Sightsee in New Jersey

Having lived in New York for 20 years, I had never seen NJ as much as I did this year. Carol lives in NJ now, so I’m sure I’ll be visiting a lot more. During the almost two weeks that my mom and her friends were here in NJ, I was the tour guide. Like I knew where to bring them. If it wasn’t for google and the GPS on my droid, we would not have accomplished as much as we did. Half the time we spent shopping and the other half we sightsee.

The ladies wanted to see nature and walk on trails. At least they knew what they wanted. That made my life easier. First stop was Morristown National Historical Park. There’s a Washington’s Headquarters Unit. It’s a small museum, all things Washington. Yes, our first president. The ladies don’t like paying for things so we just saw the lobby and glimpses of, what I assume to be, historical pieces of furniture. The actual fee is $4 for adults, which isn’t expensive, but it was something we didn’t mind missing out on. No judging. That part was ok. The trail on the other hand, is grrrreat. I left the ladies to roam and find their own way around and I ran. One loop is about 3 miles. The hills are serious so I walked a few times. The view is absolutely awesome. I am looking forward to going back there with my bike and my Carol.

The next place I googled and made sure it’s open for service was the New Jersey Botanical Garden, aka Skylands NJBG. There’s no appropriate place to run but I loved it. We went in the beginning of November so there aren’t pretty flowers blooming, the leaves were mostly brown and the trees were mostly bare. But I can just picture how beautiful this place must be during spring, summer and early fall. We enjoyed ourselves just meandering around, talking and laughing. My mom is the loudest one of the group. It would be nice to go back in spring with my SLR. I smell a day trip. Who’s in?

On the way to the temple in Philly, we stopped and stayed at a timeshare resort in Poconos, PA. The reason I’m adding this part in is because I ran 3.5 miles, up and down hills. I was so proud of myself, so much so that I thought maybe I will run the marathon next year, as I was watching it comfortably on the sofa. Then I found out that you have to qualify for the marathon to run the marathon. And what do you have to do to qualify, you ask?

http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/entrantinfo/apply.htm

So you can’t just decide you want to run a marathon and just sign up and go. You have to run a lot before you can qualify for it. Fine! Maybe 2013 then! Grrr! One thing at a time. What I concluded on these parks and trails though, is that I much prefer to run in parks than on the streets in my neighborhood. But now that it’s cold out, I haven’t been running. Next place I move to is going to be a place with a gym.  

Back to my NJ trip…the last place I took them to was going to be even better than the previous, South Mountain Reservation in West Orange County. The pictures look very promising. There’s a trail but I didn’t get to run. The trees were pretty bare so no one really wanted to walk around. We didn’t see waterfalls. But it wasn’t a total waste of time. The neighborhood is breath taking. I drove them around, up and down the streets, taking pictures. My mom’s friends are so easy to please. We ended up having such a good time laughing at our goofy selves. On our way back to Lyndhurst, we followed the sign to Thomas Edison National Historic Site. It looked so promising from the gate. It’s such a beautiful site that we all wanted to get in and walk around but unfortunately the guy at the gate said it was closed on weekends. I didn’t bother to pull out my phone to check on the website, which says “open Friday through Sunday.” So I don’t really understand why that guy told us it was closed. But what was I going to do even if I knew that the website contradict his words? Raise the issue so I can make a point? He didn’t seem like the type of guy who’d admit he was wrong and let us in. I can just imagine the cops being called and arresting me for disorderly conduct or something. I should’ve been more prepared.

Some Dead End Street in West Orange, NJ