Hear Philly: The Shore Thing - Fun In The Sand, Freckles and One Of The East Coast's Biggest Boat Parades
By Andrew Kramer
OCEAN CITY, N.J. (CBS) - Were you able to make it down the shore July 4th weekend? Or maybe you had so much fun, you want to do it all over again? In Ocean city, you can!
Michele Gillian with the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce explains their second July 4th celebration, the weekend after the real July 4th, kicks off a string of events throughout summer:
"The week after July 4th we're going to have fireworks, as well as we're going to have activities every week in July and August that include Family Nights, Mummers Nights, Market Days downtown, freckle contests and different activities that go on. We have a farmer's market that's known throughout the region, so there's activities going on every day in Ocean City."
On top of all those weekly events, July marks the first sand sculpting contest of the summer in Ocean City.
"Sand sculpting's a really fun event," Gillian says. "It begins at 9 a.m. at the 6th Street beach on July 9th. We have individuals come down, families come down -- grandmoms, grandpops, aunts, uncles, anyone -- and they do their favorite sand sculpting, whether it's unique in with chiseling equipment or sand and bucket and shovel. So there's lots of good things going on and we invite everyone to come and compete."
Gillian says the sand sculpting contest isn't the only fun event that weekend:
"The next night we'll have a freckle contest on the boardwalk and there's tons of people with all that sun out there, though with lots of sunscreen, having freckles, so come and enjoy either day on the Ocean City boardwalk."
Another sand sculpting contest takes place August 6th.
And at the end of July, Ocean City hosts one of the biggest boat parades on the east coast -- Night in Venice.
"We have 8 1/2 miles of back bays where we have 80-100 boats compete," explains Gillian, "and they decorate and there's all different categories to compete in, whether it's comical, dramatic or musical, storytelling. There's different kinds of boats, there's big boats, little boats, children's boats and they're all decorated for fun and festivities. It's a beautiful parade; all the homes on the water are decorated."
Gillian says there will be bleachers throughout the community on each street end, so the public can enjoy watching the parade, with a few stand out spots:
"One of the best places is at 6th Street. We have a property there, it's called the Bayside Center. There's activities that go on there, we have a band there, we have some face painting and some places where you can get hotdogs, hamburgers and something to drink, so that's a great location, as well as 3rd Street -- our bay area there is open with bleachers. And then if you look down at just about every street end we have bleachers there so there's plenty of room for people to come."
The parade begins around 6:30 p.m. down at the north end of the island and sails all the way to the south end.
For more information on all Ocean City events, go to oceancityvacation.com.
And that's The Shore Thing for this month.
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