OCEAN CITY, N.J. - That's it.
No more Mack & Manco. Pack in the salt water taffy. Say goodbye to Goofy Golf.
And that priceless view of the Atlantic at sunrise and sunset? Done.
Summer 2009 is over.
Mother Nature delivered a rather dour ending today to a season hampered by a dubious economy and a lot of damp weather. But before Labor Day weekend could end, before traffic could snarl the Garden State Parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway and the back roads leading home, departing visitors were reflecting on the moments that made their summer golden.
"It was the best summer ever," said Dawn Marie Rivera, 28, of Vineland, who got engaged on the Ninth Street beach in June when her fiance was home on leave from Iraq.
Rivera, in that I'm-so-in-love, I-have-no-idea-what's-going-on-around-me haze, said she didn't even notice the not-so-great beach weather - then or now.
"I had no idea why he insisted we go to the beach that day. It was really kind of cloudy, but I didn't care," recalled Rivera, who today was sitting on the same beach, in similarly poor beach weather.
"I guess I came down today for old times' sake," she said, staring at her diamond engagement ring and thumbing through bridal magazines.
For Hailey and Madison Ferry of Clarksboro, young sisters at the beach today with their mother and father, the summer's milestones were marked in rhinestones and taffeta on the junior pageant circuit.
Hailey, 8, won the talent competition in the Little Miss Ocean City Pageant earlier in the summer by singing "Honey Bun" from South Pacific, then went on to snag the Little Miss New Jersey title. Madison, 5, no slouch on talent either, became Tiny Miss Gloucester County.
Older girls love competition, too. Local lifeguards Kacey McCaffrey, 21, and Kaitlyn Minehan, 20, were in the thick of it, swimming and paddling their hearts out. Working their last day on beach patrol at 10th Street today before returning to college, they agreed their favorite moments this summer were when they won a women's lifeguard competition - and, at the same time, caught up with old friends.
"It's always hard for all of us to get together," McCaffrey said. "We don't get to see each other often as a group."
David Stroeher, 37, a teacher from Feasterville, said summer's simpler moments were the best. He was squeezing every last second from the season by planting himself and his beach chair firmly on the sand all day - despite the clouds.
"It's my last chance to be here for a long time," Stroeher said. "My favorite times are always just sitting here on this beach, looking at the water. If I have a chance to be down here, it doesn't matter to me if it's sunny out or not. This is the memory that'll carry me through the cold winter."
Ricky Monte, 13, of Marmora, said the highlight of the summer was his California cousins' visit, when they walked the boardwalk and stopped for pizza at Mack & Manco.
"I got them to admit we have better pizza here than they have in California," Monte said. "That was the greatest."
Zoe Lester of Somers Point said she'll recall miniature golf with her grandchildren from Pittsburgh.
"I never had a better time on this boardwalk than that," Lester said. "And I've been coming here my whole life."
But it wasn't only games - or rays - that some sought.
"I'm not here for the sun, and don't like crowds," said Susan Karaszkiewicz of Charlotte, N.C.
Reading on the beach, she shared memories of a long-ago childhood summer, of beach walks and amusement rides, of waiting for the new Archie comic books to arrive at the five-and-dime. That, she said, had been the best summer ever.