Visitors Head to Sea Isle for Spring Fling

By DONALD WITTKOWSKI Jeanine Zercher was ready for spring. You could tell by her footwear. Jeanine, accompanied by her husband, Andy, arrived in Sea Isle City on Sunday afternoon wearing a pair of sandals. After making the two-hour drive from their home in Levittown, Pa., the couple was eager to take a leisurely walk on the beach to savor the first day of spring. Jeanine was even looking ahead on the calendar to summer. “I’m so ready for summer, it’s not funny,” she said with a laugh. The couple enjoyed some gorgeous weather while hunting for seashells on a long stretch of beach they had practically all to themselves for their shore getaway. “I like the peace and quiet. This is awesome. It’s great,” Andy said. “We wish we could have this all year,” Jeanine said of the tranquil beach. Bicyclists enjoy a ride on the oceanfront Promenade. Spring officially arrived with partly sunny skies, temperatures hovering in the low 60s and a typically windy March day at the shore. Finally, the only white stuff covering the shoreline is beach sand – not the heavy snow that blanketed Sea Isle during two blizzards on Jan. 3 and then on Jan. 28-29. Each storm dumped more than a foot of snow during what turned out to be an unusually snowy winter at the shore. Larry Iaccio, of Woolwich, N.J., recalled having to trek down to Sea Isle during the Jan. 28-29 blizzard to check on his vacation home on 54st Street. “We came down to shovel all that snow,” Iaccio said. With the snowstorm now a distant memory, Iaccio and his wife, Peg, were playing pickleball Sunday against Ron and Maureen Renzi while enjoying spring’s much-awaited debut. “It’s not pickleball weather, but it’s nice to get outside,” Larry Iaccio said while battling the winds that were blowing the plastic ball around at the pickleball courts on 42nd Place. Larry and Peg Iaccio, left, play pickleball with Ron and Maureen Renzi on the courts at 42nd Place. Peg Iaccio and Maureen Renzi are sisters. The Renzis, who live in Abington, Pa., have a Sea Isle vacation home on 51st Street. “It is sunny and dry. It’s good enough to get outdoors,” Ron Renzi said. Gerard and Lisa Gilroy, of Woodbine, welcomed the first day of spring by taking a walk in the woods of Belleplain State Forest in the morning, and then a stroll on Sea Isle’s beach in the afternoon. Joining them was Kody, their 12-year-old Lhasapoo, a mix between a Lhasa Apso and a poodle. “I like the forest and my husband likes the beach,” Lisa said. “First, we were walking in Belleplain State Forest on the safe trails. Then we decided to come here to enjoy the beach.” Gusts of wind made the sand swirl around their feet as they headed off the beach on a pathway leading to Sea Isle’s oceanfront Promenade. “It’s very windy,” Lisa said while looking at Gerard. “But it’s OK,” he responded. “It doesn’t bother me. It’s the first day of spring.” Gerard and Lisa Gilroy are joined by their dog, Kody, for a walk on the Promenade.