The Jersey Shore has a lot of connotations, mostly negative ones about clubs and wild night life. However, for the second year in a row, we’ve found that the shore town of Cape May, and even the surrounding areas we branched out more to this time, like Wildwood, are more down to earth, relaxed, and family-friendly than just about any other beach town. For our second annual trip with the whole family for the end of summer, we fell in love with the town and the other families that visit Cape May and the beaches.

A decade ago, I had only just recently been married, bought a house, and got our dog together. We also had exactly zero children, so life was pretty different then. I doubt I could have predicted any of these big changes in my life, but actually the thing that I thought was probably least likely was that I’d still be in the same company ten years later. Leaving the financial industry and joining Audible / Amazon, I knew it would be different and more to my liking, but I didn’t expect to still be at Amazon over a decade later.

We moved to Florham Park less than six months ago, and yet I feel like I already know more about the area and the history of the town better than I did after ten years in Wanaque. Maybe it’s running around a far more accessible town, seeing more of it, maybe it’s the tighter sense of community, or maybe it’s the pride the town has in its history through volunteer clubs and a historical society.