rehoboth beach

Rehoboth Beach business owners who have been running out of quarters for parking meters this summer are about to catch a break.

The city has partnered with Citizens Bank to offer businesses the opportunity to purchase up to $1,000 in quarters per day until supplies are exhausted, starting Thursday, July 3.

Businesses can purchase the quarters in $500 increments only, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at City Hall, Monday through Saturday. There is no charge to the businesses for the service and only cash or checks will be accepted.

Marie Kilpatrick found Fourth of July holiday business a tad less sweet this year at the sugary center of Delaware's vacation universe.

"In past years, it would be very hard to find a parking space in Rehoboth Beach. This year, you can," said Kilpatrick, a longtime manager at the landmark Dolle's Candyland shop at the boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue.

"I think it's because of gasoline. People are staying closer to home. We still have lines in the store, but if people buy something, where they maybe would buy a pound of chocolate before, they're buying half a pound, or pieces. People are being very careful."

Maria Kuzmina heard tales of Delaware back in her native Russia.

She thought the beaches sounded beautiful, the nightlife thrilling, and she was excited to be so close to New York City and Washington -- places she was familiar with only on television.

But mostly, it was the siren call of money to be made working on the boardwalk and in the outlet stores at Rehoboth Beach that prompted her to come to the United States this summer on a J-1 cultural exchange visa.

The first official heat wave of summer 2008 continues to sizzle the Mid-Atlantic region, where temperatures could top 100 degrees and lead to a variety of health and safety issues from heat exhaustion to power interruptions.

To help those in need of heat relief, Sussex County Administrator David B. Baker announced residents and visitors are invited to cooling stations during this week’s hot and humid weather. Temperatures are forecast in the upper 90s, with indexes predicted to exceed the 100-degree mark through Tuesday, June 10.

This week’s sign that the year is already moving fast: the 19th Annual Rehoboth Beach Autumn Jazz Festival has announced artists for the five-day event at the Rehoboth Convention Center, scheduled for Oct. 15-19.

While festival organizers are still looking for its Saturday, Oct. 18 headliner, the lineup so far is as star-studded as the festival has seen.

The event will kick off at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 15, with the traditional opening night party, featuring a set by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group The Drifters. Celebrating their 50th year, The Drifters are responsible for such hits as “On Broadway,” “This Magic Moment” and “Under The Boardwalk.” Included is the annual Best Taste of Rehoboth cook-off, with prizes going out to the best seafood and chicken of the 2008 festival.

Summertime means a lot of things in Rehoboth Beach: sun, sand, tourists and traffic. It also marks the time when hundreds of international students, mostly from Russia but also from countries such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Poland and Ukraine, bid “do svidaniya” to their homeland and say “zdrastvui” to Rehoboth.

This year the influx of foreign students has been delayed. According to Gareth Tonnessen, assistant pastor in discipleship ministries for New Covenant Presbyterian Church and official greeter for the International Student Outreach Program, the buses carrying many of the students haven’t arrived as a result of a merger between Trailways and Greyhound.

As more gas stations throughout Delaware crept toward the dreaded $4 a gallon figure, fewer travelers took to the roads over the Memorial Day weekend.

The state's busiest highways -- Del. 1 and I-95 -- both showed a large dropoff in the number of cars passing through toll plazas, according to numbers released Wednesday by the state Department of Transportation.

Memorial Day weekend traffic on Del. 1 was down 10 percent, or 65,000 vehicles, from last year. The state collected the figures from the two toll plazas on Del. 1 from Thursday to Tuesday.

Your Type A sister-in-law might argue that it's only 150 miles to Ocean City from the Washington area, a short enough trip to drive in three hours without even a bathroom break. You know better.

For one thing, traffic on Friday afternoons on Route 50 between this weekend and Labor Day will be maddening enough to make anyone long for an ejector seat or pull over for an ice cream cone. And besides, seasoned travelers say, the stops along the way are as much a part of tradition as the saltwater taffy and boardwalk rides at the beach.

Everything was in place to kick off a summer of discontent.

Ever-rising gasoline prices. Grim economic news. Global environmental worries. Election year partisan wrangling.

None of it intruded at Rehoboth Beach early Saturday, though, as Miles, Lexi and Riley Keogh of Alexandria, Va., opened Memorial Day weekend playing tag with a gentle surf.

"We came over early, so we missed a lot of the traffic," Miles said during a break in the action on the city's storm-battered but recovering beach. "It wasn't the worst we've ever been in. I'd say it's probably in the top third. Gas prices aren't great, but they're not that horrible."

As much as kids know that the 3 R's define the school year, they also know that summer is all about the 4 S's. That's right: Sun, surf, sea and sand are about all kids need for a memory-making family vacation.

Of course, a week at the beach along the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia shore also means arcades, thrill rides, water parks and Thrasher's fries. But if you find that, by day four or five, you're looking for something a little different, something a little special that might mean new memories, you're probably not alone. Here are a few favorite excursions. Some take a full day, others just a few hours, but regardless of where you're staying, they're worth the effort.