Avalon's Thanksgiving Weekend Starts With a Few October Deadlines

Today, Thursday, October 22, the Avalon Garden Club's Games and Card Party runs at Avalon Community Hall, 3001 Avalon Avenue, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets are $25 and include lunch, and there is a raffle. The Department of Recreation's printed calendar lists the party under October 1. The club's own events page gives today's date, and that is the date to go by.

The card party opens the stretch of the calendar that matters most to anyone who comes down to the Avalon house for the holiday. Most of the Thanksgiving weekend events are free and need no ticket. The few things with a deadline, a phone call, or a price that goes up are concentrated in the next nine days. So is a lot of the season's activity on one block.

The Block That Hosts Most of the Season

Look at Avalon's fall and holiday calendar by address and one stretch keeps coming up. Avalon Community Hall is at 3001 Avalon Avenue. The parking lot at 30th Street and Avalon Avenue hosted the Avalon Seafood Festival on October 10 and hosts Trunk or Treat this Saturday. The Turkey Trot starts and ends there on November 27. Visit Avalon gives its location as 30th and Avalon Avenue, and the Recreation calendar lists it as Avalon Community Hall, which is the same corner. On December 31, the borough's New Year's Eve celebration runs from 3 to 5 p.m. at Surfside Park, 29th Street and Avalon Avenue, and moves into Community Hall if it rains.

The other center is 21st Street and Dune Drive. The Veterans Day Ceremony is held at Veterans Plaza there, and on Snowfest Saturday Santa's sleigh is at 21st and Dune. Between the two corners is the shopping district, where Festive Friday and Snowfest both happen. Nearly the whole off-season calendar fits on a ten-block walk.

The Next Nine Days

Here is the short-notice part of the calendar, in order:

1. Thursday, October 22. The Garden Club Games and Card Party, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Avalon Community Hall. Tickets are $25 through the club, which lists its ticket contact on its events page.
2. Saturday, October 24, morning. The Fall Dune Grass Planting meets at 8:30 a.m. at Avalon Community Hall. The rain date is Sunday, October 25.
3. Saturday, October 24, evening. Trunk or Treat runs 5 to 7 p.m. in the lot at 30th Street and Avalon Avenue.
4. Friday, October 30. According to Visit Avalon's dining directory, The Diving Horse at 2109 Dune Drive is open Thursday through Sunday through this date. The directory is not dated, so call ahead before you plan a last dinner there.
5. Saturday, October 31. This is the shirt deadline for the Turkey Trot, covered below. That evening, Trick or Treat runs from 5 to 8 p.m. across Avalon and Stone Harbor.

If you're on the water this week, the Cape May County Herald reported that dredging at Townsend's Inlet was set to start October 20 because sediment was making it hard for boats to maneuver under the bridge.

Halloween Is Also the Turkey Trot Deadline

The Helen L. Diller Vacation Home for Blind Children Turkey Trot is on Friday, November 27. The 5K starts at 10 a.m. and the 1.5-mile walk follows at 10:05. According to the official RunSignup page, everyone registered by October 31 is guaranteed a long-sleeve performance shirt.

That puts the shirt cutoff on the same day as trick-or-treat, almost four weeks before the race. If you're registering a family, a house full of guests, or a group in matching costumes, do it this week. The race gives awards to the top runners overall and by age group, and to the most festively dressed individual and group.

Signing up late doesn't keep anyone out. Online registration stays open until the start, and the race page shows no participant cap. What a late signup costs is the shirt and, after Thanksgiving night, $10.

The beneficiary is a local institution. The Diller Home describes itself as a summer camp that gives blind and visually impaired children ages 7 to 15 an all-expenses-paid week. It sits in a residential part of Avalon, two blocks from the ocean, at 127 26th Street. The race starts at 30th Street, about four blocks from the camp it supports.

Thanksgiving Day Takes a Phone Call

For anyone who isn't cooking Thursday dinner in a shore kitchen, ICONA Avalon is serving a Thanksgiving buffet in its Seaglass Ballroom on November 26 from 1 to 5 p.m. It costs $59 per adult and $19 per child 12 and under, plus tax, beverages and gratuity. The event listing links to ticketing but says buffet reservations are made separately by calling 609-729-6600, and seating depends on availability. Booking takes a phone call, and a table for a large family gets harder to find the longer you wait.

If you'd rather eat out over the rest of the weekend, Visit Avalon's directory lists several Dune Drive restaurants with steady hours. The Princeton Bar & Grill at 2008 Dune Drive is listed as open daily, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Circle Pizza at 2108 Dune Drive is listed as open Monday through Saturday. Il Posto Ristorante at 2418 Dune Drive is listed for Tuesday through Sunday evenings, and Polpo Ristorante at 3258 Dune Drive opens daily at 4 p.m. At the north end, the directory lists Avalon Brew Pub at 125 79th Street as serving breakfast daily from 7:30 a.m. Holiday weeks change schedules, so check with each restaurant directly.

Friday and Saturday Are Free

Once the paid items are handled, the rest of the weekend needs no planning beyond showing up. Festive Friday runs 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Avalon's shopping district. It has more than 40 free activities, including character meet-and-greets, face painters and balloon artists, and the 7 Mile Business Community Association sponsors it. At 5 p.m., Santa and Mayor McCorristin light the town tree. On Friday, the race at 10 a.m., the shopping district at 11, and the tree lighting at 5 make one continuous day.

Snowfest Saturday, November 28, also runs 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the shopping district. It has bounce houses, obstacle courses, slides, trampolines, a rock wall, ice sculpting and carnival rides. The Avalon Free Public Library sponsors holiday performances throughout the day.

The one thing with a cutoff on Saturday is Santa. His sleigh is at 21st and Dune Drive for family photos, and you have to be in line by 3:30 p.m. That's half an hour before the rest of Snowfest ends, so a family that saves the photo for last can miss it. Plan the visit for midday, when the bounce houses and ice carvers are also running.

Two weeks before all of that, on November 11, the Veterans Day Ceremony starts at 11 a.m. at Veterans Plaza, 21st and Dune Drive, with a ceremony and open house afterward at Stephen C. Ludlam Post 331. After Thanksgiving weekend, the borough's next listed special event is New Year's Eve at Surfside Park.

Where That Leaves the Week

A homeowner who handles three things before Halloween has the holiday covered. Register the household for the Turkey Trot by October 31 to get the shirts. Call ICONA if Thursday dinner is going to be the buffet. Get Garden Club tickets today if the card party is on your list. Nothing else from the October card party to the tree lighting needs advance planning, and most of it happens between 21st and 30th Streets.

When the guests leave and you're back walking the block between Community Hall and Surfside Park, your Avalon house may come up, whether that's how it holds up through another winter or what it might become in a few years. If you want to talk through either one, Marialena Recupero is glad to look at it with you, through four decades of building and renovating homes in Cape May County. Let's Connect.