“It’s like rain….”

Alanis Morissette had it correct with her song, “Isn’t it Ironic?” Simply put – it rained today. ALL day. Rain, when you are vacationing at the beach, is not a whole lot of fun. We spent the morning, well, sleeping, mostly. There was no rush to get going. We straightened up, ate, read, (yes, us!), and only then did we venture out. You know – when the going gets tough, the tough…..go shopping.

We walked around Ocean County Mall for awhile, and we realized that everything was less expensive at Kohl’s! So off we went, and did some retail therapy. Those of you who know us know that we are a Kohl’s’ family – but it really bears repeating – it is a great store, with good quality and excellent sales.

We decided to visit Barnegat Light House before we headed back to our site. Having never been to LBI before, we had no idea how long an island it is. We traveled past some incredibly beautiful homes and gated communities. About 20 minutes down the road, at the northern end of the island, we found our lighthouse. We have loved visiting different lighthouses in Maine and in North Carolina. Barnegat is much bigger than the last one we visited in Maine – it rises majestically at the end of LBI. We found ourselves, once again, at the water’s edge, waves smacking up against the rocky coastline. It was rainy, grey and windy – but we walked along, chilly but happy. It is really nice to visit someplace that we have never seen before. And to think – it’s right here in New Jersey!

Arriving back at Baker’s Acres, Rich grilled an awesome London broil, and I made fresh corn and fresh broccoli as sides. Oh – and Mikaela had some of her life’s blood – pasta. We rented a funny movie from the camp called Monster in Law, and spent a quiet night in front of the flat screen computer. And then, Rich surprised us with a beautiful campfire, perfect for s’mores. I took some pictures so you can appreciate this delicacy!!
It is odd that a rainy, grey, disappointing day would lead to the best night yet – cool but not cold, rain seeming to end, and best of all, no bugs in sight. We enjoyed ourselves very much.

Trivia question: Can you CLIMB the Barnegat Light House? Simple: yes or no. Answer tomorrow night.

We are going to bed early tonight – and hoping to wake up to a drier, sunnier tomorrow. Sweet dreams.

Marla

“Under the Boardwalk, down by the sea, on a blanket with my baby, is where I’ll be…”

The Drifters made today’s title famous, and this setting was certainly the case here at the Jersey shore today.
What a beautiful, fun packed day! We drove out to Long Beach Island this morning around 10. There was no traffic whatsoever, and I think it was a 20 minute drive from campsite to parking spot. The beach was a 4 minute walk. Not bad! Our campsite sold beach passes for a dollar a person, and Mikaela was free. Parking was free as well. So, how much did our beach trip cost us? TWO DOLLARS! Please, compare that to a day at Point Pleasant, where entrance fees and parking can set you back quite a bit. And what a nice, serene setting greeted us as we hit the hot sand. There certainly were people in the water and on the sand, but there was also plenty of room to spread out and just relax. I am happy to report that we did not have any surprises in the water. There were no hypodermics, sharks, jelly fish, whales, stingrays, munitions shells or garbage. It was pretty clean. Mikaela was ready to jump in before I took my flip flops off. When she is near water, or snow, we call her “Sparky”. She is insane!! So I went down to the water’s edge…and the water was freezing. Hey – that’s my take, and since I am the one writing, you get it my way! I wasn’t ready to jump right in, so I abandoned my daughter and went back to sit down. Now don’t worry – she was just a few feet away from me, and in my eye sight at all times. Rich took a walk and found me an SPF 50 Beach Umbrella – that was just perfect. No migraine on the sand!!! He spent some time in the water with Mikaela – as the beach is one of Rich’s favorite places to be. Shortly thereafter, Mikaela met 2 girls – and spent the next hour laughing and jumping waves with them. Eventually Rich and I joined her in the water – Rich jumping waves, me getting splashed. It was a bit cloudy, and very, very hot – and the ocean was refreshing. We stayed about 3 hours – and called it quits. Rich and I got to read and relax a bit, Mikaela got to have a blast – and then we headed back. We spent some down time out of the sun in the afternoon, to recuperate. Let me translate downtime: Mikaela watched tv, Rich and I passed out. And our sunscreen protected everyone. With the exception of a sunburned nose and some cheeks on Mikaela, we did well.

Our plans changed for this evening, so we took advantage of some found time and decided to go out. There are a million restaurants, with varying prices and formalities. Most of them, however, have a long wait time. We lucked out this time. We ate a delicious, no waiting time dinner at “The Beach House” restaurant in LBI. It provided delicious food and excellent service and ambiance. We ate outside on a wrap around porch, at sundown – with an ocean breeze that was indescribable. We had fresh fish and vegetables and really enjoyed ourselves. Mikaela was a crackup at dinner! She was recalling some of her antics this summer at Camp Ramah. She CAN be excellent entertainment!

