The Seaside Park boardwalk just can’t catch a break, can it? A year ago during Superstorm Sandy the Jet Star was lifted off Casino Pier and dumped into the ocean; the actual boards of the boardwalk were ripped off; and dozens of businesses were forced to shutter forever. As the site of our annual family beach week, Seaside holds an incredibly special place in our hearts, and we were so upset as we saw news reports of the storm’s aftermath. But in the ensuing months, they rebuilt the boardwalk, started raising houses, and we spent a week there this past July that was relatively normal.
But then two weeks ago a fire broke out at a Kohr’s near Funtown Pier and escalated until it became a 10-alarm fire (we didn’t know that existed) and consumed nearly the entire lower end of the boardwalk. The carousel, which we rode this summer. Maruca’s pizza, which had moved from its old location up a few doors to a larger space. So much gone. So many places that meant so much to us. It’s just heart-wrenching. This summer when we went to the boards, it was sad to see how quiet and empty they were. We bought dinner, played a game or two, got frozen custard… did our part to give back to the place we love so much. And now it’s gone. We can’t even describe how sad this makes us. In honor of the boardwalk, here are photos we took this past summer (including one of the Kohr’s where the fire started, we’re guessing.)
Our holiday card this year may not be exactly seasonal…
We took it on a hot summer day in July, donning full winter gear and heading to the water’s edge in Seaside Heights. We’re sorry that we didn’t get enough printed to mail to all our friends (we’ll fix that next year!) so we’re sharing it here—now with outtakes!
Wishing all of you a healthy and happy new year, from Jason and Erin.
Seaside Heights is known for its boardwalk. Watched Jersey Shore? Yeah, that’s our boardwalk. Ever caught footage of MTV beach house debauchery, and you’ve seen the far north side of our boardwalk. Yes, it’s a little trashy. Okay, a lot trashy. But where else can you get the best sausage sandwiches, lobster rolls, birch beer, frozen custard, and rickety roller coasters?
Midway is the place for a sausage, peppers, and onion. Four years ago Jason ate three (3!) in one day, but he’s done proving his mettle to the family so this year he only had one. I even tried to do a split for another half each but he wouldn’t go for it. The sweetest lemonade in all the land washes it down. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.
Frog Bog and the water-shooting race are our only games, actually. We’ll dominate the frog bog, get a prize, and give it to the next kid who passes us by. Family-only water-shooting means we take over a booth but we don’t normally take a prize. This year after a malfunction with the water-shooting race I went up against an aunt in a re-do and won, and I kept my little Om Nom.
Turned out the one night we chose to go to the boards was the night a derecho descended on the East Coast, and boy did it come upon us fast! Games started closing and people fled the boardwalk—we got into the cars just in time, in fact. Of course, Jason just went straight back out, stormchaser he is. The shots were clearly worth it!
We will never be vegetarians. If you are squeamish, you may want to look away. Because crabbing, one of the most important parts of beach week, is the subject of this post.
Pop-Pop, Erin’s grandfather, was a longtime crabber. He taught us all how to crab, and in some not-insignificant way, waking up early to head to the pier on the bay is our way of honoring his memory. It just occurred to me that Pop-Pop died 13 years ago, but we still use so many tools that were his. Cages, the net, and of course The Stick, a small piece of wood that he marked with a 4.5-inch line (minimum acceptable width point to point). Even the bucket was Pop-Pop’s—though it just sprung a leak, so I put in a request for a white bucket (it will photograph better). We do a mix of cages and drop lines, about 4 or 5 each. Cages are an easier catch; drop lines take skill and patience—there’s something for everyone.
Most of the time spent crabbing is about waiting. Pull the the lines too frequently and you scare everything away! So a lot of what we do is chitchat. It’s some of the best time we have to catch up on all that’s happened in the last year. Everyone will make an appearance at crabbing at some point during the week.
I call the four of us in the picture above (me, two cousins, and their father) the “core crabbers”—we’re the ones who will always be there bright and early, no matter how late we were up the night before. One year, when the crabbing was bad, we tried to increase our luck by going out at 6:30 in the morning. (It didn’t pay off.) Sunday’s crabbing was pathetic this year. We caught one borderline crab and barely had any bites. Wednesday we went back and had a huge day! You can see how hopeful we were in the picture, before we’d even pulled a cage. Jason actually had some of the best luck that day, catching a 6.5-inch CRABZILLA with our most unlucky cage (the cursed green cage). In all, we got 13 that day. Lucky indeed.
We sat on the porch to devour Crabzilla just minutes after he came out of the pot. The sweetest meat comes from a crab you just caught, let me tell you! Because my uncle is allergic to Old Bay, we can’t use it on our crabs, but our boil in beer and water lets the flavor of the crabs shine. I’ve been cleaning my own crabs since I was little, and it’s easier than you think. Just follow the steps below. You’ll note that I scrape off the gills and the innards using the claw—you could just use your fingers but, um, I won’t do that. But I do like some of the “mustard,” called tomalley in a lobster, so I don’t scrape that off too carefully. And note the big lump of meat on the leg when it twisted out! Don’t miss out on a single morsel.
Bring a big pot of water to a boil, add a can of beer (family tradition dictates everyone takes a sip before it’s poured in, often necessitating another can be cracked open, so maybe it’s a can and a half of beer), and then drop the live crabs in. Everyone takes a turn dropping them in the water. Set the timer for 10–12 minutes, then drain and cool. You can eat them warm or straight out of the fridge up to a few days later. Yum!
Here’s something you should know about my (Erin’s) family: we are completely awesome. And for longer than any of my generation has been around, our family has been going down the shore to Seaside Park, NJ, for a week of sun, surf, good food, and great family bonding. At this point, the youngest in attendance is in his early twenties and the oldest, the matriarch of our family, is in her eighties! We all look forward to this week more than any other. Last summer we weren’t in Jersey at all—my cousin’s wedding in Georgia moved our vacation to Tybee Island instead—so we were thrilled to be rekindling our traditions back “home.”
The first thing we do when we arrive on Saturday (after chili dogs at Stewart’s) is take a walk to the ocean to “make sure it’s still there.” The house we’ve rented the last few years is the second one from the beach, the best location we’ve ever had. After that first night, each day follows the same general schedule: wake up as you will, enjoying crumb cake from Park Bakery for breakfast, and either make your way to the bay for crabbing or one by one go up to the beach itself. You wander back to the house for lunch when the time seems right, and you get in the water when the waves are begging to be ridden, but everyone knows to be up at the beach after the lifeguards leave, because that’s when our family happy hour starts. Back to the house for dinner or a trip to the boardwalk, and then we do it all again the next day.
Jason lost no time introducing a new tradition to our beach week, baking fresh cookies for all of us in his first year and every year since. This year, chocolate chip, oatmeal chocolate chip, and oatmeal cranberry. Mmmmm.
On the last night, as we ate pizza and drank wine on the beach in the light of the setting sun, my cousin’s boyfriend went up to Jason and said, “we are so lucky to have found two women with such an awesome family.” How lucky we all are to have each other!
