Arts and crafts in Shore towns, and festivals up north.

Spotted poolside at the Congress Hall Hotel in Cape May, a takeoff on the tarp, featuring a unique, self-contained, deployment and retraction mechanism...

Used to be you needed a long memory to think of Asbury Park as a happening town. But look at all the renovation of classic Asbury places like Convention Hall and Paramount Theater, plus the restaurant scene, chic shopping, and like always, the beach. You see why it’s cool again. Or is it hot? Get both this weekend with the 20th annual Asbury Park Jazz Festival. Performers and schedule here.

Grange Furniture Warehouse www.ctdrifters.com/ctdrifters_001.htmin South Hackensack is having a sale of tables, chairs, beds, armoires, sideboards, TV cabinets, sofas, dressers, desks, accessories, and outdoor furniture, with up to 70 percent off today through Saturday. We heard about it from www.topbutton.com; sign up and they send you news about all kinds of sales.

Last Friday, NJ My Way got subscribers looking for Father’s Day gifts a 10 percent discount at the Metro Golf and Fitness Center in Tenafly, where they have simulators with cool 3-D graphics to put Dad in his favorite golf course, virtually.

You may be reading this from your laptop as you “work from home” this morning at the beach house. Or you may be considering heading down the Shore to soak up the first real sunshine of the season this long weekend. Consider us your guide to the summer season, with plenty of ideas and new sights to keep you busy off the beach.

“That looked like a Savannah,” Scott Barnes said. “The Grasshopper is going to fly up like a helicopter.”

If you still haven’t made Mother’s Day reservations, do not abandon hope. We found six culinarily and geographically diverse eateries that told us they would take people who called today.

You can start this weekend off on a good foot at the first ever North Jersey Komen Race for the Cure, Sunday at Branch Brook Park in Newark, to benefit breast cancer research. You can register on the website, or beginning at 7 a.m. on race day at the park.  There’s a 5K run/walk and the 1.5 mile Fun Walk.  NJ My Way is a media sponsor of this event.  Make sure you wave to our cameras!    

Here are some seafood markets/restaurants our food editor Rosalie Saferstein has found where you can have a casual fish dinner or purchase fish to cook at home.