Rehoboth Beach

BEACH NEWS A bucketful of fun in Rehoboth Summer is the time for sand castles along the seashore. Some people build for fun, while others get competitive. Sand castle contests are a beach tradition in coastal cities from Nantucket, Mass., to Rehoboth Beach, Del., to Galveston, Texas. This month, the governor of Maine even declared a "Build a Sand Castle Day." In Rehoboth Beach, the sand castle contest has been a summertime event for nearly 30 years. The 29th Annual Sandcastle Contest, held Aug. 4 at Fisherman's Beach, drew about 100 teams for a total of 800 competitors.

WHAT'S NEW Beach shuttle service Crossing Ocean Highway with kids and coolers in tow just got a little easier in Ocean City. Beachgoers can now turn to e-cruzers, an east-west shuttle service that will ferry vacationers from the bayside to the beach and back. The open-air vehicles have professional drivers, can carry six passengers plus gear and are powered by rechargeable batteries. "We're not adding to traffic congestion or pollution; we're reducing it by giving people a safe and convenient way to get to the beach," says Russell G. Rankin, founder and president of e-cruzers, who ran a test trial of the shuttle last summer.

The Bethany Beach area lives up to its billing as a "quiet resort," but that doesn't mean nothing ever changes. In fact, several new places to eat and shop are cropping up this season. Here are just a few of them: Berry Good Treats, 108 Garfield Parkway, Bethany Beach, 302-537-9679. This downtown ice-cream/doughnut shop has been renovated and is under new management. It also has an outdoor water station for dogs and serves Frosty Paws frozen dog treats. Steakhouse 26, 238 Atlantic Ave., Millville, 302-539-0626.

On Wednesday, August 15, 2007, JANE E. DUVALL, 53, of Rehoboth Beach, DE, formerly of Baltimore, MD, devoted wife of Philip O. Duvall, beloved daughter of Doris M. Schaum and the late Robert F. Schaum. Graveside service will be held on Monday, August 20, 12 P.M., at Mariner's Bethel Cemetery, Ocean View, DE. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Mariner's Bethel United Methodist Church, 81 Central Avenue, Ocean View, DE, 19970. Arrangements by Hastings Funeral Home, Selbyville, DE,

With modest pay and rigorous workouts, it's tough to find qualified lifeguards -- and even tougher to keep them all summer -- beach patrol officials say.By mid-August, many lifeguards will quit their jobs to return to school, leaving parks, beaches and private pools struggling to keep full staffs in the waning weeks of summer."

IT IS AN ARTICLE of faith shared by Baltimoreans that the annual summertime getaway to the Maryland and Delaware beaches is long, exasperating and arduous. Even though the mileage from my family's Guilford Avenue doorstep to Rehoboth Beach is but 114 miles, that distance measured in mental anguish is regarded as halfway to Toronto.The traffic was lighter and the roads about the same in the 1950s when my Uncle Jack Monaghan loaded his station wagon for the beach the last Saturday in June.In those more leisurely days we closed the old rowhouse for the summer and took off for a little brown-shingle frame cottage perched on a sand dune.

Nearly a week after erratic Dennis began threatening the mid-Atlantic region, officials in Ocean City and on the Delaware shore were dealing with a new problem yesterday -- a thick coating of salt on electrical lines that has caused intermittent power outages throughout Delmarva.As the meandering tropical storm and its 60-mph winds lingered about 190 miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C. -- as it has for days -- authorities in Maryland and Delaware said they were going ahead with plans for a relatively normal, albeit cloudy, Labor Day weekend.

Larry Wayne Braswell, 57, X-ray technician for stateLarry Wayne Braswell, a retired Maryland state employee, died Monday of an aneurysm at Gaston Memorial Hospital in Gastonia, N.C., where he resided. He was 57.He was a mobile chest X-ray technician and air-quality-control sample-taker for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for 27 years. He retired in 1989 and moved to Gastonia, where he was a security guard at Dixie Yarns.Born in Gastonia, he moved to Rosedale as a child and attended Kenwood High School.

OVER THE YEARS, I've watched Baltimoreans grow anxious and fretful at the whisper of that nasty phrase: out-of-town travel.We just don't like to move about. We stay glued in one place. I think of my own family. It's resided in all of three Baltimore zip codes since 1760.But our passports aren't entirely blank. I speak of the hot-weather exemption, the summer vacation.Baltimoreans aren't real happy about this one -- even if it's just the three hours it takes to drive to Ocean City, Ocean Pines, Fenwick Island, Bethany or Rehoboth Beach.

REHOBOTH BEACH - A train of receipts runs over the checkout clerk's sensible shoes, which are untied for additional comfort. After six decades of service, these feet should be barefoot on the beach.Eleanor Lingo has been behind the counter at Lingo's Market for 60 of the store's 100 years. Three generations of shoppers have checked through Mrs. Lingo's stubby counter, where there's no room for groceries to stretch out. Three generations of shoppers have, perhaps, wondered whether Mrs. Lingo rang up all their items in the heap.

