Rehoboth (Crowded) Beach
It was the kind of early afternoon tourism planners dream of -- the sun was out, the sand was warm with a slight cooling breeze off the Atlantic and the beach off Rehoboth Avenue was packed.
There was barely room Saturday for Mike Miranda and Nina Filippelli to find a spot, catch the rays and enjoy the extra-long Memorial Day weekend.
"I used to go to Ocean City [Md.] until Mike brought me here," said Filippelli, who is from Baltimore. "But Ocean City can get too crowded. Rehoboth is a lot more relaxed and there are good restaurants here."
This year, Miranda, Filippelli and other folks hitting the beach will have more sand to enjoy, but there's a trade-off.
About 60 feet of beach between the shoreline and the boardwalk is off limits -- fenced off to let dune grass, planted as part of a state-federal beach replenishment project on man-made dunes, take root. But Miranda, of Crofton, Md., said he doesn't mind.
"I've been coming here long enough that I remember when you could walk up under the boardwalk," Miranda said. "But, it's a good thing. You don't have to go down steps anymore. You can walk right down the dune to the beach."
Despite gas prices around $3 per gallon, people were heading to the beach. There was a steady flow of traffic along Del. 1 through the morning and into the early afternoon.
In some cases, people used alternative transportation to make the trek.
Ken Iobst of Silver Spring, Md., had friends drive him over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the western edge of the Eastern Shore. He then biked the rest of the way to Rehoboth Beach for an annual family reunion.
"We like it because the beach is clean and because there's a good family quality here -- for any kind of family," he said. "This is a very open and accepting community."
Iobst and his relatives spent the afternoon under a big beach umbrella playing Yahtzee, rolling their dice into an upended Frisbee. It was an item that Stacey Iobst, who lives in Montgomery County, Md., said almost didn't make the trip.
With the weather we've had the past couple of years, we almost forgot to pack it, but I'm glad we did. It's a perfect day," she said. "We really like it here. It's clean and family-oriented."
At Indian River Marina, folks were getting ready for an opening weekend on the waves.
Newark resident Joe Noble Sr. and his friends were gathered around his boat "Miss Donna," testing fishing lines for a Sunday bluefish tournament. Noble, an insulation contractor, spends his winters working so he can spend more of his summer on the water. And even with soaring prices for marine fuel, he says that's the plan this season.
"I work hard for six months and put in a lot of overtime over the winter so I can do this," Noble said. "Summer means no overtime, so I can enjoy this as much as possible."
Boaters, like Mark Somerville of Dagsboro, are coming up with resourceful ways to deal with the high price of gas. Somerville was working on his boat, the "Mara B," in the marina's parking lot, getting her ready for sea. He said he plans to buy gas tanks so he can stock up when prices are better.
"It's going to be tough this year," Somerville said. "You may not see as much activity on the weekends if there are 4- or 5-foot seas because that's hard on fuel economy. There may be more people coming down through the week if the seas are better. ... I've already told my family we might be floating [in the inlet] more this year."
But, like Noble, Somerville said he's looking forward to a summer on the water.
And it's not just Delawareans. A hearty group of boaters known at "The Pennsylvania Navy" were readying their boats for the water, too.
"It's a lot of work," said Randy O'Boyle of Allentown, who spends many weekends here with family members who live in the area. "There are some people with 'For Sale' signs on some of the bigger boats because of the fuel. But we like it and are going to be out as much as we can."
Somerville shared that sentiment.
"If it looks busy now," he said, glancing out on the marina and other boaters readying their vessels in the parking lot, "you should have seen it over the past couple of days. It's been a beehive of activity as people have come down to get their boats ready."
