The Shore Blog

It’s hard to believe, but Easter is this Sunday.  The Covid-19 shelter in place and social distancing rules have made it challenging to fill our family’s Easter baskets. However, there are many shore businesses continuing to operate online, and they’re here to help you with some gift ideas.

If you don’t observe Easter, or don’t exchange gifts, you can still treat someone who is in need of a beach fix to help them get through the quarantine.

A Taste of the Shore

Easter Basket/Candy

The Cape May Peanut Butter Company is offering Easter Baskets for online ordering. They also offer peanut and other nut butters, candy, jellies, jams, coffee, tea, cocoa, snacks and other treats. Gift certificates are available for online purchase. To order, click here for their website.

The Original Fudge Kitchen offers online shipping of Easter Candy. They are running a special of free shipping on orders over $35. To order, click here for their website.

Shriver’s also offers online shopping. How about treating yourself or a special someone to a box of Salt Water Taffy or fudge? Check out their website to order.

Gourmet Foods

The Cape May Olive Oil Company and The Spice Cellar offer online ordering for their specialty products, including flavored olive oils and spices. Click here to order.

Wingnuts Nut Haus offers their products for sale online. They include seasoned nuts, butters and more. Click here to access their website.

Coffee

The Ocean City Coffee Company offers their special coffee blends online. An excellent gift for a fan of their coffee would be a subscription to their “Coffee of the Month Club”. You can customize the membership for regular, decaf, flavored, original blend and a variety of drip options.

Wine

Treat yourself or someone special to a tour of a Cape May County Winery, Brewery or Distillery through Tastings and Tours. While the wineries and tours are not currently operating, the tour tickets will not expire. Click here to order a gift certificate.

Adopt-A-Vine through Willow Creek Winery. Adoptive vine parents will receive their own personally named vine marker, a refillable sangria growler plus 5% off all of their wine or sangria purchases throughout the year. Adopt-a-Vine parents will also get “first dibs” on all new wine releases and special vineyard event tickets as well as quarterly informative emails discussing the vines’ stage of growth and development and other information about the vine. Click here to check out this awesome gift idea.

Hawk Haven Vineyard and Winery offers Gift Cards that may be used to purchase tastings, bottles and accessories. They also have a Wine Club which would make a perfect gift for your wine-loving special someone.

Future Shore Experiences

Plan Your Next Stay

While rentals are currently unavailable, once the shore opens back up you’ll be able to find awesome places to stay for a weekend or week-long getaway. Here are some places that still have availability for summer rentals:

WildwoodNJBeachHouse is a spacious ,1900-square-foot, 4 bedroom and 2 1/2 bath townhouse that sleeps 12. It is located across from Schooner Island Marina and is within walking distance of many fine restaurants, miniature golf, grocery stores, drug stores, WAWA and shopping. It is 5 star-rated and features a light and airy motif, windows galore and an extensive library throughout the house for your reading enjoyment. The owners welcome you to to bring a few books and take a few books! Two bikes provided for your boardwalk riding pleasure. Click here to learn more about this awesome property and book your stay.

Salty Air Cottage is located in Ventnor. This 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom family home is located 3 blocks from the beach and only minutes from Atlantic City and Margate. This home has been beautifully decorated throughout and furnished with an eye toward comfort and relaxation. The house is charming, clean, and in excellent condition. Many awesome amenties are included, and prime weeks are still available. Click here to learn more about this awesome property and book your stay.

Congress Hall in Cape May is one of the shore’s most historical and classy hotels. They offer gift cards that can be used for overnight stays or for purchases in their restaurants, bar and shops.

Make Your Stay More Enjoyable

Stock the House makes sure your vacation is perfect – up to the last detail. Whether you are looking to stock your vacation house with groceries before you arrive, have a chef prepare your meals or get assistance with booking your plans, Stock the House is here to make your vacation dreams come true. Concierge hours are available for pre-order through their RESERVE program, which would be a perfect gift for Easter, Mother’s Day or “just because”. They are offering a 10% discount to The Shore Blog readers on any RESERVE program purchase between now and Memorial Day. Stock the House is also currently available to help with grocery and food delivery during the pandemic, but please note that every request will be evaluated on a case by case basis to ascertain that the concierge can safely implement CDC guidelines during the process. Read more about Stock the House here. To pre-order Stock the House services, click here.

Beach Caddy is the service you always wish you have when you’re lugging hundreds of beach items across 300 degree sand. Beach Caddy is at your beck and call to pick up your beach equipment at your house (hotel, rental or other), set it up and take it back to your house at the end of the day. They offer gift cards so treat yourself today by going to the Beach Caddy website.

Dine Out

Blitz’s Market of Ocean City is offering gift cards for purchase online. You can also order a meal to be delivered to a local friend or family member. Blitz’s is also helping individuals and organizations donate meals for healthcare workers, first responders and other front line workers. To order a meal, gift card or make a donation, please go to their website.

Beachwood at the Dunes, located in Sea Isle’s Townsends Inlet area, is offering gift cards for online purchase. Treat yourself and a special someone to a fabulous meal to be enjoyed this summer. Click here to order a gift card.

