By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
No doubt everyone around the world is hoping that 2024 will turn out to be a great year.
Carly English and Chris Binet, however, already know that 2024 is going to be a fantastic year for them because they are getting married.
The engaged couple from West Chester, Pa., will tie the knot Sept. 30, 2024, at the Huntington Valley Country Club in Pennsylvania in front of more than 200 guests.
Despite their strong ties to Pennsylvania, English and Binet decided to celebrate the arrival of 2024 in Sea Isle City, joining with thousands of other revelers who headed to the shore for a New Year’s Eve getaway.
“We met at West Chester University, but we fell in love in Sea Isle. We feel more connected here,” English explained of their affinity for Sea Isle.
English, 27, and Binet, 26, sipped espresso martinis at the Ludlam Bar & Grill while ringing in the New Year with about 20 friends from the West Chester area.
“We’ve been coming down to Sea Isle for years for New Year’s Eve. It’s a little bit of the summer vibe in the winter,” Binet said of the holiday excitement.
Normally, the shore quiets down for the winter, but Sea Isle’s bars and restaurants buzzed with customers throughout the night as the New Year’s Eve celebration got underway for drinks and dinner.
“Everybody is in town. It’s like a July weekend. It’s great,” exclaimed Kathy Larkin, the manager of O’Donnell’s Pour House and its sister property, the Ocean Drive bar.
The bar and dining room at the Pour House were already packed by 7 p.m. New Year’s Eve represented the last night the Pour House will be open until it reopens on the first weekend of February. The restaurant is giving employees a month-long respite for the winter.
“One last night,” Pour House bartender Mike McCormick said of the big celebration.
McCormick and Larkin were busy serving mixed drinks, wine and beer to the thirsty customers. McCormick handed a sumptuous cocktail to Erin McKee as she relaxed at the bar with her friends.
“I think there’s no better place to be at for the holiday than Sea Isle. It’s being with friends and family that makes it special,” said McKee, who lives in Flourtown, Pa., and has a summer vacation home in Sea Isle.
Sharing dinner at the Pour House to celebrate the New Year were sisters Eileen O’Hare and Betty Hollingsworth and their close friends Ann Mooney, Lori Flavin, Pat Higgins, Pat Walsh and Mary Broadhurst.
Flavin lives in Newtown Square, Pa., and Broadhurst is from Avalon, but the rest of the women are Sea Isle neighbors on 76th Street and 77th Street, O’Hare said.
All of the women are widows and are in their 80s. Their make it a tradition to have dinner together on New Year’s Eve. They made the holiday official with a celebratory toast.
“We’re all around the same age. A lot of us went to the same high school, West Catholic. And we all love to eat,” Hollingsworth said, laughing.
While the bars and restaurants were teeming with holiday-goers, others took advantage of the relatively mild weather to enjoy their New Year’s Eve celebration outdoors on the beach and oceanfront Promenade.
Still others strolled along the sidewalks downtown. Sea Isle’s downtown still sparkles with colorful Christmas decorations and twinkling lights.
But the really spectacular light show for New Year’s Eve was the fireworks display that exploded overhead starting at 8 p.m. The city’s 30-foot-tall artificial Christmas tree that overlooks Excursion Park provided a festive backdrop for the fireworks.
Although most cities have their fireworks display at midnight to welcome the New Year, Sea Isle traditionally shoots off its fireworks at 8 p.m. as part of its family-friendly New Year’s Eve celebration.
Hundreds, if not thousands of adults and children, lined the sidewalks downtown to watch the thundering, multicolored fireworks light up the sky over the beach at John F. Kennedy Boulevard.
The approximately 15-minute fireworks display provided a boisterous welcome to the New Year and a fond farewell to 2023.
“I really liked it,” 9-year-old Findley Driscoll said of the fireworks while sitting with his father, Ryan Driscoll, of Marmora.
Findley, who goes by the nickname Fin, thought the fireworks show was nothing short of spectacular.
“I liked how the fireworks exploded at different times, not just all at once. It was cool,” he said.
