By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY — Rain was in the forecast Saturday and Sunday but that didn’t dampen the spirits of those out for Girls Weekend in downtown Ocean City — and they weren’t all women.
Walking down Asbury Avenue were Jared and Nicole Gaeta of Horsham Township, Pa., enjoying a kids-free getaway.
Jared, 42, and Nicole, 40, grew up visiting the island and return six or seven times a year, including a week at his parents’ house on Bay Avenue.
They were excited to get out of the house after a year of living through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We need the social interaction. We need to be around people. Just like this, random interactions. We need to get out of the house and talk to people,” Jared said.
“It’s getting better,” Nicole added. “It’s nice walking around not as mask-conscious.”
They said they were not in town for Girls Weekend.
“We’re here for mom and dad’s weekend,” Nicole said.
“A vacation from the kids,” Jared added.
But that doesn’t matter to the merchants eager to try to make up for last year’s lost spring when Gov. Phil Murphy issued a stay-at-home order, closing stores, schools and other institutions until June, then allowing them to open with limited capacity.
The two-day event, sponsored by the Downtown Merchants Association and Greater Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, is marketed as a spring fling for women, offering accommodations packages, sales, samples, demonstrations and giveaways.
Participating merchants included Stainton’s Gallery of Shops, where patrons found tastings, demonstrations, prizes and a chance to meet the artists Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday.
Jared Gaeta said it was their fourth visit so far this year and they plan more.
“We come with the kids, without the kids,” Jared said. “It’s always great to go to Stainton’s; we always stop here.”
Inside, Somers Point resident Mary Janasky, who operates Two Tin Crows, was in the atrium offering samples of her dip mixes. She also sells home décor, seasonal and holiday items and other merchandise.
The 1982 graduate of Mainland Regional High School said the event typically has been very successful in the past.
Cherry Hill resident Dianna Saltmer-Wells and her husband, retired airline pilot Doug Wells, were selling her hand-made products.
“It’s a great place to shop to get unique gifts,” Saltmer-Wells said. “Last year we weren’t even allowed to be open, so it’s a new beginning, a new season.”
The retired English teacher — she worked 35 years at Lindenwold Middle School in Camden County — said there has been a shift in shopping trends favoring mom-and-pop shops.
“Homemade now is the way to go because the malls are failing and mom and pop stores are thriving,” Saltmer-Wells said. “People want homemade, they want stuff because they are home all the time and they are starting to say ‘that needs to be replaced, let’s do this and let’s do that.’”
High school friends Jen Cole, 51, of Wyckoff, Pa., and Kim Stone, 51, of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., were enjoying a real girls weekend with eight others at Stone’s new place on Sixth Street.
It was Cole’s first time in Ocean City but Stone, who grew up in Philadelphia, had visited in the past. Cole said her favorite part was the samples, giveaways and “the nice feeling on the street with the signs. The city makes it welcoming.”
They both said after a year of COVID they really wanted to get away.
“When she texted us and said (she was hosting a girls weekend), there was so much excitement,” Cole said.
“They said they didn’t care if it rained as long as we’re all together,” Stone added.
Stone said her favorite part of Ocean City is shopping and that Stainton’s is her favorite place to shop.
“There’s a little bit of everything,” she said.
The Spotted Whale provided a complimentary mug and coupon, while LEH Soap offered a discount on its exclusive bundles featuring its soaps and other products.
Working the counter at LEH Soap, Barb Pastrana, 55, of Egg Harbor Towship, said it was pretty busy and she was excited to see the sun was coming out.
“It’s usually a very fun weekend,” Pastrana said, adding that it provides a nice experience without the summer crush.
“I think people feel a little more comfortable and the crowds aren’t here yet,” Pastrana said. “People just want to get out of the Philly area, come down for the day and go back.”
Diamond Barre Fitness presented high-energy, low-impact, total-body workouts Saturday and Sunday mornings. A couple of hour-long classes were added to the schedule for Girls Weekend.
Owner Holly Wentz, a 2009 Ocean City High School graduate, and instructor Samantha Wenstrom, both 30-year-old Marmora residents, said it was a little slow Saturday morning but they had high hopes for Sunday.
“I think it matched up with spring break so a lot of people went away,” Wentz said, adding that the business has benefited from the event in the past.
“Usually we have a lot of people that come down and I have regular clients who have joined because they attended the Girls Weekend classes,” she said.
Diamond Barre offers dance-based fitness classes, pilates and other classes in the studio, via livestream and on the beach. The latter two were innovations born of necessity during the state shutdown in 2020.
“We were closed for six months last year so we decided to start offering classes on the beach,” Wentz said, adding that they will resume daily starting Memorial Day weekend.
The business survived the pandemic by offering virtual, live-streamed classes until July, when they started the beach classes. Wentz then offered in-studio classes but at half-capacity — eight students instead of 15 or so.
She now hosts one live-streamed class a week as well as prerecorded classes at diamondbarrefitness.com.
“COVID definitely opened up a lot of different avenues that we would not have taken before, and they’re still all here,” Wentz said.
Shopping at B&B, Tara Landis, and Jess Brown, both 41, of Lansdale, Pa., said they came down to do some work on Brown’s parents’ home and for “a weekend away without the kids.”
They said it was their fourth year attending Girls Weekend in the resort and there usually are four of them but one couldn’t make it and another just opted out.
“But we’re still here,” Landis said.
They were shopping, dining out and “not cooking.” They had dinner Friday night at The Crab Trap in Somers Point, ate breakfast Saturday morning at Sunrise Café and planned to go to Jon and Patty’s Coffee Bar & Bistro for dinner.
“It just feels nice to have a lot of other people around,” Brown said. “Last year it was really quiet but now it seems a lot more normal.”
