Galleries

Focus: Egg Hunting Daze

On the second Easter without an egg hunt, we offer a look back at some classic egg hunt moments in the Rumson-Fair Haven area.

Sea Bright had its beach egg hunt this year. We didn’t realize. But, the pre-pandemic look back offers some classic snapshots in the moment a few years ago. Rumson’s egg hunt moments offer a grassier picture and a different hunt perspective.

Enjoy the eggcellent captures (couldn’t resist)! See you all on the egg hunt battleground next year!

— Photos/Elaine Van Develde, exclusively for R-FH Retro

Focus: Riverfront Sunny Side Leg Up

It’s always good to get a leg up on brighter days, especially when it involves a simple riverside adventure, a friendly hand from a childhood friend.

The picture says it all.

Soaking up the sun on the horizon is more than symbolic these days. Basking in it all at an iconic spot down by the Navesink River at Barnacle Bill’s in Rumson is, well, tradition. But it’s more poignant than ever as we begin to head out of pandemic darkness and into the light. Better weather ushers that better view into a fuzzy warm focus.

Looking to the bright side of spring …

Continue reading Focus: Riverfront Sunny Side Leg Up →

Focus: River Walk View & Red Flag Weather

The Rumson-Fair Haven area has been cold-snapped out of spring fever.

After a little seedling bloom of spring weather last week, the forecast for this week put a bit of a chill and flash of hazard back into the outlook. And it looks like temperatures will only reach a highs in the 40s with chances of rain in the mix.

Continue reading Focus: River Walk View & Red Flag Weather →

Changing Landscape: Power of Place 2020

There’s a great deal of power in place. The places in people’s lives anchor them, comfort them, change them, inspire them. Each place to which we travel, even within our own hometown iconic spots, does one or all of these things. In one way or another, place defines us. That’s the power in place. It brings us to a home base in our hearts.

Continue reading Changing Landscape: Power of Place 2020 →

Focus: Remembering Superstorm Sandy’s Wrath

A reprise from 2017. Taking you back again after eight years … Remember?

It was the year that Halloween wasn’t, but was in a sense. People in the area woke up to a nightmare, if they slept at all the night before. It was 2012 and Superstorm Sandy had pummeled the Jersey Shore. It decimated Sea Bright and destroyed low lying parts of Rumson. Fair Haven was a bit war torn and powerless.

Continue reading Focus: Remembering Superstorm Sandy’s Wrath →

Scene Around: Commandeering a Coffin

Fill ‘er up … with premium Halloween tricks and treats!

It’s not every day that you stop at a gas station and almost get run over by a masked Dracula-commandeered coffin. This ghoul guy was running on empty when he swung into the station in Highlands with flailing cape gusto and had a little topple at the pump.

“Did ya get that?” the masked marauder said as he picked himself up from the pavement and dusted off his cape. All gassed up and set in his coffin ride, he gave us a few waves and went on his way.

Just who was that masked Halloween treat of a man? No clue. Uber? No back seat. Can’t exactly commandeer that ride. But, hey, if the coffin fits, take a spin and a little spill.

— Photos/Elaine Van Develde

Focus: Rumson Gull Friends’ River Heaven

It’s often been viewed as a slice of heaven — solace time down by the Navesink River.

And on a sunny fall Sunday, the seagulls were basking in the scene on the banks of the river in Rumson. A gentle fluff of clouds embraced a blue sky and peering sun with warmth as the gulls manned heaven’s gate.

Swoop with the gulls into the slice of this utopia. They’ve called you home — to this heaven.

(Click to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy!)

— Photos/Elaine Van Develde