After a week of unsettled weather, families ready to celebrate Fourth of July at Jersey Shore
On a practically picture-perfect day in Margate, New Jersey, families filled the beach near Washington Avenue to soak in the sun and sand.
"It's so much fun, always sitting on the beach, looking out over at the fireworks, just chillin', so much fun," said Samuel Magliari, who came down the shore with his family.
From playing volleyball in the water to a game of spike ball on the sand, or even a trip to the top of the iconic Lucy the Elephant, for many people, celebrating July Fourth down the shore is a tradition.
"It's so fun and it makes me happy and I love it," Lily Kaplan said.
"We'll probably just come to the beach all day and watch the fireworks at night," Mackenzie Vesotsky said.
"As I got older, I feel like I really enjoy the peacefulness of it, and the people, and this is my beach of choice because it's close enough," said Ron Choice, who drove through the heavier-than-normal traffic on the Atlantic City Expressway Thursday.
Choice has a loaded itinerary and plans to make multiple stops to ring in the Fourth of July.
"Going to meet with my girlfriend in AC, we're staying at the Golden Nugget and we're going to do that and have dinner, then we are going to head out tomorrow to Wildwood and we are going to come back to Margate spend the rest of the weekend here," he said.
Mother Nature is cooperating, which is good news for restaurants and other small businesses. Wednesday may have been gray and rainy down the shore, but there was hardly a cloud in the sky Thursday and the nice weather is expected to continue.
"If you don't think all the businesses down here were counting the seven out of the first 11 warm weekends were rainy, I assure that they were. So this is a huge impact on what they do on a day-to-day basis," Ed Berger, the president of the Margate Business Association, said.
One of the main draws in Margate on July Fourth is of course the fireworks show. They are set to go off around 9 p.m. at Huntington Avenue.
