Day at the Beach

The Clarks of New Jersey made several great decisions on the Sunday before Labor Day, and were rewarded with karma.
Here are the examples:
1) We decided to abort our shopping trip to the Menlo Park Mall and hit the boardwalk at Point Pleasant instead. In fact, we had already parked at the mall, loaded Nattie in the stroller and walked all the way to the Nordstrom entrance when Margie asked: “Why not go to the boardwalk?”
Why not, indeed?
2) We decided to take the Garden State Parkway to Point Pleasant. At 3:30 p.m., the traffic flow was smooth and fast. The whole trip was 45 minutes. Remember when we mistakenly took 35? Ouch.
3) We decided to look up Helen Ciesla. Aunt Helen is a dear old relative. She’s my dad’s sister’s husband’s aunt, and a sweet lady. Everyday in the summer she stands sentinel over her parking empire directly across from Jenkinson’s boardwalk. She charges $10 to the public, but she lets family in for free – even when the lot’s full, she’ll squeeze us in somehow.
Interesting real estate point: Helen lives next door in a classic old house, with a comfy living room stocked with photos of the A-Team – my three young cousins named Alex, Adam and Andrew. Helen shared a story. A parking customer, a cop from up north, asked Helen, “how much for your house?”
“Make me an offer.”
The cop gave some six figure number.
Helen: “That’s a good down payment.”
4) We decided, when faced with an open gate to the beach to hit the beach. We weren’t prepared – no towels, no swimsuits, no chairs – but we spent a wonderful hour near the crashing waves, whipped up to fury by Hurricane Ernesto. Then we moved on to the thrills of the boardwalk – the rides, the skeeball, the funnel cake. It was a classic day in Point Pleasant.
5) We decided to come back.