E.W. FAIRCLOTH / For the Daily News
Leaving Delaware Seashore State Park after July 4 festivities.
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New in town? A handy shore-to-shore conversion guide
The name of the store is the stuff of legend.
"I believe there was a woman named Prunella involved and some sort of fractured limb," said Ocean Beach publicist Donna Abbott. (Details are on the Web site fracturedprune.com.)
SCENIC BEACHES
Downashore standby
Cape May Point State Park
Other Shores substitutes
In the category of untouched natural beauty, the substitutes north and south of Cape May County easily trump the original.
Island Beach State Park near Seaside Park, N.J., boasts 10 miles of undeveloped beachfront. The catch is that park management holds a strict line on attendance, closing the gates to incoming cars after all the parking spaces fill (as early as 10:30 a.m. on busy summer weekends).
Bike riders and walkers are never turned away, but it's a 3 1/2-mile trek to the nearest bathing area.
In Delaware, the six-mile long Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes is the standout, with towering dunes on the ocean side, including the 80-foot-high Great Dune, and placid waters on the bay side for timid swimmers.
"The beach there and the dunes are comparable with some national seashores I've seen," said Philly-based travel-advice columnist Don Groff - read him at dgroff.com - author of Frommer's Best Beach Vacations, Mid-Atlantic (and a Daily News copy editor by night).
BILL'S AT THE GRIDDLE
Downashore standby
Uncle Bill's Pancake House
Other Shores substitute
Mustache Bill's Diner, Barnegat Light, Long Beach Island
Another case where the Other Shores have the edge. This May, the prestigious James Beard Foundation honored Mustache Bill's as one of "America's Classics."
Owner Bill Smith's cyclops pancakes, with an egg in the middle, are an LBI breakfast tradition. For kids, he'll also shape pancakes to order, as a mermaid or an octopus, for instance. Regulars here also rave about Mustache Bill's fluke and chips.
