So, how were the fireworks? We hope you all had a GREAT time at the Jersey Shore over the July 4th holiday.    

We need to talk about something very important!
Let's talk about our favorite topic...FOOD!!!

First Rule: There are so many places to really enjoy your next meal at the Jersey Shore that you’re simply going to have to try them all.

2nd Rule: Never break Rule Number # 1!

   The reason why it’s difficult to single out just one restaurant or café as the “best” at the Jersey Shore is because of the number of them that are open to serve you! Some delicious research reveals that many of the chefs at area restaurants are graduates of the finest restaurant schools in the country. We also serve the best family taught recipes that will ever tickle your taste buds. This means that when they prepare your meal they strive to do their best! After all, they want you to come back again and again!

   From locally grown produce in-season, to fish so fresh it literally just came off the boat, the tastes and preparations run the gamut from American cuisine to ethnic foods from all around the world. There is an extraordinary range of dining experiences waiting for you, your family and friends at the Jersey Shore. Some local restaurants and B&Bs are so famous for their cuisine that they even have their own cookbooks available for sale on-site and at area shops.

   From little cafes ideal for breakfast or a quick lunch, to dining by the water at the ocean or on the bay, to a fireside dinner in the winter, to pubs and family-style places, to Victorian mansions, pizza and funnel cake on the boardwalks, salt water taffy and cotton candy, it’s all available throughout the Jersey Shore.

Click here to find a GREAT place to dine!

   While staying at the Jersey Shore please look for our guidebooks in your room and get plenty of Great Vacation Information in the Great Vacation Guide!!! We are currently placed in over 8,000 guest rooms in the South Jersey Shore Area.
   
   Our main website GreatVacationGuide.com is a network of all the Great Vacation websites serving all of the New Jersey shore and bays towns in the north, central and southern regions of the state. You’ll find historical, beach and other related information on the central and northern sites at this time. There’s a lot more coming to those sites as we speak.

For those who have yet to select their accommodations, check out www.GreatVacationShoreRentals.com – one of our sister websites – and www.GreatVacationPropertyRentals.com – still another of our sites – for accommodation information.

Are you searching for your weekly vacation rental property?

   Great Vacation News! We’ve changed the world for vacation property owners and vacationers.
Our service is called:  GreatVacationShoreRentals.com  - and it provides all you need to find the perfect vacation rentals!   How is it different from other listing services? It’s very different, but you’ll need to log on now to discover what makes us unique. Log on now and learn why we refer to ourselves as”…your Direct Connection.”  Our sister site GreatVacationGuide.com  provides you all of the tools you’ll need to plan every detail of your next Great Vacation!

2008 Photo Contest
Please send in your olde time shore photos for a new category! We are going to start putting up new slideshows very soon!

Please join our Photo Contest for 2008! Send us copies of your favorite photos from “…down the shore.” Include your name, address and phone number so we can properly identify your photo if it’s featured. We’re running a special contest featuring photos that are shown in the newsletter during the year, and the best photos chosen by Great Vacation newsletter readers will be in the final competition. Winners will receive wonderful prizes, and the best photos will appear in the newsletter, and also in 2009 Great Vacation in-room guides!
Send all photos here info@greatvacationguide.com

All photos must be no larger than 640 pixels wide and 72 dpi ( formats can be .jpg - . jpeg - .gif )
All photos submitted and/or used become the property of Successful Seasons and Great Vacation enterprises.  Proper credit/acknowledgement will be given to those who have taken the photos.

The Robert Shackleton Playhouse is poised to erupt with laughter and brim overflow with romance as Cape May Stage, Cape May’s premier professional Equity theatre, presents Noel Coward’s classic comedy Private Lives, running July 2nd through August 16th, 2008.

