Family history in Metuchen, NJ

Action shot of the congo line at cousin Bryan's wedding

After DC we headed up to Metuchen, New Jersey for my cousin Bryan's wedding, the 3rd wedding of our van adventure. My mom grew up in Metuchen, a small town that is about an hour train ride from NYC and much of her family is still in the area. Bryan was getting married in the same church that my parents got married in. It was a trip to sit in the pews with my parents, over 30 years later! It was also really neat to catch up with some of my other relatives, such as my great uncle Charles and great aunt Dot, and my cousin Susie and her fam.

Good times with cousin Susie, Sean an Ezra

After the wedding we headed to the next town over for the party. And what a party! My cousin's new wife, Janine, has Puerto Rican roots and large family. It was so great to meet them all! The party that unfolded was what was described to me by one of the groomsmen as a "typical North Jersey wedding". I found nothing typical about the cocktail hour which featured a full bar and over 10 different food stations, including seared ahi, paella, sliders and more. The rest of the party followed suit, with an awesome dance floor. My parents outlasted us at the party. Sorry for the blurry photos!

Uncle Mark chatting it up with Janine's dad.

Ezra getting the party started

 

Congrats Bryan and Janine!

 Bryan's wedding was essentially our last hurrah on the East Coast. The next day we would be heading west!

Ride it like you stole it! New Jersey -> South Dakota

Noelle allegedly stealing an ear of corn in Western Illinois.

Happy Monday friends!
Much like we hit the fast-forward button in our distance driving, I'm going to try to catch you up on a lot in a short time.

After a wedding in New Jersey that still needs to be blogged, we headed west... We wanted to escape  the developed civilization on the eastern seaboard.

Day 1, the hangover after wedding.  Eat, goodbyes to family, naps outside a laundromat, mediocre disney movie in a lovely, air conditioned theater, fro-yo, hit the road.  Mid-Pennsylvania, the van's brakes warn us of impending mechanical failure.  We need a new master cylinder. Looking at http://www.vanagon.com/shops/index.htm#ohio  , we park the van at Streetsboro Foreign Auto Repair on Sunday, find a nearby motel, and hope our new favorite mechanic can help tomorrow morning.  Pool and hot tub at the motel, followed by epic Ruby Tuesday dinner.

Day 2.  I bicycle up with Aaron at 8:30 am, the early morning shop hand to plead my case.  I follow Aaron's advice to meet Elmer, the shop owner, in an hour. Elmer has a pristine, new master cylinder, in stock!  No need to get two nights at our motel, they get us on the road by 1pm.  Brakes right as rain, with an oil change, too.  We drive into Kent, OH to find bicycle parts and an air filter.  Noelle's Mom went to Ohio University during the Kent State shootings, and we discussed and considered her time.  (Hi Anna!)  We ended up in the western edge of Illinois, and slept onside quiet and remote cornfields.

Day 3.  See first picture up top.  McDonalds breakfast.  Stop in Des Monies, IA to buy a satellite radio.  South Dakota starts in for us on it's east side.  Grassland, tired and dusty small cities by the Missouri River.  Disappointing trip to see The Corn Palace, not as cool as we had hoped.  Dinner at crowded local Mexican restaurant.  Driving into the night we encounter severe hail-storm warnings and stop by a gas station for the night.  No serious storms impacted us, or at least we slept through them.

Wall Drug Store was a fun stop by the badlands. 
It was a really well done tourist store/destination.  Five cent coffee
was a big hit with us.  I bought two new leather belts, earrings for Noelle,
and a stovetop camping toaster.

Day 4: The Badlands of South Dakota. Remote, free, National Park campground, and laziness and beer for the afternoon. Our neighbor Paul was an interesting guy who gave us tips about other places to visit in the region.

Day 5: Badlands Wilderness hike lead us to encounters with wild buffalo and voracious mosquito.   We ride to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills on the west side of South Dakota    .

Day 6: Six hour hike up Mt. Harney , highest peak in the state. Amazing views, some lost to the broken iphone.  Most pictures below are from there.  Hour drive to tour the Wind Cave.  Drive through wilderness road to have close encounters with tame seeming wildlife.  Exhausting crash at a Custer State Park campsite with a confusing shower location. 

NYC and DC

NYC! 

 

We stayed up by Washington Heights, so we spent a lot of time bicycling on the Hudson.  The path along there is great!

 

We went onto the USS Intrepid, which was totally worth the wait.  Even Noelle admitted it was cool.

 
We went for a walk on the High-Line, an old elevated railway line converted into an urban "trail".

 

Went for FREE kayaking in the Hudson with our friends Chris Chan and Valarie

 Checked out the new 9/11 memorial.

 

We caught a Giants game at Finnerty's, an SF sports bay in NYC.

Had a lot of fun getting drinks on a rooftop bar.

