Day at the beach a reprieve for some, others wary
Labor Day a last chance to soak up some sun
Samantha Davidson was spending the day Monday at Ocean Beach Park in New London with her four young daughters and said it felt liberating to be outdoors.
The upstate New York resident had been looking for activities to keep her small kids busy during the summer that didn’t entail being indoors or in a small confined area, like a bouncy house.
“To be able to come out to the beach and just be free and just enjoy the fresh air and see the kids just running around, it helps to remind you that even when things are really awful, as they are, that there’s still just beauty in nature and being outdoors,” Davidson said.
Davidson was taking her second trip to the area this summer after first visiting last weekend with her friends, all nurses at a hospital in upstate New York. She said she was swept away by how pretty it was at the beach and decided to bring her children. The family also spent three
weeks at Cape Cod and has been spending more time outside in nature than in summers past.
On Labor Day, many people, like Davidson, were enjoying the sunny day, with temperatures in the 70s, at the region’s beaches. During a hot and humid summer, with restrictions due to COVID-19, many people flocked to beaches and parks to find solace outdoors and opportunities for recreation, when many of their typical summer activities were canceled.
Other people, however, said they mostly stayed home this summer and avoided public spaces due to concerns over the coronavirus.
Despite a challenging summer during the pandemic, Ocean Beach Park remained open, and people appreciated that, said Ocean Beach manager Dave Sugrue. He said people called every day to thank him for making the park available, with many people feeling that the outdoors is essential, especially for mental health.
“More people than ever wanted to come here this summer between the weather and the lack of other activities,” he said. “Unfortunately, we had to turn away a lot of people, probably hundreds of thousands of people.”
The beach encouraged people coming from far away not to travel, because they could drive a long distance only to find the park had reached capacity.
Ocean Beach, like others in the region, implemented restrictions, including telling people to keep 6 feet from other people, maintain 15 feet between beach blankets, limit groups to five people from the same household and wear face masks when close to other people and at concessions, restrooms, and attractions.
Kristyne Chagnon and her husband, Earl, and sons Ellis, 6, and Thomas, 8, of Chicopee, Mass., were spending time at Ocean Beach but keeping an eye on the crowd size.
“We’ve been nowhere all summer for obvious reasons, so we took a little trip out nice and early, and if it gets busy, we’ll get out of here,” said Kristyne.
The family had spent most of the summer at her parents’ pool but decided to do a couple of beach days at the end of the summer. She and her sons went to the beach about 10 days ago and found people were spaced out along the beach, so they decided to get one more beach day in before the end of the summer.
As she sat at the beach with her nephew, Lira Morrison of Albany, N.Y., she said they had avoided the beach for most of the summer because they were concerned about the coronavirus but decided to go for the first time on Monday to catch the good weather before it gets colder.
She said they wore their masks to their spot on the beach and felt comfortable because they were outdoors and people were socially distancing so there was less contact with other people.
At Rocky Neck State Park in East Lyme, people also were told to keep 15 feet between blankets and stick to groups of no more than five people from their immediate family. State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesman Will Healey said shoreline beaches were generally operating at one third to half capacity.
State parks saw higher demand this summer and reached capacity and closed 519 times this season, compared to 161 times last year, he said.
While he noted that capacity restrictions were in place this year that weren’t last year, he said it still shows a high demand for outdoor areas.
Rocky Neck, for example, saw double the number of cars from mid-March to mid-April, compared to the same period a year ago, he said.
With other recreational opportunities limited for people during the pandemic and people wanting an outlet to destress, they were introduced — or reintroduced — to the physical and mental benefits of spending time in nature, he said.
At Rocky Neck late Monday morning, sisters Sarah Lillis of Suffield and Jen Sullivan of Ellington came to the beach with their daughters to enjoy the last day of summer. The sisters said they’ve been to the beach a couple of times this summer but less than usual due to the pandemic.
“We didn’t know how crowded it was going to be,” said Lillis. “I definitely wouldn’t want to be here if people were on top of each other.”
Sullivan said she felt fine being at the beach on Monday because everyone was spaced out on the sand.
Lillis said she hoped people would continue to keep their distance as the day progressed. After a summer when she didn’t enjoy many of the activities she used to — such as her favorite restaurants in Rhode Island being open for takeout only — she said it felt good to be outdoors. “You have to have some normalcy,” she said.
Mickayla McDonald, 18, of Windsor, who moved from Florida two years ago, was spending her first day Monday at a Connecticut beach.
She said she and her best friend had just graduated from high school but weren’t able to go to prom or have a normal graduation because of the pandemic. They wanted to go to the beach on Monday to have fun for the last time before they headed off to college.
Lorrie Belmonte of Bristol was reading a book at Rocky Neck during her second beach day of the season. She had originally planned to go to Rhode Island for vacation, but when it ended up on the travel advisory list, she came to the region instead.
Even with social distancing, she said it felt like a normal beach day.
“It doesn’t really feel any different from any other time, truthfully, even with people staying six feet apart,” she said.
Eastern Point Beach in the City of Groton operated at half capacity this summer, and beach staff had to close the gates three times after the park reached the limit, said Dawn Mather, beach supervisor.
The city sold only season passes this year and not day passes. The beach was open only to city residents on weekends and holidays to help reduce capacity, so staff wouldn’t have to close the parking lot, she said.
City residents and friends Karen Griggs and Diane Pezzolesi were sitting in beach chairs at Eastern Point Beach on Monday. They typically gather near the entrance of the beach with about 10 friends and call themselves the “welcoming committee.”
“We’re like a family here,” said Pezzolesi, who grew up going to the beach.
With the restrictions this summer, they said they felt bad that their friends couldn’t join them this Labor Day at the beach. Some of their friends who don’t live in the city bought beach passes this summer to visit during the week, but others didn’t. They said some of them are elderly, and it’s healthier for them to be outdoors.
But Griggs noted that without the restrictions, it would have been “wall to wall” with crowds of people. “I think this is a lot safer,” she said.
Griggs said people have been following the rules, with even little kids wearing masks.
City of Groton Mayor Keith Hedrick said sales of beach passes were down this year, which he attributes to people concerned about COVID-19 and being anxious about going out to the beach.
Overall, he said the season went well. Though some people were at first unhappy with wearing a mask to and from their spot on the beach, in the end they complied with the rules to enjoy the beach, he said.
“With the reduced numbers, we were able to have the proper social distancing and people were still able to have a good time at the beach, and between social distancing and wearing a mask to and from the cars, people were safe,” Hedrick said.