After dinner we headed toward “Fantasy Island Amusement Park”. Located on LBI as well, this is the Boardwalk without the boards. We found arcade games, rides, junk food, flashing lights, screaming kids, lines to get on things – ah, Jersey in the summer. It offered free admission and several “ticket” packages as well. Actually, it was immaculate, all family oriented, pretty reasonable, friendly and fun. Again, Mikaela was in heaven. She went on bumper cars, tilt-a-whirl, and the Himalayan – TWICE! Again – is she really MY kid? She laughed and laughed and screamed and had a blast – I loved seeing her that way. After the rides, we hit the arcade. Here, truthfully, It would have been easier and less frustrating to just take a five dollar bill, and rip it up into a million pieces. Arcades…suck. We left, and (here’s your favorite part, Mom!) went to Lainie’s Ice Cream shop. Yumm-o! Since earlier today, Mikaela remarked that it looked like my pants really didn’t fit too well (thank you, honey!!!), I had low fat Mint Chocolate Chip frozen yogurt. I had it in the kiddie size. I tried to do some damage control. Mikaela had her usual soft serve chocolate/vanilla swirl with M&Ms – in a medium cup. And Rich had Chocolate Rainforest with Peanut Butter sauce in a medium cup. He didn’t speak for the next 10 minutes, with the exception of the sound, “mmmmmmmm”. We headed home afterwards. What a lovely night! I cannot remember the last time we were on the beach by day, and rides and arcades at night. I couldn’t have asked for more.
Yesterday’s trivia wasn’t attempted by anyone, so we will ask again today. Why is it called Little Egg Harbor?
I have no idea, truthfully – maybe you do. Have an awesome Wednesday – I will post some pics tomorrow.
Marla

“It’s gettin hot in herre….”

The title of tonight’s post is of a song by Nelly – and the rest of the song is too inappropriate to mention more lyrics! It’s hot – in New Jersey, in the trailer, in the United States. We are blogging one more time – for a few days this week, while vacationing in Little Egg Harbor. We are a short distance from Long Beach Island – and wanted to spend a few days by the Jersey shore. We never visit LBI – and so, here we are. I don’t think there are any “Snookie’s” here – so we are safe from the paparazzi.

Since we last left you, we returned from our trip to Maine and New Hampshire. I would like to replay the last day of our last trip for you. We woke up early Sunday morning, the 25th of July, and headed towards Camp Ramah, in Wingdale, New York. The sun was shining, the road was empty, and we couldn’t wait to see Mikaela. We followed the directions that we had – which took us VERY CLOSE to where we needed to be, but not all the way. After some well deserved screaming, we were back on track. We “de-hitched” in a designated parking lot, and made our way to Mikaela. What a FANTASTIC REUNION MOMENT!! Tears of happiness and joy, all around, reunited us. She had an awesome experience, and couldn’t wait to tell us all about it. Mikaela talked a mile a minute, trying to cram 4 weeks worth of fun into the first hour of conversation. Everyone who we met was lovely; every friend who said goodbye to Mikaela did so with a meaningful hug and kiss. The time flew by, and as the heat of the afternoon set in, Mikaela really wanted to get going. Hanging around was just prolonging the “agony” of the goodbyes. It was actually a pretty mature response. She was truly torn – she had this unbelievable experience of being away at camp – and she missed her home and her family. We NEVER heard a negative word, an unhappy story – it was 100% positive. We pulled out of camp, re-hitched, and thought that we were on our way home.

The traffic, the weather, and the car proved to be problematic on that horrific 3 hour drive home. Our transmission was dying, torrential rains led us back to Jersey, and everyone decided to use the NY roadways at that exact moment. The only thing that saved our sanity — a Friendly’s ice cream run! I wish it could have fixed the car as much as it satisfied our appetites!

We knew we were almost home when we started seeing signs for Edison. Edison is the town next to us -in fact, it is less than a mile away. And right there, in Thomas Alva Edison’s name sake, there is a train trestle that is 8 feet, 6 inches tall. We found ourselves with the sad realization that WE were taller than that. Unfortunately, we made that realization mere seconds before passing under it. It could have been worse, I guess, had we figured it out UNDER the trestle, but…. The story is long, but for time’s sake, I will just pose a question: Can you imagine how difficult and embarrassing it is to have to back up a 20 foot travel trailer, in Central Jersey traffic at 6 pm on a Sunday evening?? It was NOT the way I pictured our homecoming.

We had a feeling, after being home a few hours, that there was a serious issue with our Jeep. On that last drive home, the car “got stuck” in second gear several times, the transmission temp ran hot several times, and the engine light was glaring at us. We were told the resulting damage the next day: we needed to rebuild our transmission. It’s certainly nothing that… three thousand dollars couldn’t fix!!! So, we will be paying that off for….a while. Oh, did I mention the two new tires as well? Look, we aren’t surprised. In the past two years we have put our Jeep through an experience. Hopefully with these “fixes”, we will continue to be able to travel about.

And that brings us to today – three weeks later. It was a leisurely start to our day – not an early morning rush out the door. On the way down we met Rich’s mom for coffee. For those of you who followed our travels earlier in the summer, she is doing well and looks really healthy. We did manage to escape the rain and horrible storms that hit NJ today – and spent the afternoon swimming and enjoying ourselves. We are at “Baker’s Acres” Campground. There are lots of families around, and hopefully we will be able to meet some folks. It is nice (sort of!) to have Mikaela with us and be “Z3” again, although it DOES demand much more patience! We did have a delicious dinner that was a joint effort. The bugs were pretty bad, so we nixed the fire. We did manage to make s’mores – in the microwave. It’s cheating, but it’s so worth it! This evening we sat and watched the DVD “The Long, Long, Trailer” with Lucille Ball. HYSTERICAL!!! Mikaela laughed so hard so many times she could barely catch her breath. Old movies are the best. It was a great night. Tomorrow, nice and early, we are beach bound!

Ok, trivia time. I want to know: why is this town called Little Egg Harbor? Answer will appear tomorrow. The last trivia question I asked was the Basketball Hall of Fame’s location. Both Lori and Marsha got it right – it is in Springfield, Ma. Time to see if I can trick my insomnia. Catch ya tomorrow!

Marla