Sunny, 35°F
Happy Thanksgiving!
I’ve been with friends and family for the past week or so in my hometown, Ocean City, New Jersey. I’ve also been spending time at my favorite beach spot-right at the 14th Street Fishing Pier. Below is the link to view it on Google Maps.
Coordinates: 39.270872, -74.581066
If you’re interested in a live look at the 14th Street Fishing Pier, go to the following website, click on”92 Ocean City, NJ CAMS,” then click “14th Street Fishing Pier (#64)” to view. http://attheshore.com/livecam-14th-street-beach-north#sponsorad
The compilation of hours I have spent at this beach probably amounts to weeks of my life. This spot feels undeniably like home. The fishing pier is a great spot to set up a hammock to take a nap or read a book. The soft, white sand is incredibly familiar to me, as is the ocean.
This beach is where I went on walks with my grandfather in the morning, met with neighbors during the summertime at sunset, bonded with friends, and spent time with family. It is thoroughly home.
Here are a few photos of my favorite beach spot.
Here is a Leopold-inspired description of OCNJ’s 14th St beach:
There is great value in places that reassure us of our humanity. The beauty of the place in which we inhabit providing us of this reassurance of the beauty of life is something I find immense gratitude in. The most noticeable feature of this spot, located in very far southern New Jersey, is the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic’s endless wave break is one of the most comforting sounds I can possibly fathom. For a little over a week sometime in the middle of summer, the ocean turns an immensely clear wonderfully vibrant bright blue green color. But for now, you can appreciate the calm blue ocean sparkling in the sunlight on a brisk November afternoon. From here, one can smell the crisp salty air combined with the sweet scent of Johnson’s caramel popcorn.
A gull takes off from the shoreline in the direction of the boardwalk. The bird flies directly above a washed up horseshoe crab, whose shell remains more intact than the rest of its body, intertwined in seaweed. Surrounding the horseshoe crab, washed up in the sand are quahog clam and blue mussel shells. Large strands of sea lettuce lay flat on the sand, as well as burnt orange, brown, green rockweed in lumps, intertwined in sand.
The 14th Street Fishing Pier, an iconic image of Ocean City, looks strong from afar, yet is deteriorating as a result of many years exposure to saltwater and hurricane seasons. A puddle of saltwater forms around each pillar of the pier as the oceans’ waves go through its ebbs and flows.
A comparison of the Lake Champlain Waterfront and the beach at Ocean City, NJ, in Holland’s writing style:
In photographs, these two phenology sites look surprisingly similar. Beautiful blue water, sunny skies. Yet the key difference here is the lack of mountain ranges in Ocean City, and instead the Atlantic for as far as you can see. More specifically, the island of Ocean City is on the Atlantic and the Burlington waterfront is on Lake Champlain.
The sand on the beaches are both white-yellow in color. Yet the grain size is much smaller in OC, making for much softer sand than Burlington’s more coarse and sometimes rocky sand. The beach size of Lake Champlain is quite small in comparison to my hometown’s.
Another noticeable difference between these two spaces is the greenery, or lack thereof. Burlington’s waterfront has many trees, shrubs, grasses, etc. scattered with rocks nearby. Yet Ocean City’s beaches are fairly open, with the exception of dune grasses at the entrance to the beach. This is the area in which fox, bunnies, and bees inhabit. In addition to these organisms, many gulls are migrating this time of year, and one can spot an array of different bird species on the beaches. In contrast, at Lake Champlain, I’ve seen turtles, ducks, a few gulls, and songbirds.
Kampf, M. (Photographer). (2018). Untitled [Ocean City Beach, Photograph].
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