Cool Scoops of Wildwood is offering online gift certificates to give yourself and your loved ones a refreshing treat this summer. Cool Scoops is a state of the art, 1950’s-styled ice cream parlor where you can enjoy delicious treats with names such as “ScoopDeVille” or “Lil’Deuce Scoops” while sitting in an original ’59 Caddy, ’57 Chevy Bel Air or a ’57 Ford Fairlane car booth. They offer over 30 flavors of Hand-Dipped, Soft Serve and Sugar-Free Ice Creams, Slushies, Smoothies, 50’s style shakes and malts and more. While you enjoy your food, you can watch vintage television, hear great music from their Rockola Juke Box, play pinball and video games or just reminisce with their antiques and enjoy the 50’s atmosphere. Reach out to them through their Facebook or Instagram pages to order a gift certificate and relive the Happy Days with a doo-wop flair. This would be an awesome gift for anyone wanting to visit the Doo-Wop capital of the world, including during the Fabulous 50’s Weekend held every October.

Be Adventurous

Harbor Outfitters, with locations in Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Stone Harbor and Seaview, offers just about every type of water sports fun imaginable. Whether it’s kayaking, paddle boarding or surfing, they have what you need. Harbor Outfitters offers classes, rentals and an online store where you can purchase equipment, clothing, accessories and more. They run surf camps for kids and offer surf, kayak and paddle board lessons and tours in summer. You can order products, rent equipment online. While their four locations are currently closed to the public, they do offer curbside pickup and garage delivery of kayaks, paddle boards, surf boards, electric bikes, scooters, boogie boards and skateboards during this time. Harbor Outfitters is a licensed distributor of Jetty Apparel Company, a local New Jersey company that’s giving back to the community through their Rising Tides tee shirt promotion. Read more about this in the section on Clothing and Accessories, below. To order a gift certificate for use this summer on one of their many watersports adventures or products, or for local residents to order curbside delivery, click here.

Spend the day in Cape May. Cape May MAC (“Museums, Arts, Culture”) is offering online sales of tickets that will not expire. MAC is a multifaceted not-for-profit organization with a mission that is “committed to promoting the preservation, interpretation, and cultural enrichment of the Cape May region for its residents and visitors”. Founded in 1970, MAC retored and currently maintains the Cape May Lighthouse, the Emlen Physick Estate and the World War II Tower. This organization is credited with interpreting 200 years of Cape May history and architecture through an extensive array of trolley tours, walking and historic house tours. They offer a robust, year-round calendar of events  that range from outdoor summer festivals to themed weekends to tours of local wineries. They rely on donations and ticketed events to provide this amazing programming, all of which has been postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic. So you can support them buy purchasing tickets to climb the Cape May Lighthouse or enjoy “A Day in Cape May” adventure. These tickets will never expire, and will go a long way in supporting this crucial Cape May organization. Click here to purchase lighthouse tickets or make a donation.

Gifts of Health and Well Being

The Seafoam Soap Company, a Blue Eden Company, is currently making hand sanitizer. They have been inundated with orders so they have suspended pre-ordering until April 10, but this is a gift that will keep on giving for months to come. The company also carries a line of anti-bacterial soaps plus many other self-care treats. Online purchasing is available at seafoamsoapcompany.com

Downtown Pilates OCNJ is currently offering livestream online Pilates Mat classes. Weekly membership includes access to their live class 3 mornings a week at 10:00 am, and access to recordings of the classes if you are unable to join them at that time. Once they are open, they will offer Pilates private and duet sessions on the equipment and group mat classes. Follow them on Instagram for most current info, pics and videos and visit downtownpilatesoc.com.

Paolini Dermatololgy and Med Spa helps nurture skin back to its healthiest state in a tranquil setting using medical grade equipment & products. They offer facials, peels, micro-blading, tinting full-body waxing and more. Click here to reach out to learn how you can give the gift of healthy skin to someone you care about.

Other Gift Ideas

Jetty Apparel Company is partnering with locally owned Harbor Outfitters and other local distributors during the pandemic. Jetty is a local New Jersey apparel company whose philosophy is that rising tides raise all ships. Through their “Rising Tides Program” , a retail rescue mission where they are donating 100% of the profits from their special Rising Tides tee shirts to local distributors. If you wish to participate in this amazing program, support a small business and score an awesome tee shirt as a gift for yourself or others, a drop down menu selection will allow you to designate which Harbor Outfitters store you would like your donation to go to. Click here to order a tee shirt and support a local business.

Groovy Girlz is a family owned clothing and accessory store for women and girls, located in Sea Isle City. Groovy Girlz carries a a great selection of clothing and accessories which can be purchased online. They also offer online sales of gift certificates – a perfect gift for that special woman or girl in your life.

Help your gift recipient stay in touch with the shore with a shore-based magazine subscription. Cape May Magazine and Ocean City Magazine offers online orders for subscriptions, a perfect gift for someone who wants to get the latest information about their favorite shore towns.

Please note: This is not a sponsored blog post, but instead a resource to help you find gifts from shore-based small businesses. We reached out to local businesses to see what goods and services they are currently offering during the pandemic in order to help spread the good word and to let you know that, despite social distancing, many of them are still in operation. Consider supporting these businesses by ordering their products and services online. Thank you!