Where is the greatest place in the world to enjoy July 4th Fireworks? The Jersey Shore, in our opinion!!! Once you have experienced this event at the Jersey Shore, the memories will last a lifetime for you and your family. Fireworks are always more intense when viewed over the water. The reflection over the water coupled with the sounds of the shore make them so much more exciting. When we are lucky to get a clear sky filled with stars over the ocean or bay, fireworks are a thing of beauty. Bring your lawnchair or blanket and check the schedule below to choose your favorite viewing point!!! 
   
   With the gas prices as high as they are, the shore is a short drive for anyone in the Tri-County area. You can probably get here and back on a tank or less of gas. You can also come down for a day trip to enjoy the beaches and activities. Take a break from your schedule and relax. You will go home feeling refreshed.  Let someone else do the cooking!

   The shore is in full swing, please allow us to help you find accommodations, dining, shopping, rental properties and maybe even a new place to call home. Use the town activitiy search below to find out what is happening in your favorite shore town.`
   
   While staying at the Jersey Shore please look for our guidebooks in your room and get plenty of Great Vacation Information in the Great Vacation Guide!!! We are currently placed in over 7,500 guest rooms in the South Jersey Shore Area.

   Our main website GreatVacationGuide.com is a network of all the Great Vacation websites serving all of the New Jersey shore and bays towns in the north, central and southern regions of the state. You’ll find historical, beach and other related information on the central and northern sites at this time. There’s a lot more coming to those sites as we speak.

For those who have yet to select their accommodations, check out www.GreatVacationShoreRentals.com – one of our sister websites – and www.GreatVacationPropertyRentals.com – still another of our sites – for accommodation information.

Are you searching for your weekly vacation rental property?

   Great Vacation News! We’ve changed the world for vacation property owners and vacationers.
Our service is called:  GreatVacationShoreRentals.com  - and it provides all you need to find the perfect vacation rentals!   How is it different from other listing services? It’s very different, but you’ll need to log on now to discover what makes us unique. Log on now and learn why we refer to ourselves as”…your Direct Connection.”  Our sister site GreatVacationGuide.com  provides you all of the tools you’ll need to plan every detail of your next Great Vacation!

2008 Photo Contest
Something New...Please send in your olde time shore photos for a new category! We are going to start putting up new slideshows very soon!

Please join our Photo Contest for 2008! Send us copies of your favorite photos from “…down the shore.” Include your name, address and phone number so we can properly identify your photo if it’s featured. We’re running a special contest featuring photos that are shown in the newsletter during the year, and the best photos chosen by Great Vacation newsletter readers will be in the final competition. Winners will receive wonderful prizes, and the best photos will appear in the newsletter, and also in 2009 Great Vacation in-room guides!
Send all photos here info@greatvacationguide.com

All photos must be no larger than 640 pixels wide and 72 dpi ( formats can be .jpg - . jpeg - .gif )
All photos submitted and/or used become the property of Successful Seasons and Great Vacation enterprises.  Proper credit/acknowledgement will be given to those who have taken the photos.

The Robert Shackleton Playhouse is poised to erupt with laughter and brim overflow with romance as Cape May Stage, Cape May’s premier professional Equity theatre, presents Noel Coward’s classic comedy Private Lives, running July 2nd through August 16th, 2008.

   In Private Lives, passion, laughter, romance, anger, and love set the stage for a classic battle of the sexes. On the terrace of an elegant hotel in the resort town of Deauville, France, we meet two unsuspecting newlywed couples: Elyot and Sibyl Chase, and Victor and Amanda Prynne. Sophisticated Elyot and glamorously self-reverential Amanda were each previously married, a matter which causes some anxiety for their new spouses. In fact, they were married to each other!  When they meet unexpectedly on the adjoining balconies of their honeymoon suites, passions are rekindled and old wounds re-opened as they scratch and claw their way towards true love.

   Hailed by The New York Times as a “gorgeous, dazzling, fantastically funny, brilliant comedy,” Private Lives will be directed by Michael Carleton, whose previous directing credits at Cape May Stage include The Price, Moonlight & Magnolias, Going to St. Ives, The Woman in Black, and Hyde, In the Shadows.

   Chicago-based actor Mark Rector and Philadelphia-based actress Grace Gonglewski assume the leading roles of Elyot and Amanda in Cape May Stage’s six-week production. Rector, previously seen in Moonlight and Magnolias (2007), Around the World in 80 Days (2005), Hyde, in the Shadows (2004), returns for his eighth season to share the spotlight with Barrymore Award winner Grace Gonglewski. Ms. Gonglewski, the recipient of four Barrymore Awards, F. Otto Haas Award, and the Dorothy Haas Fellowship, has appeared most recently at Cape May Stage in Going to St. Ives (2007), The Guys (2005) and Park Your Car in Harvard Yard (2004).  These Cape May favorites will appear alongside New York-based actor Rob Maitner (previously seen in 2006’s The Big Bang) as Victor and newcomer and Orlando based-actress Kristin Collins in the role of Sybil.

