Jersey Shore

LOOKING FOR a change of location for this summer's fun-in-the-sun family vacation? You might want to consider Ocean City. No, not that Ocean City. We're talking Ocean City, Md. A few clicks less than 150 miles southeast of Philadelphia City Hall, this Ocean City offers the familiar - but in a somewhat different setting. Visitors from the Delaware Valley will likely find the seaside town - which, like so many Jersey Shore resorts, is on a barrier island - most similar to Wildwood.

JERSEY SHORE, Pa. - If you travel to this small riverfront town with the odd name, don't expect to find TV's Snooki and The Situation or see wide sandy beaches with a boardwalk and a big blue ocean. They're in another state, 250 miles to the east. But if you want to drive along the western branch of the Susquehanna River, view the changing fall foliage in the surrounding mountains, hike or bike a 65-mile trail along scenic Pine Creek, or fish and hunt in nearby state parks and forests, then this north-central Pennsylvania town of 4,000 would be worth the four-hour drive from Philadelphia.

It's a happy, happy day for the Garden State: Jersey Shore has decided to pack up and leave. (That'd be the TV show, not the locale, though I wouldn't mind if Wildwood took a hiatus.) On Thursday, MTV said the coming sixth season of its educational reality show will be its last, "bringing the party to a close after three years, two continents and one lil' bambino     (not to mention countless punch-ups, blowouts and catchphrases). " The final season will premiere Oct. 4, but the cabler will have a full slate of programming to say goodbye to Paul "Pauly D. " DelVecchio , Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino , Jennifer "JWoww" Farley , Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi , and the rest of the cast.

Editor's Note: Due to a technical error, a feature story on the MTV program "Jersey Shore" that was written by Yvonne Villarreal of the Los Angeles Times appeared briefly on philly.com as a column written by Chuck Darrow of the Philadelphia Daily News. LOS ANGELES - Like a tan growing pale, "Jersey Shore" is fading into the TV sunset. Thursday marks the beginning of its sixth season - its last. It began as just another low-budget MTV reality show, with lower expectations, that would chronicle the fist-pumping antics of its ultra-bronzed, ultra-average stars cooped up in a house in Seaside Heights, N.J. But when the series aired in December 2009, it quickly and curiously morphed into a surprisingly potent pop force that made "Snooki" a household name and turned an unknown cast into late-night punch lines.

And so the great cultural experiment draws to a close. In this week's fourth-season finale, the dim denizens of Jersey Shore ended their long exile in Florence. So what did we, the viewers, learn? (Pauly D and the gang clearly learned nothing.) For one thing, that Italy was an inspired destination. If any world leader can endorse the "gym, tan, laundry" lifestyle, it's Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Although I believe he refers to it as palestra, abbronzatura, lavanderia . I think we can also agree that classy is the same in any language.

Justin Bieber hurt his head during a Paris concert Thursday, even lost consciousness for a bit, but not before, trouper that he is, he wrapped up the set. J-Bieb, 18, walked into a glass wall, sustaining what docs later called a concussion. He sang the closer, then passed out backstage, says he, for 15 secs. He tweeted later that you "gotta laugh at yourself sometimes. " All this a day after girl riots in Oslo. TMZ relays unconfirmed reports of 49 young women hurt, unseriously, and 14 taken to hospitals during a free short Bieber set at the Oslo Opera House.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - In this beach vacation haven, home to the largest number of Jersey Shore summer rentals, they really thought they would be cleaning up this season - and not just from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Ocean City, along with most other Cape May County barrier-island towns, sustained far less damage than many northern beach communities. Recovery of public spaces and rental properties has been swift in a place that counts on the lucrative summer tourism season. Other places, such as Seaside Heights in Ocean County, where Sandy pulled amusement rides into the surf and destroyed miles of boardwalk and hundreds of homes, were not as lucky.

Not every day at the Jersey Shore can be 80 and sunny. That's when it's time to explore the alternate universe: shopping. You could head for the Atlantic City outlets, but you'd be missing out on the novel spots that dot the coast. Here are my favorites, in a handful of Shore towns: Ocean City has two main shopping hubs. The first, obviously, is the boardwalk, lined with T-shirt stores, eateries, rides, and mini-golf courses. Three stores to hit: The Islander , which sells quality women's fashions geared to 20- to 30-year-olds, plus some men's items and home accents; Air Circus , with every kind of kite imaginable (easy to spot from anywhere on the boardwalk since kites usually are flying on the beach in front of the store)

THERE IS no more enthusiastic mayor around than Len Desiderio, Sea Isle's capo for the last 20 years. Desiderio makes Ed Rendell look like Rip Van Winkle. When spirits were at their worst in town after Sandy, he organized what he has called the world's longest ribbon-cutting, opening the ocean during Presidents' Day weekend with a ribbon the length of the Sea Isle Promenade, about two miles, with hundreds of people holding it up. "I don't mind saying, we are the best place for a family to come," said Desiderio.

Heading to the Shore over an expressway isn't for everyone. Some folks prefer the backroads. But for the experienced trekker, writing down the names of the roads can be tricky. Notes can include phrases such as "past the car dealerships," "that farm stand with the peaches," "that graveyard" and "666. " Jersey Shore backroads can be hard to pin down. Except for adventurous drivers wandering off the Atlantic City Expressway or Garden State Parkway's standard routes with a map or GPS in hand, most Shore routes were handed down by parents and grandparents.

