small vacation

small vacation

July 19, 2006, 3:55 pm
Filed under: Food & Dining, New Jersey, Nicole, Pine Barrens, Sea Isle City, vacation

This doesn’t have much to do with the information world, but I wanted to tell a little bit about my little mini vacation this past weekend. I’ll even give away my secret favorite Jersey shore beach location! After the jump!

Belleplain State Forest was our campsite. It is about an hour and change away from Center City Philly. We weren’t going to arrive until much later than we planned, so we (Christopher, Sarah, Jeremy and I) ate dinner, packed the car and headed off to the Walt Whitman Bridge around 9 pm on Friday night.

Setting up camp wasn’t much of an issue. Belleplain is great because it provides comfortable amenities if you are sort of vacation camping (i.e. too cheap to get a hotel, or just enjoy the outdoors) rather than a complete wilderness camping experience. We didn’t bring firewood so we made a charcoal fire to cook our veggie burgers and these potato things (okay, not things since they are actual small white potatoes that Sarah seasoned or something. They were around for most of the trip) We relaxed around the fire for awhile and then called it a night in anticipation of a full day at the beach the next day.

Something funny happened on the way to the beach when we were stuck in traffic on the final stretch of state route 550. A kid was selling water on the side of the road, I always feel tempted to buy all the water in hopes that the kid can then go outside and play gfor the rest of the day, but I know tha is stupid wishful thinking. I was driving and the kid was at Chris’ window really trying to make a sale. Chris told him that I was “allergic to water” and the boy said “she can’t be H2O intolerant!”. It was so funny that we had to buy water from him, I offered to buy two and he needed to go back to the cooler to get the other. When he returned he told Chris that this one was for me because it was the coldest! What a kid.

We went to Sea Isle as usual the next day and it was absolute crap. The ocean was very cold, the sky was cloudy, and it began to rain. We returned to the campsite and began planning the rest of the day.

We wanted to go to Estell to see the old munitions factory ruins. The park office was closed (although very pretty) so we ventured off on our own with a map. The trek proved way too buggy for us, and we all agreed to abandon the walk. Which was a good idea because when we started driving again we came upon the Estell glassworks (?) ruins. And it was interpreted so nicely!

On the way back to camp we came upon the Tuckahoe station of the Seashore Railway. So neat. The picture at the water pump cracks me up, I look sincerely dissapointed that there is no water to be found. Chris taught me about the different train models, but I don’t remember right now. Then we went to the Ocean City boardwalk for dinner. We played Skee Ball, ate Mack and Manco’s, Kohr Bros, went in the goofy photo booth and went on the Ferris Wheel which I nearly barfed on. I feel bad because Sarah took all of these fun photos of me and Doc and stuff, and I didn’t take any pictures at all. Its a Cole and Doc centric set for sure.

When we returned to the site that night I passed out in a chair by the fire immediatly. Before the fire was even lit (we got firewood). I was so tired from driving and walking and eating boardwalk food!

The next day turned out to be the absolute perfect beach day. We decided to go to the Sea Isle beach that Doc and I went to with his parents when they had the condo last year. Totally beautiful. Its right by Townsend’s Inlet at like 90th Street. Best Jersey shore beach that I’ve been to yet! There is a nice walk through the dunes to get to the beach. The water was clear, warm and had just the right amount of waves to make the day fun.
After hours of fun we decided to head out through Wharton State Forest. We wanted to stop and tour Batsto, but it was late and Sunday and closed. So we did some pseaudo off road exploration along the Batsto River, ending up at the Caranzza Memorial.

A beautiful and relaxing weekend. We used several good books about the Pinelands to guide us through the weekend. I’ll post the reading list sometime soon when I can get a look at my library record to see what I had taken out!

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