Labor Day Weekend Kicks Off At The Jersey Shore

By Cleve Bryan, Steve Tawa

OCEAN CITY, N.J., (CBS) -- It's the last holiday weekend of the summer and many people are spending it at the Jersey Shore.

As CBS 3's Cleve Bryan reports, tourism officials say this has been a record year for crowds.

With cool wet sand between their toes, Colleen Sprenkle and her daughter spent one of summer's last days collecting shells and making memories in Avalon.

"Oh my gosh the weather was perfect, the water was warm, long sunny days on the beach. It doesn't get better than that," said Sprenkle.

Once again there was a large crowd on the beach after what towns up and down the shore say was a stellar summer.

"I would say the two main factors are weather - everything at the Jersey Shore is weather dependent. The second one has been very affordable gas prices. We've seen day trippers coming back especially on some of the so called soft days -  on Tuesday and Wednesday," said Avalon business administrator Scott Wahl.

Officials say last summer Cape May County saw about $5.8 billion in tourism revenues. This year, expenditures are up about five percent, traffic seven percent and lodging nine percent.

At Avalon Ice Cream, manager Nancy Stone says people were ready to eat out and often this summer.

"It was pretty steady during the week, the weekends were really good," said Stone.

And this Labor Day weekend is shaping up to be the last hoorah many were hoping to see.

"It's absolutely gorgeous, the weather's perfect, the water is amazing and this is the best place on earth," said Tara Bennett.

As KYW Newsradio's Steve Tawa reports, in Ocean City, Julia from Hatboro, Erin from Ambler and Carlee from Lower Gwynedd spent part of their day riding a surrey bike along the boardwalk.

"You like steer the wheel and like two people pedal and then there's like a seat in the middle where you just like sit down and relax."

Nick, and Chase who is marking a birthday, enjoyed the day riding their BMX bikes along the boardwalk.

"I've been spending most of my time on the beach."