New Jersey, more than Newark and Jersey City...

Saturday July 18th, 2009

Today I met up with AlanS's mother, Enid. I had talked to her online a bit when Alan was on his cross country trip then later when I posted about having hearing issues after my cross country trip. I told her then that, whenever I made it out east I would come by to see her. Boy, am I ever glad that I did!

I showed up to her place and we got to talking non-stop. Being in the Garden State and enjoying the outdoors, it was a must to go explore. So off we went to The Great Swamp. The area was gorgeous and teeming with plant and wildlife, at least we think there was wildlife. There are tons of animals living in the swamp from frogs and small turtles to to large snapping turtles and snakes. The entire time we were walking around we saw one baby green frog and one spotted turtle, and millions of mosquitos! I really could have done without THAT wildlife. The mosquitos followed us around the boardwalk all the way through the trees trying to eat us constantly. Even with the pesky mosquitos it was a fun walk. The swamp was gorgeous with forested and grassy areas. I'm not sure if there would ever be a time when there weren't mosquitos there but it would be nice to explore the area more.

After the workout running from the mosquitos we were famished so the next destination was food. We went to this wonderful Brazillian grill in Newark called Brasilia. There was a salad/appetizer bar with fried plantains and all sorts of scrumptous food but the main course was even better. Waiters were constantly walking around with skewers of meat and slicing off bits of it for you. There was top sirloin marinated in an amazing sauce that was so tender you barely needed a knife. There was steak wrapped in bacon, garlic beef, chicken, etc. The food never stopped and the quality never diminished. We both walked out of there completely stuffed. To burn off some of the dinner we walked around the portugese neighborhood. It felt strange walking around the area, as if I were in Brazil right then and there. A very cool feeling.

This night finished off with Enid making a mold for custom earplugs and me deciding that I'd come back through Chatham in a week's time to pick them up.

Pictures

Please note that the pictures are slow to upload with this new photo site so depending on when you check the link for the photo album you may not be seeing all of the pictures. There should be roughly 70 photos uploaded from this day when all is said and done.