LAVALLETTE, N.J. - Yes, they were here to show off the rebuilt boardwalk in this picturesque seaside town, with its touching buy-a-board messages such as "This too shall pass" etched into the compressed pine planks. But as much as they were peddling the "Jersey Shore is open" message on this foggy morning, neither Mayor Walter "Wally" LaCicero nor Gov. Christie tried to obscure some tough realities facing the Shore as it ushers in its first summer post-Sandy. Christie acknowledged that the fate of the blue-collar summer-home owner - a demographic that gives the Shore so much of its character - is particularly at risk since the Oct. 29 storm.

Before we do anything, let's address the giant elephant in the room - and we're not talking about Lucy of Margate. Nearly seven months ago, Sandy wrought devastation on the Jersey Shore like never before: The largest Atlantic storm on record created more than $30 billion in damage up and down the state's 127-mile coastline. More than 346,000 structures were damaged or destroyed when Sandy whipped across the state on Oct. 29. Some of the places that held memories so dear for many of us - beaches, homes, boardwalks, piers, shops, amusements, and restaurants - got washed away.

Not every day at the Jersey Shore can be 80 and sunny. That's when it's time to explore the alternate universe: shopping. You could head for the Atlantic City outlets, but you'd be missing out on the novel spots that dot the coast. Here are my favorites, in a handful of Shore towns: Ocean City has two main shopping hubs. The first, obviously, is the boardwalk, lined with T-shirt stores, eateries, rides, and mini-golf courses. Three stores to hit: The Islander , which sells quality women's fashions geared to 20- to 30-year-olds, plus some men's items and home accents; Air Circus , with every kind of kite imaginable (easy to spot from anywhere on the boardwalk since kites usually are flying on the beach in front of the store)

TO ALL THE OBNOXIOUS, yakking, shoving, foul-breathed Central Park pigeon-feeders of New York City who were displaced by Sandy, the gentlefolk of Margate, Ventnor and Longport would like you to know you're welcome to stay this summer. Just don't wear your damn N.Y. Rangers jersey into Maynard's Café, said Ed Berger, president of the Margate Business Association. To which this longtime Longporter visitor might add: _ Do not park on the beach blocks. And no, it doesn't matter that you drive a Bentley.

OF ALL THE images in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy last October, two seemed to linger - that of the unmoored roller coaster in Seaside Heights, and the one of the blown-away section of Boardwalk in Atlantic City. While the former was a real victim of the rain and high winds, the latter was, in many ways, just an unfortunate circumstance. The fallout from a perfect storm, if you will. "It caused a lot of misinformation about the damage from the storm and we have spent the last months trying to recover from that," said John Palmieri, executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, overseer of the biggest swath of Shore tourism: the Atlantic City casino district.

LOOKING FOR a change of location for this summer's fun-in-the-sun family vacation? You might want to consider Ocean City. No, not that Ocean City. We're talking Ocean City, Md. A few clicks less than 150 miles southeast of Philadelphia City Hall, this Ocean City offers the familiar - but in a somewhat different setting. Visitors from the Delaware Valley will likely find the seaside town - which, like so many Jersey Shore resorts, is on a barrier island - most similar to Wildwood.

THERE IS no more enthusiastic mayor around than Len Desiderio, Sea Isle's capo for the last 20 years. Desiderio makes Ed Rendell look like Rip Van Winkle. When spirits were at their worst in town after Sandy, he organized what he has called the world's longest ribbon-cutting, opening the ocean during Presidents' Day weekend with a ribbon the length of the Sea Isle Promenade, about two miles, with hundreds of people holding it up. "I don't mind saying, we are the best place for a family to come," said Desiderio.

Update: Prince Harry has ended his short visit to the Shore with Gov. Christie and flown to New York for the next stop on his tour. During his visit, the prince walked on the Seaside Heights Boardwalk with the governor, who presented the royal guest with one of his trademark fleece jackets. SEASIDE HEIGHTS - Prince Harry, as it turns out, will be among the final tourists to take in the sobering sight of the Jet Star roller coaster in the Atlantic Ocean that has defined Hurricane Sandy on the Jersey Shore.

TRENTON - Sometime before the Saturday Night Live appearance, before Shaq stopped by to say hello, before the second nod on Time's "most influential people in the world" list, the governor of New Jersey morphed into something else. He became a bona fide 21st-century celebrity. To America, Chris Christie isn't the governor of the 11th-biggest state, who ushered in a controversial benefits reform plan for public employees. To America, he's the dude from Jersey who almost got into a fight on a boardwalk, as captured by the gossip-mongerers from TMZ.com.

Barbara Scarborough Stewart, 76, of Philadelphia, a longtime administrator at the Veterans Affairs Hospital and a helper and adviser to many, died Monday, April 29, of renal cell carcinoma at her home. An ongoing theme in Mrs. Stewart's life was readiness to aid her many relatives, coworkers, church members, and friends. Help could come in the form of providing a good meal, supplying advice about life or money, offering financial aid, or using her professional knowledge and seniority to nudge others up the employment ladder.