Dozens of foreign students flowed steadily through the weekly International Coffee-house, but the crowd had very little to do with coffee.

"It's free food. That's the bottom line. Free food and fellowship. People like to talk to other people," said Larry Wanaselja, senior pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church, which sponsors the coffeehouse.

And most people like to socialize in their native tongue. Several European languages filled the downtown Avenue Inn's breakfast room as students working in the resort areas on temporary visas from countries throughout Europe, but primarily Russia, Romania, Ukraine and Bulgaria, popped into the late-night event.

It was a good summer for Rehoboth Beach's economy -- not a great one, but a good one nonetheless.

According to Carol Everhart, head of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce, the summer went well for Rehoboth-area businesses.

Everhart said that overall visitation and traffic counts were strong.

She said that the owner of Funland has told her that the amusement park ended slightly up for the season -- which she uses as a jumping-off point to analyze the season.

Judging by Jeanne and Ed Fox of Rehoboth Beach and Jean and Tom Reale of Lewes, sharing your home with international students means that you expand your family. You aren't just taking in "boarders." And some of those students work here, all summer long, into the month of October.

You are there for them in good weather and bad. You get them to places such as doctor's offices, Social Security, banks and other places where they have to go, and you show them, despite their heavy work schedules, the fun side of the beach area. You even take them or get them in on local and distant sightseeing trips with the help of neighbors and other friends. And, when it's time for them to leave, you know that you will miss them. And hope that they come back.

As the summer season comes to a close, the Cape Region prepares to say, “do svidaniya” to its scores of international exchange students staying in the area.

Representatives from the Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches (LRAC), Delaware Department of Transportation, and Beebe Medical Center met on Tuesday, Sept. 11, to discuss the International Student Outreach Program and its performance this year.

Mike Moshos was among more than 100 people drawn to Cloud 9 Restaurant by the promise of cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and an opportunity to learn about the latest housing proposal for the Rehoboth Beach area, The Villas at Harmon Bay.

A half-hour into the event, with people crowding around drawings of the community that is to be built near Rehoboth Beach Country Club, Moshos conceded that he was favorably impressed by the project.

A record number of visitors to the shore Labor Day weekend means parking meters have become local goldmines.

The weekend at Rehoboth Beach proved to be a record breaker, according to the Rehoboth-Dewey Beaches Chamber of Commerce. About 190,000 people packed into the small town, and when they come, they need a place to park.

Rehoboth Beach City Manager Greg Ferrese said $82,300 was collected from parking meters during the holiday weekend, whereas last year's holiday only brought in $48,000.

Labor Day was first established to give the working man a day off to rest.

Now, most view the holiday as a symbol that summer is officially over and spend more time celebrating than resting.

“I don’t even want to think about Labor Day,” Sarah Tweddle, 14, of Rehoboth Beach, said while sunbathing on the beach Thursday afternoon.

“That means summer is really over, it feels like it goes by faster every year.”

A summer of dry conditions and tolerable temperatures helped many of the business owners in downtown Rehoboth Beach meet their sales targets this season.

Some weeks were better than others, but many businesses are reporting sales were as good as or better than last year's, even though Del. 1 construction just outside of town frustrated tourists.

Traffic counts -- and cash register receipts -- proved that the number of visitors this summer equaled or even slightly exceeded the annual average of about 2.1 million visitors to downtown Rehoboth from Memorial Day through Labor Day, officials said.

The 2.7 miles of white concrete barriers placed along Route 1 between Five Points and Route 24 have become motorists’ worst nightmares.

With work beginning on the median of the Route 1 expansion project, traffic in the southbound lanes has been restricted to two lanes since the second week of August. Three lanes are available northbound.

Business owners along the busy corridor are feeling the pinch caused by traffic problems during the crest of the summer season.

A bucketful of fun in Rehoboth
Summer is the time for sand castles along the seashore.

Some people build for fun, while others get competitive. Sand castle contests are a beach tradition in coastal cities from Nantucket, Mass., to Rehoboth Beach, Del., to Galveston, Texas. This month, the governor of Maine even declared a "Build a Sand Castle Day."

In Rehoboth Beach, the sand castle contest has been a summertime event for nearly 30 years.