Thousands of visitors flocked to Jersey Shore beachfronts on Labor Day. Watch video
After consecutive summers of being extremely uncooperative, Mother Nature had a change of heart this Labor Day weekend and gave visitors plenty of sunshine to enjoy during summer's traditional curtain call.
As a result, beaches and boardwalks up and down the Jersey Shore were packed on Monday.
"If we get a nice day before it gets too cold I'm sure we'll try to get back down here again, but Labor Day is really the last hurrah before it starts to get cold out," Freehold resident Steve Capelli said while hanging out with a group of friends on the beach near Pier Village in Long Branch on Monday.
Thousands of beachgoers flocked to the Point Pleasant Boardwalk on Labor Day 2015. (Rob Spahr | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)RELATED: Shore towns, beachgoers hoping for fitting end to 'record' summer
While beachfront parking in some shore towns was priced as high as $30 on Monday, Belmar wiped away all of its fees for beachfront parking and beach tags for the day.
"Today, Labor Day, is the unofficial last day of the summer season and it has been our best summer ever here in Belmar," Mayor Matt Doherty said. "We've had record-breaking revenue this summer thanks to the hundreds of thousands of people who chose to come to Belmar this summer. So as a small showing of appreciation and thanks, we decided to offer both free beach parking and free beach access today. And hopefully by ending the summer with a free day at the beach, it will give people a good feeling heading into next summer."
Belmar's previous high for beach tag revenue was approximately $3.2 million in 2010. Through Monday, the borough had brought in more than $3.7 million, Doherty said.
"The weather really worked with us this year. The summer tourism season was also longer this year. We had more weeks to work with, because Memorial Day was earlier and Labor Day was about as late as it could have been," Doherty said. "We know we're not going to have those kinds of summers too often, so we're fortunate to be in a financial position where we're literally able to squirrel away some of this year's revenue and literally save it for a rainy day."
Long Branch was also ahead of its 2014 beach tag sales with about two week left before Labor Day and on Monday, the city's beachfront was packed.
Many shore-area businesses benefited from this year's busier tourism season, regardless of how much of the summer they were open for.
The Marina restaurant in Oceanport opened the week before The Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park Racetrack and borough officials say it has consistently had good crowd. As has Tommy's Tavern & Tap in Sea Bright, which has seemingly been packed every night since it opened in a former Post Office building that was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.
One of the Jersey Shore's newest businesses locations - Gracie and the Dudes Organic Ice Cream in Pier Village - was only open for about two weeks before Labor Day.
"Things have been going good so far. And the more that people have started to notice that the store is open, it's been getting increasingly busy," Gabrielle Granier, an employee at the Long Branch location, said on Monday. "Yesterday was really busy here and at our other store in Sea Bright, the line was literally and onto the sidewalk, which was busier than the Fourth of July."
In Point Pleasant Beach, crowds were still arriving at the boardwalk well past 6 p.m. on Monday.
However, after the sun went done the focus of many moved away from summer and to the long ride home, and the great things that are yet to come.
"I don't really want summer to be over, but I feel like I'm a little bit ready for fall," said Eatontown resident Audrey Bigliotti, while playing in the sand on a Long Branch beach with her 1-year-old daughter, Joyce. "I get excited for pumpkin coffee and that's out now, so it's like the season's turning already."
There was something else that Bigliotti said she was looking forward to now that the traditional summer season is over.
"Less traffic," she said.
Rob Spahr may be reached at rspahr@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheRobSpahr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.