By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Jessica Wince packed her shorts, T-shirts and some “cute things” to wear out to dinner during what she hoped would be a sunny Memorial Day weekend in Sea Isle City.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature flipped the script.
Wince acknowledged she should have brought an overcoat and umbrella instead.
“I packed poorly,” she said with a laugh Sunday as steady rain fell for a second straight day in what has turned out to be a soggy and chilly holiday weekend.
Wince and her boyfriend, Nick Barrett, both from Baltimore, had a wind-swept beach virtually all to themselves while watching the stormy surf pound the shoreline.
“It’s a big weekend. It’s sad because this was supposed to be a time when we could get around without worrying about COVID,” Barrett said of the gloomy weather.
Despite the rainy skies, Wince, Barrett and other visitors spending the holiday in Sea Isle planned to make the most of things while they were at the shore.
Barrett, for instance, a sixth grade science teacher in Baltimore, was fascinated to see the amount of beach erosion that had occurred during high tide while the storm lingered.
Braving the rain and gusty winds, others were determined to go shopping or grab something to eat during the first weekend in 15 months that didn’t include wearing a mask or social distancing requirements.
With the emergence of the COVID-19 vaccines and a dramatic drop in coronavirus cases, Gov. Phil Murphy lifted New Jersey’s mask mandate and social distancing guidelines on Friday, just in time for the start of the Memorial Day weekend.
Memorial Day weekend traditionally serves as the unofficial start of the busy summer tourism season at the shore, but the weather this time around resembles a damp and dreary March.
Eleven members of the Moffett family, from Havertown, Pa., were able to salvage the weekend. They hit the arcades, did some shopping and took a walk on the Promenade on Sunday before visiting with friends in Sea Isle.
“There’s always something to do,” Marianne Moffett said while standing on the Promenade in the drizzle. “We would rather be sitting on the beach and sweating. But it’s a long weekend. We’ll make the most of it.”
Shoppers walked around downtown Sea Isle bundled up in rain and cold-weather gear while taking cover under umbrellas or store awnings.
Stuck inside during bouts of heavy rain, Terry Ciccaglione, who has lived in Sea Isle since 1986, spent part of Saturday with his relatives catching up on old episodes of the sitcom “Frasier.”
“Today, we’re able to get outside. We walked around dressed for winter,” Ciccaglione said Sunday while doing some shopping.
Ciccaglione and his wife, Kerry, were joined by Mike Murphy and his wife, Barbara, who were visiting from their home in Suffern, N.Y., for the holiday.
Mike Murphy had kept an eye on the weather forecast and knew it was going to be bad.
“I’ve played golf in Ireland, so I know what rain is like,” he said.
Still, he lamented that the rainy weather had put a damper on a holiday that finally allowed people to escape some of the COVID restrictions.
Even with the gray skies, this Memorial Day weekend is busier than it was last year during the early stages of the pandemic. Restaurants, bars and retail shops were under the grip of COVID crowd restrictions during Memorial Day weekend in 2020, limiting their business operations and ability to make money.
Eileen Eisenman, of Glen Mills, Pa., joked that her family would keep “everybody in business” while they were shopping Sunday in Sea Isle.
Eisenman’s children, Jack, 7, and Lilly, 5, along with their cousins, Ryan Smith, 8, and his sister, Erin, 6, were treated to some candy.
They were joined by Eisenman’s mother, Joanne Goldsmith, who lives in Newtown Square, Pa., and has a summer home in Sea Isle. Both Eisenman and Goldsmith wore hooded coats for protection from the rain.
“We’re in between stops for some shopping. We’re just waiting for the rain to let up so we can take a walk,” Eisenman said.
