In winter the ocean beaches of Long Beach Islandare a living paradox – a continuous contradiction, if you will. It can be a mile of just your own footprints, representing a single strand, or suddenly they can be interlaced with the tracks of others, like the beach itself is being weaved together with the human element as its thread. Or it can be just two footprints, one on and one off, when it is just too cold and windy to venture farther.

Then there are days of calm winds, 50-degree temperatures and sun-warmed sands acting like a radiator.