Somewhere in the mix, I even managed to get lunch with my former co-worker, Timor.  Didn't get any pictures of him sadly... asking him for his picture would have been weird.  :P

 On our way to DC we drove through beautiful and quaint Chestertown, MD.  Noelle bought a violin there!

 We had a field day on the mall.  We were driven out of the Smithsonian Natural History museum by 1 million screaming children.  (I exaggerate)

We went onto my favorite museum, the Hershorn Museum of Modern Art and Sculpture Garden.

Noelle was impressed with the omission of screaming children!

I interpret a life-like sculpture of a horse-sized great dane.

 I love sushi buffet in Arlington!

 Great to catch up with my old friends!  Dan and Angela, why didn't we get pictures!  Pete and Jeanette, see you in SF!

Maine: good people, good lobster and lots of blueberries!

Its been a whirlwind tour of the east coast and we are almost 2 weeks behind on the blog. Time to play catchup on what we have been up to!

We crossed the border into Vermont via highway 141 with relative ease.. the border official asked us if we had any citrus and made us toss the wild flowers we picked in Ontario but other then that he waved us through. Next stop was the coast of Maine to meet up with my college friend Matt and his (new!) wife Alyson, who drove up from Boston. I was especially excited about exploring Maine since it would be my first time in the state. I couldn't wait for lighthouses and lobster!

The drive from Vermont to Maine was very pretty, consisting mainly of back roads. At one point we saw a bunch of people on the side of the road... upon closer inspection we realized we were driving through a patch of wild blueberries! We figure we might as well join the locals and harvest some for ourselves.

Harvesting blueberries later to be used for blue berry muffins

Catching up with Matt and Alyson at Matt's mom's place in St George, ME was amazing. The house was situated right on a cove so we could sit on the deck with a view of the lobster pounds and watch the tide come in and out. Speaking of lobster, I was in heaven. I think I tried lobster a different way for every meal... steamed, lobster roll, lobster grilled cheese, lobster stew.

Steamed Maine lobster, comes with a rock for cracking the shell

more lobsters

It was incredibly nice to catch up with Matt and Alyson (still working on getting them to move out to the bay area). They knew all the cool spots to check out in the Rockland/ St George area: culinary highlights included sunny afternoon lobster rolls at a BYOB spot right on the water, drinks at the bar attached to the Inn that Matt's dad is running (his retirement project) which were served up by the retired Navy Admiral that now runs the bar, coffee and bagels at a cute garden cafe and fish tacos cooked by Alyson! Over all is was a weekend of good company, good drinks and good food

Beers and lobster rolls right on the beach

Matt also scored us spots on the Morning in Maine, a Sailboat owned and operated by his uncle Bob. We couldn't have asked for a better sailing weather. From the boat we had awesome views of the coast,including multiple light houses. We also got to see a Windjammer, the type of schooner pictured on the Maine quarter.

Us in front of the Windjammer

In addition to catching glimpses of the lighthouses from the boat, Matt and Alyson took us on a tour of local lighthouses. This included the Marshall point light house which is featured in Forrest Gump. We also saw the Owls Head light and the Rockland Harbor breakwater light, which included almost a mile hike out on the breakwater.

Marshall Point Lighthouse

Owls Head Light

 

 

Chillin on the beach below Owls Head Light

Hiking out to Rockland Breakwater Light

Overall it was a great trip to Maine. Perhaps we can make Maine a yearly tradition?

This car climbed Mt. Washington!

Just to start off, the car climbed Mt. Washington! 

While trying to find what to do between Maine and NYC, we decided to try the White Mountains in New Hampshire.  

The White Mountains are a lush and peaky mountain range.  The area has always been a bit of a tourist attraction, at times it reminded me of Tahoe, but without the huge lake.  Over 100 years ago, the entire forest was decimated by logging.  While exploding with natural beauty, the area has been refined with world-class lodges, touristy towns, and ski resorts.

We found a camp site in National Forrest Sugarloaf area.  Despite it being 5pm, we set off to climb Mt. Hale and loop around to the Appalachian Trail and back to camp.  At the late hour, it was aggressive.  We planned to finish the last mile in the dark. 

 We ascended over 2500' in 2 miles or so.  Unfortunately, the view at the top of Hale is blocked by trees.  I had to climb one just to see what was there.  Apparently the trees are making quite the comeback after 100 years

We came back down into the Appalachian Trail and encountered one of the "huts."  There was a bunk-house and a kitchen.  It was a surprising encounter considering the location.  From there we went down by some beaver ponds and back.  We were thrilled to encounter some moose in the dark on our way home.

.

The next day we drove to the top of Mt. Washington at 6,288' in elevation.  It's quite the tourist attraction!  There is a toll road that gains over 4,000' in 7 miles.  First gear the whole way.  We are proud to say the van made it without incident.  The hill also boasts it's own "cog railway."

On the last day, we did a quick hiked up Sugarloaf, which did indeed have an excellent view.  The top was also covered in wild blueberries.  

Our campsite in the White Mountains.