What happened to summer? It seems to have disappeared faster than a tub of Thrasher's fries. Luckily, the weather is still summer-appropriate even though the kids are returning to school and yellow leaves are beginning to sprinkle the sidewalk. For now, we're giving fall the strong arm while we reminisce about our vacation by the shore. Over the past few months, we've been taking a dip in the ocean scene and finding the best of the beach. Our Baltimore Sun bloggers have been checking out the coast from Rehoboth Beach, Del., to Ocean City and beyond.

Salt air blowing through his hair and sun shining on his face, Justin Grossman was getting in a good ride just a block away from the Atlantic Ocean. True, Justin hasn't quite mastered pedaling because he's only 2. But soon enough he'll be hitting all the Rehoboth Beach area streets and trails with vigor, like his mother, Robin Grossman, and others who use their annual beach vacations to get some rays on their skin and some miles under their belts. The Maryland-Delaware oceanfront increasingly is attracting a crowd that wants to bike, as well as run and swim - even compete, according to those who organize workouts and races and market equipment.

Sophisticated travelers who zealously journey to exotic shores have discovered magnificent beaches nearby, on the Delaware shore. The beaches are ranked among the cleanest in the U.S., with soft, golden sand and heaping dunes. Formerly deemed "the quiet resorts," Delaware's coastal towns - Lewes, Rehoboth, Dewey and Bethany/Fenwick Island - are revered today for their chic shops, year-round eclectic dining scene and progressive music and arts vibe. Lewes, a once-sleepy bayside town, has suddenly awakened with a jolt of energy and a groovy, granola aura.

Ready for the shore, but not sure you can afford to go? Our annual Beach Guide has the lowdown on how to have good, cheap fun in Ocean City, Rehoboth Beach, Del., Wildwood, N.J., and Virginia Beach, Va. Look for it in The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday.

Woman beaten, fatally shot outside nightclub A 25-year-old woman was fatally wounded and two other women were injured early yesterday in a shooting attack outside a nightclub in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, city police said. Police are looking for the woman who fired the gun. Sctario Tia Edwards of Baltimore was beaten with a pipe and shot several times about 2 a.m. outside Coconuts Cafe in the 300 block of W. Madison St., according to Detective Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman.

Rehoboth Beach Chocolate Festival Where:: Rehoboth Beach Convention Center, 229 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach, Del. When:: 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday What:: The 19th annual festival is all about chocolate, with tastings, gourmet samples, raffles and children's games. The heart of the festival is the Chocolate Baking Contest, open to kids and amateurs, as well as restaurants and professionals chefs. Categories include cookies, brownies, pies, cheesecake, candy and "most unusual."

Lalage "Lee" Lott & M. Denis Kail were joyfully united in marriage on Saturday, November 15, 2008 at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in downtown Annapolis, MD. The wedding couple's immediate families are deceased but were very much part of their nuptial ceremony in spirit. With his wife Gillian, Stephen Willgress, the bride's first cousin, flew in from Tipperary, Ireland to give the bride away. The groom's step-son Lenny Cook was the best man & his wife, Lou Ann Cook, was the matron of honor.

I just returned from an off-season trip to Rehoboth Beach, Del. I also headed over to Cape May, N.J., for a day trip, taking the ferry from Lewes, Del. Both places were wonderfully uncrowded. That's the beauty of the off-season at the beach. The pace is relaxed and, one hopes, the price is reduced. CheapTickets.com has off-season deals for beach vacations, with a savings of $100 on a four-night package. The Web site has identified the top 10 fall beach destinations where travelers can expect to save money on hotels.

Charles W. Kable Sr., a retired furniture salesman who had earlier been an executive chef and bed-and-breakfast owner, died of cancer June 16 at Delaware Hospice Center in Milford. He was 61. Charles Warriner Kable was born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville. After graduating from Catonsville High School in 1965, he went to work in furniture sales at the old Hutzler's department store on Howard Street. He was later promoted to a buyer in the store's home furnishings department. In 1977, he left Hutzler's and worked as an interior designer in Washington and Annapolis before moving to the Eastern Shore.

For the past 2 1/2 years, we've tried to help Dizzy forget his past. The 50-pound, black-and-tan mutt survived Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the Gulf Coast in 2005 and was brought to Baltimore by the Maryland SPCA. He has mainly become a fit and friendly pooch since landing in our living room as a foster dog and later being adopted by us, but the city's noises and crowds still seem to gnaw at his fragile psyche. We decided he needed a vacation. One late April weekend, my husband, Doug, and I packed up and headed to the small and historic resort town of Lewes, Del., which is about five miles north of Rehoboth Beach and about 15 miles north of Ocean City.