Photo by Akira Suwa/Inquirer Staff Photographer
My colleague Jackie Urgo had a good line about this weekend. She called it "chamber of commerce weather." Was definitely nice enough to get everyone down to the shore and then headed back to Philly at precisely the same time, if the jammed up westbound Atlantic City Expressway around exit 7 Monday afternoon was any guide. Away most of the weekend, we got back in time for a little late afternoon time on the beach, which by then had been abandoned. Was good to get the rusty chair out again. There really isn't a better place to take the pile of Sunday papers you haven't read yet. Ok, it was a little windy and required a sweatshirt. But still, it felt like that time again. (Pay no attention to the temperature of the ocean!) The volume on the streets was its usual seasonal shock, and to the gentleman who got out of his car in the middle of Atlantic Avenue to yell at a driver in another car behind him, a woman from Pennsylvania who to her credit just pretended not to notice, a dangerous and unfortunate spectacle that went on until the man's children shamed him into getting back into the car ("Dad, please!), we say: come on, is that really necessary?

Meanwhile, over in video on Philly.com, hosts Gabby and Catherine bring you their first installment of Down The Shore. First episode: The Beach. Gabby and Catherine head for Ocean City. It's a dry town (mwah!), but that won't stop their fun....Check it out.

A Cape May woman who swerved to avoid hitting a turtle as it crawled across the northbound lanes of the Garden State Parkway Tuesday afternoon in Upper Township lost control of her car, crashed through a guardrail and tumbled down an embankment before the car flipped over onto its roof, the Associated Press reports. The driver was wearing a seat belt and was not critically injured, State Police said.
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The 4100 block of Landis Avenue in Sea Isle City will be closed to traffic beginning at 9 a.m. on Monday and Tuesday (June 11-12) for a building demolition, according to a notice on the city's Web site.

Making my way from Surf City to Ocean City was no picnic. At mid-afternoon, the roads are choked with Memorial Day vacationers heading back home. I sat through some significant jams on Route 72 Westbound, out of LBI, but once I hopped on the Parkway, it was pretty smooth sailing since I was heading south and most of the traffic was going the other way. I sure felt sorry for the folks going home from the southern beach towns - Cape May to Ocean City or thereabouts. Cars were parked on the Parkway heading north. And it's beautiful out, so that makes things worse for those stuck in traffic. (I know there's been rain back in Philly, but I have managed to miss it.)

When I stopped for gas on 72, the gentleman who pumped my fuel ($2.99 per gallon, but it's more like $3.05 when you get close to the ocean) rolled his eyes when I asked if it had been busy all day. "It's been crowded since 7 a.m.," he said. "They're all leaving at the same time."

Tourists. We never learn.

Here's the view from out of my car window, crawling along Route 72 out of Surf City. Cars as far as the eye can see.

If you've got a Shore traffic nightmare tale, throw us a comment. One Labor Day weekend, I sat on the Parkway, my gas tank close to empty, for two hours. What normally was a two hour drive turned into a three and a half hour trip.