Here in Highland Park, New Jersey

Memorial Day in the U.S.A. is often a signal of the beginning of summer. What do you think of as a sign of summer’s start? I liked how this one marching girl from New Brunswick smiled at me as she passed us at the annual Memorial Day Parade in Highland Park.

I saw this photo of a kid with a big beach ball marching in the Israel Day Parade in New York City in honor of Tel Aviv, and I thought of Robin, who lives in Tel Aviv, and her summer stock meme. Another group had a sign that read “Life’s a Beach.” So is that what life is like in Tel Aviv, Robin?

Summer in New Jersey can also mean traffic. Here we are, stuck in traffic on the way to Sandy Hook. My son’s friend wanted to know why I was taking photos of traffic. My kids don’t ask; they know their mom.

So, is it all worth it? These folks on the beach seem to think so. Note: these beach photos were taken in April, on the first extra warm day of the year. Thankfully, the rest of the spring hasn’t been quite this warm.

For more summer fun, visit Robin’s Summer Stock Sunday.

Are the bushes in the foreground the “beach plums”?

Here’s a detail of what I’m guessing is a beach plum shrub?

On Cape May Times you can see beach plums in full bloom. Cape May is far south of Sandy Hook, at the bottom of the Jersey Shore instead of the top, so blooms start earlier.

Love photographing beach rocks; the smoothness beckons. Do you take beach rock photos?

Lots of gulls.

Detail from the photo above of a gull.

Maybe next time we’ll get a chance to walk this nature trail?

Sky Watch Friday is a photo meme with photos of sunrises, sunsets, blue skies, gray skies, pink skies, dark skies and any other kind of sky posted by bloggers all over the planet.

We had exceptionally warm weather on Sunday, and so we traveled with the traffic to the top of the New Jersey shore to a wonderful beach called Sandy Hook. More Sandy Hook photos coming on Thursday, as part of Sky Watch.

Have you ever been to the Jersey Shore? Where did you go?

For more watery posts, visit Watery Wednesday:

My daughter and I visited the circus in New York City last week. Here are four photos (of the 108 photos I took that day) that have some red. All can be enlarged by clicking. What is this person doing with his body?

My favorite part of the whole Barnum and Bailey Ringling Brothers Circus was the elephants.

These acrobats had dim lighting, but the reds attracted my eye.

One can understand why they call this the Greatest Show on Earth. Everywhere you look on stage, there is some action. One act is starting when the previous finishes its presentation. The dancers with the swinging skirts were marvelous.

For more posts with a lot or a little red, visit Ruby Tuesday:

Last Monday my daughter and I went to New York City. We visited the flower show at Macy’s. The above photo was taken by my daughter. I had to crop out the head of my friend, as my daughter includes anything in aim view in her compositions (she’s only 6).

There were three of these flowered flamingos at the show. I wonder how much money it costs Macy’s to put this on. They also had tour guides taking people around the room explaining all the various flowers. In a recession, won’t they get more lookers than buyers? Perhaps the marketing group likes a crowded store for making more sales.

I took one picture of the tulips outside Macy’s, which I actually preferred to the show inside but the rest of my party was hurrying me on, so I only got this one shot with an overexposed background:

Here’s a posterized version of the above flowers:

Lots of folks gawking at flowers:

How many can you name?

For more flowers, visit Today’s Flowers: