When Spring turns into Summer

The month of May on the beaches of New Jersey represents that weird shoulder season between early (aka cold) spring and summer.  The combination of unpredictable weather, where one day is beach weather and the next is the second coming of winter with a thunder storm settled in between, and the inconvenience of the compulsory educational calendar make it a sleepy time in many towns, slowly coming to life day by day.  As the dune grass grows greener and the breeze becomes a welcome refuge from the heat rather than a razor sharp blast of cold, signs of summer dreams begin to drift onto the beaches with kids carrying buckets, families with beach blankets and kites, bikes, bikinis, and the smells of sunscreen and ice cream wafting through the air.  It’s seriously one of my favorite times, and watching it all unfold is entertainment at it’s finest, especially watching the gulls grow hungry in anticipation of  tourists with hot dogs and pizza or a vulnerable toddler with a peanut butter and jelly sitting on a beach blanket.  One summer, I actually googled “can seagulls carry rabies?” after Jackson’s baby hand got “beaked” and bloodied by a particularly aggressive bird.  But I’m pretty sure rabies is just for mammals, FYI.  This is the Jersey Shore, as summer awakens from her slumber, a welcome seasonal respite from it’s normal state.