   In Private Lives, passion, laughter, romance, anger, and love set the stage for a classic battle of the sexes. On the terrace of an elegant hotel in the resort town of Deauville, France, we meet two unsuspecting newlywed couples: Elyot and Sibyl Chase, and Victor and Amanda Prynne. Sophisticated Elyot and glamorously self-reverential Amanda were each previously married, a matter which causes some anxiety for their new spouses. In fact, they were married to each other!  When they meet unexpectedly on the adjoining balconies of their honeymoon suites, passions are rekindled and old wounds re-opened as they scratch and claw their way towards true love.

   Hailed by The New York Times as a “gorgeous, dazzling, fantastically funny, brilliant comedy,” Private Lives will be directed by Michael Carleton, whose previous directing credits at Cape May Stage include The Price, Moonlight & Magnolias, Going to St. Ives, The Woman in Black, and Hyde, In the Shadows.

   Chicago-based actor Mark Rector and Philadelphia-based actress Grace Gonglewski assume the leading roles of Elyot and Amanda in Cape May Stage’s six-week production. Rector, previously seen in Moonlight and Magnolias (2007), Around the World in 80 Days (2005), Hyde, in the Shadows (2004), returns for his eighth season to share the spotlight with Barrymore Award winner Grace Gonglewski. Ms. Gonglewski, the recipient of four Barrymore Awards, F. Otto Haas Award, and the Dorothy Haas Fellowship, has appeared most recently at Cape May Stage in Going to St. Ives (2007), The Guys (2005) and Park Your Car in Harvard Yard (2004).  These Cape May favorites will appear alongside New York-based actor Rob Maitner (previously seen in 2006’s The Big Bang) as Victor and newcomer and Orlando based-actress Kristin Collins in the role of Sybil.

   Noel Coward (December 16, 1899 - March 26, 1973) was an English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music. His celebrity reached a peak in 1930 with "Private Lives," by which time he had become the highest earning author in the western world. With the onset of World War II he redefined the spirit of the country in films such as This Happy Breed (1944), In Which We Serve (1942), Blithe Spirit (1945) and, perhaps most memorably, Brief Encounter (1945).  As well as over fifty published plays and many albums' worth of original songs, Coward also wrote comic revues, poetry, several excellent volumes of short stories, a novel (Pomp and Circumstance, 1960), and three volumes of autobiography. The late 1960s saw a revival in his popularity, with several new productions of his 1920s plays and a number of revues celebrating his music. He was knighted in 1970 and died in 1973. He is buried in Firefly Hill, Jamaica.

   This show previews on Wednesday, July 2^nd and ticket prices that evening will be half-price. The official opening night performance will be the following night, Thursday July 3^rd with an after party at the King Edward Bar at the Chalfonte Hotel on Howard Street immediately after the performance.

   During the current run Cape May Stage is participating with 18 Cape May gourmet restaurants in a money-saving “Dinner & A Show” package promotion - a special night out. Restaurants involved in the promotion include 410 Bank Street, Aleathea’s, The Blue Pig Tavern, Bloody Mary’s Bar and Grill, Café Promenade, Café Verandah at the Hotel Alcott, Copper Fish, Cucina Rosa, The Ebbitt Room, Frescos, The Mad Batter, Martini Beach, Merion Inn, Oyster Bay Restaurant & Bar, The Pier House, Tisha’s Fine Dining, Union Park, and The Washington Inn. Call the individual restaurants for reservations and information.

   “Private Lives” performances are Tuesdays thru Sundays at 8pm thru August 16^th at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse of the Cape May Stage. Tickets are $35 adults, $25 seniors, and $12.50 students. Call (609) 884-1341 or (click here)

This production is generously sponsored by La Mer Beachfront Inn and co-sponsored by Capri Motor Lodge.

