American summer

To walk up the boardwalk from Ocean Grove to Asbury Park is like passing from one surreal world to another. At the border is a discount surf shop that sells plastic shovels and water blasters and cheap flip flops and food items like canned peaches in heavy syrup. They also play U2 and The Red Hot Chili Peppers from their rooftop speakers. It's as if an invisible sound-proofing wall keeps Bono out of God's Square Mile, the place of B&Bs and landmarked Victorian homes, old-fashioned street lamps and flower pots, because we didn't hear "Pride (In the Name of Love)" playing until after we had stepped past the store's front doors.

But the more obvious gateway into Asbury Park as you approach from the south is the dusty, deserted, cavernous Casino, an echo chamber with skylights built in 1929. Beyond it is a brand-new strip of boardwalk shops and restaurants and food stands; we saw a color rendering of a future waterpark on display inside one of the storefronts, stopped by the Candyteria, had blackberry sorbet pops from an organic snack bar and played mini golf at a course that looked like it opened yesterday. You can see The Stone Pony from the green.

We had lunch in the old arcade building, at O'Toole's, an Irish pub that opened a month ago. Across the way I bought a "Skull Boy" T-shirt designed by a local artist, and the guys who sold me the shirt -- they were very chatty, maybe because it was a slow Monday -- told us about the ongoing efforts to revitalize the area, and said that the place had been jam-packed last Saturday night, thanks to the roller derby. The Jersey Shore Roller Girls hosted "Anchor Assassins vs. Right Coast Rollers" at the convention center, which shares a roof with these other commercial spaces. If only we'd known!