About midway through our final week of this year’s summer vacation, we found on the kitchen table of our rented Brant Beach duplex a little note written by our 7-year-old daughter, Dorian. It simply said, “I love this house.” We couldn’t agree more. And we’re so happy that Dorian and her now-13-year-old sister, Jayne, love LBI, the beach and the ocean as much as we do.

In recent years we’ve rented various places on the Island (for a week each) with our extended families and, for nearly 20 years now, have thankfully spent many weekends at my in-laws’…