East Lynne Theater Company
"Lee O’Connor performs "Tales of the Victorians""

  Many know Lee O'Connor as the technical director for the Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company, but he's also a performer, who occasionally still gets the opportunity to appear in front of an audience.  Recently, he donned a costume to become George Washington to help celebrate Cape May's Washington Street Mall Rededication. 
     Currently, he can be seen as one of the storytellers for ELTC's "Tales of the Victorians."
     Born in Washington D.C., Lee was raised in Bucks County, PA, and served an apprenticeship at the famous Bucks County Playhouse.  Although starting out his stint in Vietnam in combat, he ended up in Saigon, playing the role of Felix in "The Odd Couple."  Later, he moved to New York City, where he began working in radio and television commercials.  He performed in several two-person shows with Gayle Stahlhuth: "Not Above a Whisper" about Dorothea Dix that Gayle wrote due to a commission from the Smithsonian, and "The Decameron and Canterbury Tales," based on the famous literary works. They performed throughout the country in a variety of settings including universities, libraries, high schools, as well as theaters like Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis. Since Dorothea Dix was known for her work with the mentally ill, the production was sponsored by organizations such as the Hinckley's American Mental Health Association, and was performed at the National Mental Health Association's annual convention. 
     As for the "Tales," Lee and Gayle were even hired to perform "The Wife of Bath Tale" from "The Canterbury Tales" as part of a wedding ceremony, outdoors, in upstate New York, where the bride and groom were married in Medieval attire, after riding down the aisle on horseback.  
     Lee has appeared in several independent films, including "Bittercress," written and directed by Tom Sims, the director of the New Jersey State Film Festival of Cape May. 
     Lee, and his wife, Gayle, artistic director of East Lynne Theater Company, began coming to Cape May during the 1980s with ELTC’s touring productions when the company was helmed by its founder, Warren Kliewer. ELTC began summer/fall production seasons down here in 1988, and the two continued to work for the company: Gayle mostly as a writer/performer, and Lee as a stage manager. They began to look for a house in 1990, and purchased one in West Cape May three years later. Half of the year they spend in Manhattan, and half of year in Cape May.
     Although Lee has been busy with ELTC since becoming its technical director in 1999, he  still works for other organizations including Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden Theatre, Irish Rep, Primary Stages, and two companies in New Jersey: Centenary Stage and The Bickford Theatre.
     As a performer, Lee has portrayed the role of Sherlock Holmes in several ELTC productions, including  William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" and the popular vintage radio-style productions of "The Speckled Band" and "The Copper Beeches."  He also portrayed Frank Leach is several versions of "The Leach Diaries," based on the real diaries of a resident of Cape May in the 1800's.  He also performed in ELTC's "The Dictator," "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus," and "Dick Spindler's Family Christmas."
     Meanwhile, you can catch him on the porch of a lovely Cape May B&B or inn on most Thursdays during the summer at 4:00 as part of ELTC's "Tales of the Victorians," where homemade treats and beverages are served up as well as an American short story. Ticket price is only $7.00 and anyone age 12 or under is free.  Lately, Lee has been favoring the stories of O. Henry.  But you never know! Upcoming locations are:  July 10: Dormer House, 800 Columbia Ave.; July 17: The Fairthorne, 111 Ocean St.; July 24: Victorian Lace Inn, 901 Stockton Ave.; and July 31: Inn of Cape May, 7 Ocean St.
     For information and reservations, contact ELTC at 884-5898, or (click here).

Cafe Loren
23rd and Dune Drive
Avalon, NJ 08202
Phone 1-609-967-8228

   The Café Loren was established as Avalon's first fine dining BYOB. Nestled around the Avalon Freeze, Avalon's 1950's landmark ice cream stand, they have maintained an atmosphere of seashore elegance with a friendly and professional staff for 30 seasons. For three decades they have strived to provide superb continental cuisine with an emphasis on creatively prepared seafood. Chef/Owner Stephen Serano will be creating new and exciting preparations for the menu of 2008. Everyone seems to know someone at the Café Loren. Patty, Mark & Steve want you to be one of the regulars who make the Café Loren a must each summer! Attire is "dressy-casual". Jackets are not required, although not out of place. Shorts are acceptable. They request that men wear a collared shirt. They accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover and Diners Club. We encourage you to make a reservation. The phones will be answered everyday, they are open after 2pm during our regular season to accept reservations or use our form to place your reservation on-line. Please remember to submit your on-line reservation at least 7 days in advance. (click here)