Beach Trip to Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook is not the closest beach to Grandparents (that would be Rye). But it's the nicest. I briefly entertained the idea of going to the Fire Island (it'd be awesome, especially since M loves the Pinky Pye story). But getting there is a pain and, from what I understand, it's very crowded this time of the year. So we'll leave it until next time. Instead, M, myself and Grandma went to Sandy Hook.

So, Sandy Hook... Here are my three likes about the place - treasure hunting on the bay side, Ft. Hancock lighthouse, and a pocket-size beach of Horseshoe Cove. Three things I don't like about the place - rip currents, Ft Hancock and trash.

Ok, Ft Hancock needs some clarification. It's a really cool place with an interesting history. But the problem with it is its layout is very confusing (like pretty much all the Army bases I've been to) and hard to drive around and there few signs posted around do not help much. Nor does the map that you can get at the lighthouse.

I can't say that I like Sandy Hook's ocean side beaches. I must be spoiled after living in Daytona Beach for years and then moving to North Carolina. The beaches I'm used to are wide, gently sloping, with warmer water. In short, nothing like Sandy Hook. 

So we didn't spend too much time on the ocean side. Just enough to explore the big rocks, cover M with sand and make a horseshoe crab out of plaster of Paris (it was meant to be a hand-print, but turned out a blob that we decided looked like a crab). When we got home, M drew eye lashes and a big smile on it and promised to take it home to introduce to all the toys.

We had way more fun walking on the bayside, right across the road from the ocean side beaches. Again, we didn't swim there, partly because the water was a bit too cold, but mostly because on the bay the water is not clear and you can't see the bottom. Combined with strong currents and no lifeguards it makes me feel very uncomfortable. Besides, it was just way more interesting to treasure hunt.

Fortunately, M completely agreed. And we spent a couple of hours walking around, wading into the water just a little bit, finding all sorts of mollusks, sea weed, rocks, even a small piece of glass smoothed by the waves. We also found lots of crabs, mostly dead, but also a couple of live ones and plenty of perfectly preserved and very fragile tiny shells of horseshoe crabs (and one really big one, but it reeked and we decided to leave it be).

The beach wasn't really crowded since we went there on a Wednesday. It does get a lot busier on weekends. But even a not-so-busy beach is littered with trash, especially on the bay side where junk gets caught in seaweed and vegetation. That's pretty sad considering how beautiful the place really is. Next time we go, I think we'll turn our treasure hunt into a bit of a cleanup. Or I should make it a rule to pack a garbage bag and gloves every time we go places.