What to do on a rainy beach vacation?

September 15, 2009 11:07 AM

My wife and I are visiting Wildwood, NJ this weekend for our anniversary, but the weather forecast looks like rain the whole time. My wife loves the beach so she's pretty bummed out about it. What are some great ideas to salvage several rainy days at the beach?
posted by RobotNinja to Travel & Transportation around Wildwood, NJ (11 answers total)

Board games, trashy magazines, steamy books, classic movies, great restaurants, and sleeping in!
posted by kidsleepy at 11:20 AM on September 15, 2009

Local writer Jen Miller basically makes her living writing about the Jersey Shore, if you dig through her blog Down the Shore With Jen you'll find a lot of ideas. Also, her blogroll has a ton of other Jersey shore blog links.
posted by The Straightener at 11:21 AM on September 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

If it's just drizzly/overcast, take a walk on the beach. You won't melt, and that "it's fall and we have the beach to ourselves" feeling rocks. (To me)
posted by cabingirl at 11:28 AM on September 15, 2009

Rainy walks on the beach with rubber boots and big yellow rain suits that you would picture fishmermen wearing. Then hot chocolate and a fire.
posted by PercussivePaul at 11:30 AM on September 15, 2009

I came in to say mainly what cabingirl said. The shore is beautiful, rain or shine. It's funny, but I still get a tinge of "skipping school" feeling, when I'm in places that feel like summer resorts, out of season. LOL! (school was several decades ago)
posted by Goofyy at 11:42 AM on September 15, 2009

I spent many summers as a child in south Jersey, and going to the amusement park there in Wildwood was always a lot of fun. Turn it into something romantic - play cheesy games, win her a teddy bear, go on rides. Bring an umbrella and take a walk on the beach afterward. At night, go out and get a good meal.

According to this, which I found linked from the Morey's Pier site, it seems like only Friday will be a wash. Saturday has a chance of rain and Sunday looks sunny.
posted by cmgonzalez at 12:20 PM on September 15, 2009

Morey's Piers
posted by cmgonzalez at 12:21 PM on September 15, 2009

I just wanted to say that several times this year, the forecast for the MD beach was terrible. We went anyway, and it turned out to be beautiful. Or maybe only cloudy and rained for an hour or so. Another idea is to rent bikes and check out the area. This is good especially if it is a bit too chilly for beach sitting. So ENJOY.
posted by maxg94 at 1:44 PM on September 15, 2009

There's some great dining and shopping in nearby Cape May. You could also take a trolley/house tour.
posted by katie at 3:53 PM on September 15, 2009

If it's really a major wash, head down to Cape May. All those old Victorians look beautiful in a little gloom. Much of the dining there is enormously overpriced tourist gook, but the Union Park Restaurant is very fairly priced and really wonderful. My wife and I had a wedding dinner for 30 there and they treated us like royalty at about half the price of other locations. It's a quiet dining room, so a day of gloomy, rainy walks among the victorians followed by a quiet dinner sounds lovely indeed.

You MIGHT need a resy for Union Park, maybe not at this time of year.
posted by GilloD at 4:47 PM on September 15, 2009

Cape May also has a nice lighthouse if you're into that kind of thing. We saw dolphins cavorting off the shore in the less than fantastic weather when we went a few years ago.
posted by immlass at 6:00 PM on September 15, 2009