Postcard from Avalon, New Jersey

For Tribeca-based accessories designer Joy Gryson (her lines include Gryson and Olivia Harris by Joy Gryson), Avalon is the beloved family destination. It’s where the rush of big city life is left behind and long, care-free summer days are spent at a Victorian beach house that’s been in Gryson’s husband’s family for over forty years. “Every year gets filled with new great memories. We fill the house with family and friends, cats and dogs—always too many people for the amount of beds we have, so [my husband] usually ends up sleeping on the front porch. We play charades as a family and road rally treasure hunts, it is just so much fun,” she says.

As if family BBQs, games of ping pong, and outdoor showers weren’t enough to make this place the quintessential destination to summer with the kids, Gryson mentions that “you cannot drive over 25 miles per hour anywhere on the island, and time seems to have stopped in 1959.” We’re betting even the most iPad-addicted tykes will love harking back to simpler times in Avalon.