Frozen Ocean and Snow Dunes: Not Your Average Day At The Beach

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.  I've been visiting this small seaside resort at least once a year since before I was born.  I've seen the surf churned up by passing hurricanes, fled the fury of intense summer thunderstorms, and endured a creepy week of waiting for a dead body to wash ashore.  I've even seen a little snow, once or twice.  This past weekend, after an estimated 60-plus visits to this place, I saw something I had never witnessed before - and in all likelihood will not see again.

Let's start with the dunes.

Dune - mostly snow - looking north.

Detail, dune snow - looking south.

Okay - I've seen this, before.  Snow on the sand.  A little unusual for Delaware, but no big deal.  I would not have bothered to come down off of the boardwalk in my totally inappropriate shoes for snow.  

Here's what intrigued me...

Frozen Ocean.

That's ice.  A lot of it. In the Atlantic ocean. The MID-Atlantic ocean. Sorry shoes - must get a closer look at this...

High-ice-- I mean, tide.

Shaken, not stirred.  Okay, stirred.

Polar bear, or just polar bear-size chunk of ice?

Now I know how sea glass is made.

The next day, sleet and freezing rain had me shooting from my room above the boardwalk.  The ice had thickened...

The cold never bothered me anyway.  Wait - yes it does!

No swimming near jetty.

Mmm... drippy!

As amazing as it was to see the ocean full of ice, nearly motionless, and eerily quiet, it was still nice to see this - on the third day - just as I was about to start singing Moby's "When It's Cold I'd Like To Die..."

Sunreturn.  Order is restored.

It felt good to get the camera out for a little exercise.  Maybe I'll do it again, soon...

Life's A Beach: Rehoboth Beach, That Is!

Before we start on the trains, I thought we'd hit one more beach. For about the first 30 years of my life, I spent annual vacations in Rehoboth Beach, DE. I spent more time playing than shooting photos, but over the years I managed to come home with a few agreeable shots. I could drone on and on about my affection for this little seaside town, but I'd better just let the pictures do the talking. Above, we have the Distinctive Family Umbrella, at dusk, in 1987.

This late-afternoon shot of the Oak Avenue dune crossing was taken in 1997.

The WWII military observation towers above, which are still standing, are seen here being battered by the high surf churned up by 1999's Floyd, several hundred miles offshore and at this point a weakening tropical storm.

Kites. What can I say? Pretty! September, 2001.

Our beloved Funland's old facade, as seen in 1985.

By 2001, Funland was a mixture of the old rides and games we'd known as children, and the big bad modern attractions required to keep the park in business. This long exposure actually captures some of each.

One ride will never be replaced - the carousel. This may not technically be the park's original, but it is still the centerpiece of the indoor portion of Funland. I chose to go time-lapse on this one to give the ride a bit more drama.

Another time-lapse exposure, also from 2001, shows Rehoboth's Boardwalk, looking north toward the famous Dolle's sign.

Coming Soon: I begin to learn the art of photographing trains...