As someone who grew up in the Philadelphia area, most of the people I know from home go down to the Jersey Shore for parts, or all, of the summer. As soon as school is out, the beaches fill up and stores begin to run short of bathing suits. Instagram pictures are uploaded by the millions, beach sunsets and dinners and gleaming ocean views. Now that summer is coming to an end, I’ve had all of four months to decide just why I feel that the beach is overrated.
I’m not a person that likes to be surrounded by thousands of people at a time. But whenever I go down to the shore, that’s what happens, because thousands of people spread themselves across the sandy beaches. You step off of the boardwalk not to see the sea, but a sea of people. Everything is loud, there’s no place to sit, and I’ve tripped over sandcastles more than I care to admit. And where there’s a hoard of people, there’s bound to be food, and where there’s food, the seagulls descend. I’ve seen entire sandwiches pulled from the hands of grown men over 6 feet tall by a pack of those horrible birds. And it’s useless to fight, once a seagull has decided on your food, it’s no longer your food.
Since the Jersey shore is only about an hour and a half to two hours from Philly, traffic on the weekends is a mess. There have been days where I’ve been on my way to somewhere in New Jersey and I’ve been stuck on one of the many highways out of the city for two hours, or more. From where I live, it takes about 40 minutes to get into the city on a good day, and during the hot summer months where all I want to do is get into air conditioning, that time can double because of people rushing to get down to the shore.
The lakes and mountains of the Adirondacks in upstate New York are much more my style. My family rents a cabin year-round, though we only stay there in the summer. But compared to the shore, this cabin is heaven. While there are public beaches in the Adirondacks, they’re never as full as the beaches at the shore, with just the right amount of people and space. There are the quiet beaches that people rarely visit for those who crave peace and quiet, and there are the more resort-like towns and beaches for those who crave a bit more excitement. It’s a perfect balance, without the hustle and bustle and heat of the shore.
I do enjoy going on a beach excursion once or twice a summer. After I graduated high school, I spent a week there with my closest friends for Senior Week, and that week was awesome. But to me, that’s all the beach is. A day trip, an occasional excursion with good friends. I’ve spent the majority of every summer of my life in the Adirondacks, and that’s what I intend to do until my dying day.
