Asbury Ocean Beach Inn is a B&B in Asbury Park. It’s close to the beach and a hop, skip, and jump into town. There’s a lot to savor at this charming place, and I bet it would be difficult to find a better one. Betsy and Chip are the owners and they have a magic touch.www.asburyoceanbeachinn.com
While a few family members – Anna and Norm, Alicia and Michael, David and Erik, Christopher – were busy moving from here to there, we – Sumi, Toshi, Emi, Charlie, Sophie, and I – were busy thinking about vacationing in Asbury Park. The vacation proved that we don’t have to take a plane to a faraway destination to enjoy a perfect vacation. What’s needed is a person willing to spend time finding a perfect B&B close to a wonderful beach (that would be Sumi) having owners who enjoy what they do, and another someone willing to drive a car packed with too many things (that would be Toshi), and you need informal food establishments whose owners know how to use fresh ingredients, and fun to browse small shops, a pub with chock-full-of-life written all over it, a small unusual museum, perhaps a yoga expert, an ice cream place where people willingly line up in anticipation for a scoop, or two, or more (that would be Emi, Sophie and I), a porch having comfortable sofas and chairs with an abundance of flowers and plants calling to every guest, a town that allows bicycling without obstacles, gorgeous views of nature, a boardwalk with character for strolling, and then voila, suddenly you’re experiencing a perfect vacation.
Asbury Park is progressing in a way that suits beach life – the right people eventually discover it, and without a doubt know that that’s where they want to be, and they open a business that serves them, their customers, and the town well. Or the right people find their dream house, and settle into life close to the beach finally able to touch their feet to the sand any time they please and, at the same time, witness incredible views of the sky and ocean.
In the book OFF SEASON author Ken McAlpine wrote this about Bruce Springsteen: “… and occasionally still is, the stomping grounds of the Boss. Bruce Springsteen lived in Asbury Park. He used what he inhaled there-the boardwalk, Madam Marie’s, every beach town’s drifters and dreamers-to touch his first tentative fingers to the pulse of life at the Jersey shore and, given man’s common desires, beyond. He rocked Asbury’s honky-tonk bars until the audience collapsed. His first album was given the only title that made sense: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. The songs on it were written in the back of a closed beauty salon, the floor below Springsteen’s apartment in Asbury Park.” I heard that he entertains in Asbury Park five or six times a year.
www.brucespringsteen.net
Ocean Grove is Asbury Park’s next door neighbor, and it has a very different personality. They truly complement each other although they are as different as night and day, and to have easy access to both towns is frosting on a scrumptious cake. So when Paul Anka came to sing the week before hurricane Irene’s visit, we eagerly walked over to Ocean Grove and happily listened as he belted out all his popular songs.
www.paulanka.com
Every day Toshi and nine-month old Charlie left the coziness of the B&B in the very early hours of the morning; Toshi said it was a special time to be out. We – Sumi, Emi, and I – accepted his word. All the early birds can add the loveliness of very early morning walks to the wonderful list of beach pleasures.
Fall and winter are around the corner, and I’m thinking that a trip to Asbury Park for a long walk on the beach, and then perhaps sitting on the Asbury Ocean Beach Inn’s porch having a glass of Prosecco while choosing where to have dinner from the many restaurants available, on the boardwalk or in town, would nicely break up winter’s long months. Oh, indeed!