   Noel Coward (December 16, 1899 - March 26, 1973) was an English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music. His celebrity reached a peak in 1930 with "Private Lives," by which time he had become the highest earning author in the western world. With the onset of World War II he redefined the spirit of the country in films such as This Happy Breed (1944), In Which We Serve (1942), Blithe Spirit (1945) and, perhaps most memorably, Brief Encounter (1945).  As well as over fifty published plays and many albums' worth of original songs, Coward also wrote comic revues, poetry, several excellent volumes of short stories, a novel (Pomp and Circumstance, 1960), and three volumes of autobiography. The late 1960s saw a revival in his popularity, with several new productions of his 1920s plays and a number of revues celebrating his music. He was knighted in 1970 and died in 1973. He is buried in Firefly Hill, Jamaica.

   This show previews on Wednesday, July 2^nd and ticket prices that evening will be half-price. The official opening night performance will be the following night, Thursday July 3^rd with an after party at the King Edward Bar at the Chalfonte Hotel on Howard Street immediately after the performance.

   During the current run Cape May Stage is participating with 18 Cape May gourmet restaurants in a money-saving “Dinner & A Show” package promotion - a special night out. Restaurants involved in the promotion include 410 Bank Street, Aleathea’s, The Blue Pig Tavern, Bloody Mary’s Bar and Grill, Café Promenade, Café Verandah at the Hotel Alcott, Copper Fish, Cucina Rosa, The Ebbitt Room, Frescos, The Mad Batter, Martini Beach, Merion Inn, Oyster Bay Restaurant & Bar, The Pier House, Tisha’s Fine Dining, Union Park, and The Washington Inn. Call the individual restaurants for reservations and information.

   “Private Lives” performances are Tuesdays thru Sundays at 8pm thru August 16^th at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse of the Cape May Stage. Tickets are $35 adults, $25 seniors, and $12.50 students. Call (609) 884-1341 or (click here)

This production is generously sponsored by La Mer Beachfront Inn and co-sponsored by Capri Motor Lodge.

East Lynne Theater Company presents "The Little Princess"

   "You are not a princess now! You will take off that ridiculous dress and change into something black. And another thing – the room you have occupied on the second floor is no longer yours. From now on, you'll sleep in the attic." These cruel words were spoken by Miss Minchin to young Sara Crewe.
     The year is 1890, and the location is Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies in London, in the enduring 1905 classic, "A Little Princess," written by the English-American, Frances Hodgson Burnett. Most people know the story through the 1939 film starring Shirley Temple. Burnett's other novels include "Little Lord Fauntleroy" and "The Secret Garden."
      After only ten, three-hour sessions, ten students, ages 10-13, who are part of the Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company's Student Theater Workshop, will perform an adaptation of the novel, under the title "The Little Princess," on Tues., July 8, at 8:00pm, at The First Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes St., Cape May, where the company is in residence. Admission is free and families are welcome. Last year's "Alice in Wonderland" was performed before a standing-room only audience of over 220.
     Like last year, the production is under the direction of ELTC's Artistic Director, Gayle Stahlhuth, who has taught theater workshops in schools throughout the country, receiving funding mostly through The National Endowment for the Arts, and the arts councils in the following states: New York, New Jersey, Utah, and Wyoming.  
     Also helping with the production are ELTC's Production Assistant, Caitlin Wallace, who currently attends the University of Wyoming, and is in her fifth year of working with the company, and ELTC's Technical Director, Lee O'Connor.
     Meanwhile, the seven-character 1923 Philip Barry comedy, "You and I," is only running Wednesdays through Saturdays through July 12. (There is no show on Fri. July 4, but an added show on Sun. July 6.)  On July 16, the world premiere Jerome Kern musical revue, "All the Things You Are," begins a two-week run. 
     For information about the workshop, mainstage season, touring shows, and education outreach, and to make reservations, call 609-884-5898, or (click here).

Frescos
412 Bank Street
Cape May, NJ 08204
1-609-884-0366

   A Seafood Trattoria Voted "Best Fine Italian Restaurant" by the readers of New Jersey Monthly, this charming restaurant in an 1880 Victorian carriage house, gets raves from visitors and locals alike. Dine on the front porch or the Tuscan inspired dining rooms, and you might as well be vacationing on the Mediteranean. And the food? "Divine, marvelous and creative"" raves ZAGAT, "Exceptional, the seafood tastes as if just plucked from the sea" writes the NY Times. The cuisine is inspired by the many regions of italy, and the bountiful fish and seafood of Caper May. Award-winning young chef Cotton Raph brings incredible creativity to the menu--from the justly famous grilled Tuscan garlic bread to chilled melon soup, to a dazzling display of shrimp, lobster, crab, seafoods and sauces, and desserts that make the guests shout with delight. This is not the Italian restaurant you find back home. And when you visit Frescos, do as the regulars do, come early and feast on the famous osso-bucco, made in small quantities so it runs out quickly. Amazing food, super nice service makes for a Cape May evening you won't forget. (click here)