founded as a Methodist Retreat (the Great Auditorium was raised in 1894, and it is surrounded by a tent park, now as then). In the 1980s it started to become a Gay town as well (New Jersey's Fire Island, they say), and to this day, it is at once very Methodist and very gay, which has a disconsonant, but appealing vibe of opposites meeting.
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