On a clear day … nothing will astound you quite like a front row seat to a river view and a burger from Barnacle Bill’s in Rumson.
Continue reading Focus: A View from the Barnacle’s PerspectiveTag Archives: river
Scene Around: Witchy Women’s River Paddle Haunt
It’s not every day that you can spy more than a coven’s worth of witches paddling down the river — just Saturday.
Continue reading Scene Around: Witchy Women’s River Paddle HauntLocals’ Summer: Fishy River Kid Reflection
There’s something fragrantly fishy about quiet river time frolicking among childhood friends down by the Fair Haven Dock.
It’s a common, soothing sight to see — a gaggle of kids clamoring around a fishing net, exploring a good catch. Of course, they throw the little fish right back in as the tide rolls out. After all, it’s the bonding down by the river that counts most.
Home. The solace of the scene. This is it for them. For many. The bright sun dancing with a simple, happy time. The sound of lapping water peppered by giggles and gasps over a few fish wiggles, seaweed and shells. The sand between the toes. The home in the heart made to keep kid memories.
Take a look … Remember? (CLICK on one photo to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy!)
Simple Summer: Tubing on the Navesink
It’s a simple way to enjoy summer, especially in pandemic distancing times — tubing on a Thursday afternoon.
Continue reading Simple Summer: Tubing on the NavesinkRetro River Ratting II

Photo/Marc Edelman
A reprise, just because … the river is a time-honored hangout spot, great for what ails a kid or adult mid-pandemic, plenty of room to distance, and now with a possible threat of sharks. No murder hornets sighted yet … Remember the simpler times of close river encounters? The best of kids’ stuff …
It’s Friday, have you hung out with your River Rats this week?
It’s that longtime rat pack with which kids sail away the summer — River Rats.
Summers, since 1955, a group gathers at the end of Battin Road in Fair Haven to learn how to sail and bond. You’ve gotten a glimpse into those summer days down by the river with the good rats before.
This is yet another, more expansive shot.
It’s the Retro Pic of the Day circa 1970s; and it’s brought to us by RFH grad Marc Edelman.
Recognize anyone? Not in it? Rats!
Rumson Police: Bull Shark Sightings in River
The summer of 2020 in the Rumson-Fair Haven area has seen a pandemic, the lightning speed wrath of a tropical storm, a vast power outage and now, with the sun’s reappearance, shark sightings in the Navesink River.
Continue reading Rumson Police: Bull Shark Sightings in RiverSimple Summer: Fishin’ for Sunny Dock Daze
The summer of 2020 has been anything but simple — pandemic, tropical storm rip, power outage, murder hornets. And then down came the rain …
Continue reading Simple Summer: Fishin’ for Sunny Dock DazeScene Around: Weather, Tides, COVID & River View
Well, last week wound down with electricity still down and out in the Rumson-Fair Haven area, but sun spirits up for those who took advantage of the water’s calming effect.
Continue reading Scene Around: Weather, Tides, COVID & River ViewFocus: River Reflection
Sometimes the reflection at the waterfront in the Rumson-Fair Haven area is a mirror glass one. Still. Vivid. A picture with a clear message staring back at you from beneath.
It’s a picture of calm insight. It’s casting back of a similar scene with something new to see in the frame freeze of the water. Reflection. It gives you the chance to see more … without the blindness that the light can bring.
Take a look and find your own retrospective view …
— Photos/Elaine Van Develde
Focus: Places Remembered 2019
The Beatles said it in the song In My Life. There are places people remember … all their lives … though some have changed. Place defines. It brings comfort. It triggers memories. It is a bookmark in our hearts. The places we remember forever … the places that are home.
Continue reading Focus: Places Remembered 2019Prosecutor: Man Convicted in 2018 Animal Cruelty Case
A 36-year-old Long Branch man has been convicted of fourth-degree animal cruelty for locking an 8-month-old dog in a cage and leaving it in the rising tide in Sandy Hook Bay in July of 2018, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni announced on Thursday.
Continue reading Prosecutor: Man Convicted in 2018 Animal Cruelty CaseFocus: Riverwalk Forecast
The surprise flurry of snow that started the week won’t keep anyone from a good ol’ riverwalk. Dank days or not, taking the river air in off the banks the Navesink is just what any doctor would likely order for a River Rat to chase away premature winter chill blues.
Continue reading Focus: Riverwalk Forecast