Today is a festive occasion in the town of Brielle, NJ. A celebration shared by most local towns; many groups and organizations get together to promote one of the years most important festivals in this area - appropriately named Brielle Day. Carnival rides, craft tents, beer wagons, food vendors and a multitude of games, foot races, art displays, benefits and just about every local chapter of "do-gooders" arrive early to set up for the huge crowds that swarm to this event every September. There is a saying that should you need to plan an important outdoor event, such as a wedding, plan it to coincide with Brielle Day. This is because in the decades of having this particular day - it has never rained! Well, today that record was broken, and not by just any normal rainfall. It took a tropical storm (Hanna) to put the kibosh to this day, but not until mid-afternoon - long after throngs of thousands had already enjoyed most of the festivities. About 3:00 pm, the clouds that had been rolling in broke loose, and the deluge began! Literally, the skies just opened up and dumped huge amounts of water on the scattering crowds, who really didn't care too much as they had made the most of the event by showing up early. I was there, with both my wife and camera. We managed to enjoy 4-5 hours before we made for the shelter of my Ford F150, and made the slow ride home in torrential rain, high winds and many downed wires. I'm sharing some photos that speak for themselves of the fun that this show generates. It's has always been a special day for me, as I spent many years here at this event sharing a vendor tent with my Dad, selling his hand carved birds - skilled objects of art that have won just about every juried bird carving show in the state. I've always been proud to help him sell these birds, which would collect from $25.00 for some of the simple, basic shore birds up to thousands for the more elite of his collections; lifelike recreations of birds that took a very close scrutiny to determine they were indeed carved and not real! We folded up this tent a few years back when arthritis began taking it's toll on his hands, but I still enjoy coming here to share in the event by being on the other side of the counter. So - for your viewing pleasure, here's what the day looked like before the storm.

Very nice, thanks for all the wonderful pictures! My cousin got married on Saturday in South Eastern Mass. I went home for the wedding, trying to escape Hanna and well, it followed me to the wedding. All and all everything went well.