This Is My Hometown...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, One of the greatest things about being from New Jersey is that I grew up less than an hour from the Shore. I have a deep deep love for the Jersey shore. It is where I spent many hours with my family. Even when we didn't have much we would jump in the car with a cooler filled, our buckets and shovels, boogie boards and surf boards and head down the Expressway. My great-grand mother lived right on Rt. 9 between Stone Harbor and Avalon when I was young so we spent many summers enjoying "living" withing 5 minutes of the beach. I got engaged on the 13th street beach in Ocean City, right next to the fishing pier!

The Jersey Shore holds a very special spot in my heart....

So when I saw the devastation that occurred during Sandy, my heart slowly broke. Yes many of these are resort towns and some of the destruction was to vacation homes. But there was so much that was destroyed that were some peoples only homes. Especially as you move north up the coast line and into New York. My heart broke for each and every one of these families!

The one song that runs as they show the devastation is Jersey native, Bruce Springsteen's "My hometown". Technically I am not from a shore town, but you almost get that local feel from spending summer after summer there. And I think anyone from NJ or NY will agree...my heart breaks from  my hometown!

The one thing that makes me smile is thinking about the summers we spend there now...and yes we will be there next summer. Supporting, rebuilding, and loving my shore hometown.

But now I look back on the wonderful last trip we had...my parents get a house for a few weeks at the end of the summer each year since I was in college. My brothers and their kids come down and we get some good time running and playing on the beach.