Left San Francisco on June 15h after having stood in line to check a bag, then again for security. Wonder why they don't profile and use dogs. Sure would save a lot of time and money. Arrived on time, picked up bag and waited outside for my sister to pick me up. We got back to town quickly considering it was rush hour.
I had recently watched a program on Travel Channel called Food Wars. It put Jimmy Buffs against Charlies Italian Hot dogs. Charlies won and I'd been craving one of those gut rippers ever since. So we headed out to Charlies for dinner that night. For those no in the know, Charlie's takes a half loaf for round Italian bread, swabs it in mustard, adds a hot dog in the bottom then fills the rest with fried peppers, onions and potatoes. Mmmmmm, Good!
That weekend, we visited a friend, spent time at the pool, but mostly hung around catching up.
Monday my two sisters and I headed down to Cape May. We stayed at an old Victorian hotel called the Macomber. It's situated just across the road from the beach. The room was nice and sizeable. They had a lovely porch with lots of rocking chairs and a small breakfast/lunch shop was located in the basement and had sidewalk seating. We spent one afternoon on the beach and swimming in the 78 degree Atlantic! We spent another day cruising the shops at the down-town pedestrian mall. We did have a special dinner at the Merrion Inn which I highly recommend. Nice atmosphere (converted Victorian home), good service and excellent food.
At 8:30 the next morning we were on the Cape May/Lewes ferry headed for Delaware. I got to check out a number of places my husband and I had spied on line with our eye on retirement in 5 more years. Good to see places in person, judge neighborhoods, building quality, etc that you can't do while house-hunting on line.
Went back to NJ that evening, did some laundry and repacked. The next morning at 11 AM, 3 of my gal pals from high school picked me up in Cranford a long weekend at another friend's place in Forked River, NJ. There were six of us from our original crowd. Our host braved taking us sailing on Barnegat Bay, since 3 of us had never been before. Now I undertand why they are addicted to sailing! We spent most of our time catching up, laughing and, with the help of numerous bottles of wine, were able to solve all the problems of the world!
That was the last of the trips. The rest of the month we spent visiting friends, eating my favorite foods (pizza, meatball subs, regular subs, Taylor Pork Roll, etc) Amazingly, I didn't regain any of the weight I'd recently lost. Caught up with one old friend I hadn't seen in more than 30 years. Met my niece's new guy and his two girls. Another highlight was the birthday dinner for my sister and I in the company of my step-mom and other sister at Pairings in Cranford. We went on a Wednesday night when they have a prix fixe dinner. The food was wonderful. If you're ever in the area, give it a try.
All too soon, it was time for me to pack up to head home. I arrived at Newark Airport with plenty of time to check a back and get through security. This time I had the lovely experience of the "grope". When I got to the gate, I found my flight had been delays an hour. When the plane pulled up to the gate, it was announce the it had "sucked some birds" and the flight was cancelled. I got in line for 2 hours before I finally had a chance to reschedule my flight. Next day at 8:30, but oh, by the way, you'll need to go to the Continental check in to confirm the ticket! Another 2 hour wait. Do yourselves a favor and avoid United Airlines at all costs! This is the same airline that over the years has managed to lose my puppy at SFO, strand me in Chicago forcing me to return to CA instead of continuing my vacation and costing me $200 in cab fare to get from Oakland to San Jose in the middle of the night, and dump me in Houston with a meal ticket to a closed restaurant and no bag.
Twenty five hours after my original flight and another baggage fee and groping, I finally made back home just in time to beat one of the worst heat waves. It's good to see hubby and son and to enjoy the coastal fog air conditioning, but I really do want to head back east permanently when we retire.
We'll see.
BTW, Burt, sorry I didn't call, I'd lost your number. Maybe next trip?
I had recently watched a program on Travel Channel called Food Wars. It put Jimmy Buffs against Charlies Italian Hot dogs. Charlies won and I'd been craving one of those gut rippers ever since. So we headed out to Charlies for dinner that night. For those no in the know, Charlie's takes a half loaf for round Italian bread, swabs it in mustard, adds a hot dog in the bottom then fills the rest with fried peppers, onions and potatoes. Mmmmmm, Good!
That weekend, we visited a friend, spent time at the pool, but mostly hung around catching up.
Monday my two sisters and I headed down to Cape May. We stayed at an old Victorian hotel called the Macomber. It's situated just across the road from the beach. The room was nice and sizeable. They had a lovely porch with lots of rocking chairs and a small breakfast/lunch shop was located in the basement and had sidewalk seating. We spent one afternoon on the beach and swimming in the 78 degree Atlantic! We spent another day cruising the shops at the down-town pedestrian mall. We did have a special dinner at the Merrion Inn which I highly recommend. Nice atmosphere (converted Victorian home), good service and excellent food.
At 8:30 the next morning we were on the Cape May/Lewes ferry headed for Delaware. I got to check out a number of places my husband and I had spied on line with our eye on retirement in 5 more years. Good to see places in person, judge neighborhoods, building quality, etc that you can't do while house-hunting on line.
Went back to NJ that evening, did some laundry and repacked. The next morning at 11 AM, 3 of my gal pals from high school picked me up in Cranford a long weekend at another friend's place in Forked River, NJ. There were six of us from our original crowd. Our host braved taking us sailing on Barnegat Bay, since 3 of us had never been before. Now I undertand why they are addicted to sailing! We spent most of our time catching up, laughing and, with the help of numerous bottles of wine, were able to solve all the problems of the world!
That was the last of the trips. The rest of the month we spent visiting friends, eating my favorite foods (pizza, meatball subs, regular subs, Taylor Pork Roll, etc) Amazingly, I didn't regain any of the weight I'd recently lost. Caught up with one old friend I hadn't seen in more than 30 years. Met my niece's new guy and his two girls. Another highlight was the birthday dinner for my sister and I in the company of my step-mom and other sister at Pairings in Cranford. We went on a Wednesday night when they have a prix fixe dinner. The food was wonderful. If you're ever in the area, give it a try.
All too soon, it was time for me to pack up to head home. I arrived at Newark Airport with plenty of time to check a back and get through security. This time I had the lovely experience of the "grope". When I got to the gate, I found my flight had been delays an hour. When the plane pulled up to the gate, it was announce the it had "sucked some birds" and the flight was cancelled. I got in line for 2 hours before I finally had a chance to reschedule my flight. Next day at 8:30, but oh, by the way, you'll need to go to the Continental check in to confirm the ticket! Another 2 hour wait. Do yourselves a favor and avoid United Airlines at all costs! This is the same airline that over the years has managed to lose my puppy at SFO, strand me in Chicago forcing me to return to CA instead of continuing my vacation and costing me $200 in cab fare to get from Oakland to San Jose in the middle of the night, and dump me in Houston with a meal ticket to a closed restaurant and no bag.
Twenty five hours after my original flight and another baggage fee and groping, I finally made back home just in time to beat one of the worst heat waves. It's good to see hubby and son and to enjoy the coastal fog air conditioning, but I really do want to head back east permanently when we retire.
We'll see.
BTW, Burt, sorry I didn't call, I'd lost your number. Maybe next trip?
