OCEAN CITY -
Saturday's beautiful weather brought
tourists and residents out from their winter hibernation and onto the Ocean City
boardwalk where many people said they are looking forward to the summer.
"You look at the crowd today and
it almost looks like a summer day, it's really surprising. I think everybody is kind of tired of the
winter and ready to get back to the shore," said Ocean City
resident Bill Mills.
With a high of 58, the weather was warm
enough for shorts and t-shirts, but surfers taking advantage of on-shore winds
still had to wear their wet suits with ocean temperatures in the low 40s.
Surfer Jim Royer said, "There are quite
a few people out in the water and there's a lot of people on the boardwalk
too." Norman Lawand, owner of Curly's
Fries, said, "These waves are incredible.
As you can see, the ocean is creeping up to the boardwalk."
As Ocean City residents continue to
recover from this week's storm, businesses on the boardwalk like Curly's Fries
and 3 Brothers From Italy Pizza are gearing up for the summer as they prepare to open
for the season."
Lawand explained, "The boardwalk was
very fortunate. I'm sure everybody will
be open around Easter, if not, by may 1st." "Easter weekend 12th street will be open. We had a little damage from Hurricane Sandy
at 8th street that we still have to take care of, but come Memorial Day all
three restaurants will be open," said Manco & Manco manager Chris
Mazzitelli.
Business owners also said they expect a
busy summer season and that tourists seem excited to get back to the jersey
shore after Hurricane Sandy. Mazzitelli
added, "I don't know if damage to towns north of us is going to affect our
business, as far as making us busier because they are not going to be able to
go to some of the towns north of us that were damaged."
