Five Days In New Jersey

When we finally had a chance to greet our very busy 15 year old grandson Michael after his jazz concert, he said, "Welcome to New Jersey!"  It was a thoughtful thing for him to say and the truth is we have felt welcomed.

On Monday, our first night here, Jeff fixed shish-ka-bobs on the grill and they were delicious. The next morning we spent an hour at PNC with Carmen who helped us sign up for credit cards and get the routing straight on our accounts  Then on to McCaffrey's for groceries where Jackie, the cashier, told us she lived at Barclay Square.  So we have met a neighbor.  Plus, unknown to us, Tuesdays are 5% off for senior citizens.

The drawers come open
all by themselves!

Monday and Tuesday nights hotel noises bothered my sleep.  Tuesday was the worst with snoring sounds coming from the next room and then loud conversation  at 4:30 am!  I'm not good with noise and I was tired of temporary homes!

Wednesday evening we had dinner at a pleasant Italian restaurant housed in a building from 1689 but to our surprise it was BYOB; lemonade with meatballs just didn't seem right.  We will have to watch out for that NJ and Pennsylvania surprise.  However, Michael's jazz concert at the Chesterfield Green was wonderful.  It was a trial run for their 12 day tour of Switzerland and northern Italy.

We left for Ocean Grove around 1:00 on Thursday, the 4th of July.  The  little ones were excited to see us and there were lots of "Grandma, .....this or that" all afternoon.  Beach time was with thousands of others on the 4th.  Supper was hot dogs and hamburgers with a fine experiment of Mexican corn.


 After supper, Jasper said he wanted to talk.  He was eager to hear more about Grandpa Vander Molen and his WWII experiences--a curiousity instilled by all the D-Day celebrations.   Jim remembered that Grandpa worked with  General Van Vliet; Michael was impressed when he did a bit of research on him on his phone.

Fireworks at Asbury Park were dramatic and easily seen from our front yard.


As always two years ago in the same third floor cupola room, we slept soundly in spite of the heat and close conditions.

Except for Ruth the kids were not awake early so we had to wait a bit for our traditional bakery trip.  There was more beach time later in the morning and after lunch, we headed back to Princeton.

Our supper was not a disaster but it was not good.  The burners do not get hot enough even to make a grilled cheese sandwich.   Either there is something wrong with the burners or I need to give up on trying to cook anything here. I tried not to think about the lobster tails Michael was grilling at the beach!

 We will see how the next week and a half develop.  We are going to be happy to use our own things in our own place.