The view from 1,000 feet above Island Beach State Park in New Jersey on Sunday. Andrew Mills/NJ Advance Media via AP After failing to pass a budget, the New Jersey government shut down on Friday.

It was disappointing for those who planned on enjoying the state's beaches over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, which closed as part of "nonessential services."

But there was one New Jerseyan who enjoyed the sand on Sunday — Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

When Island Beach State Park closed in the shutdown, he and his family enjoyed the empty beach outside the state-owned summer house of the governor.

NJ Advance Media photojournalist Andrew Mills took the photos with a long-range lens aboard a small plane that the outlet had booked to capture the crowded beaches for the holiday. But he found Christie instead.

"Most of the time, I get the shots and make a clean getaway. But once in a while, when the eyes meet, you know the jig is up," Mills wrote. "Then again, it wasn't difficult to find him. There Christie was, with family and friends, on a long and empty stretch of beach near the governor's shore residence, nobody else within a country mile."

At a press conference afterward, Christie was asked if he enjoyed the beach on Sunday.

"I didn't," he said. "I didn't get any sun today."

When NJ.com posted the photos, the governor's spokesman, Brian Murray, had to clarify that Christie was, in fact, at the beach.

"He did not get any sun," Murray said. "He had a baseball hat on."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie uses the beach with his family and friends at the governor's summer house at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey on Sunday, July 2, 2017. Andrew Mills/NJ Advance Media via AP

The least popular governor in America, Christie saw his approval rating dip to a record low 15% in June. When asked about his unpopularity at the time, he replied, "I don't care."

On Sunday, Christie blamed the state shutdown on the legislature and said he'd sign any budget lawmakers sent him. State lawmakers are deadlocked on the $34.7 billion budget.

The photos went viral online on Sunday night, and Christie defended his actions in interviews with local Fox affiliates on Monday morning.

"They actually caught a politician being where he said he was going to be with the people he said he was going to be with, his wife and children and their friends. I am sure they will get a Pulitzer for this one," he told Fox 5 in New York. "They caught me doing what I said I was going to do with the people I said I was going to be with."

When Fox 29 in Philadelphia asked him about the photos and why he was enjoying the beach when the public couldn't, Christie said, "I'm sorry they're not the governor."