After a half-day of combing the beaches and strolling the boardwalk (is it really strolling if you have a camera, two notebooks, and a backpack to lug along?) I have come to some conclusions:

1. It is entirely too hot for Memorial Day weekend. I'm sure the lemonade vendors and water purveyors are loving it, but let me tell you - 88 degrees feels like July weather, not warming-up-to-the-summer weather. I saw plenty of people leaving the beach because it was Too Darn Hot.
2. The water is another story entirely. We're talking frigid - about 60 degrees.
3. Although I come to the Shore every Memorial Day, I'm always struck by how crowded it is.
4. People are in such a good mood when they're here. There is something about the holiday weekend, short as it is, that makes everyone I approach cheerful and happy to talk.

Ocean City is my first Shore town stop - I hope to get to as many as I can. I got my first taste of the Shore here as a kid, and it's still got the best boardwalk in town. One of the people I interviewed this afternoon remarked that while other towns seem to gentrify and change character, Ocean City stays the same, and that's what's great about it. It's for families. It's got a terrific boardwalk, size-wise and mix of shops-wise. OK, maybe the house prices have gone sky-high, just like everywhere else at the Shore, but it's still essentially the same place this woman grew up coming to in the 50s and 60s. And the same place I grew up coming to in the 80s and 90s.

(Oh, and the adorable pooch pictured is one Abby, a Red Bone Coonhound whose mom, Christine Petrillo, drove her from Williamstown for Barks on the Boards, a dog walk and contest.)