Stardate 61505.96 - Mini-Vacation

Cheryl's Grandmother went to California to visit one of her daughters and offered her beach condo in Sea Bright, NJ to us for the weekend and the week of the Fourth. We went out on Saturday and stayed until mid-day on July Fourth (we figured the traffic would be lightest mid-day on the actual Fourth of July for our return to NYC).

After lunch on Saturday we loaded up the car (it still amazes me how much stuff we have to take with us, even for just a 4-day trip!). We got a bit of a later start because our laundry had some issue and even though they assured Cheryl on Friday that they'd have our clothes back that afternoon it was something like 1130 on Saturday before they showed up.

Traffic was light out of the city and we immediately went out on the beach once we got to Sea Bright. We had a great time! Loren really liked the sand, and is now willing to spend a lot more time playing in it. She especially liked having "Daddy build Sandcastles!" which she would then destroy.




The surf was not conducive for putting Loren in the water, so we spent a lot of time walking around with her and building short-lived sand castle compounds. For dinner that night we went to Gaiter's for seafood and beer. Loren was very punchy and extremely tired from an exceptionally short nap, and she drank way too much OJ before we got to the restaurant and then put away a ton of milk because the cup was neat and she liked drinking out of it.
All this liquid did not sit well with her, and she had a couple of deep, specific-sounding belches that served as our early warning system that she was about to lose it. Cheryl got her most of the way across the outside seating area before it all came back up. Well, it wouldn't be a vacation until Loren had her 1 vomit episode! At least she got this one out of the way early.

On Sunday it was really clear and you could see all the way past Sandy Hook and to NYC (if you click on the photo below to display the bigger version it is probably more obvious).






Loren fell in love with this stump and had to visit it every time we returned to the beach for the next 3 days.


Sunday afternoon we went to Cheryl's parent's place and we didn't take any pictures, but how many new pictures of her in the yellow car do you really need? We had a terrific dinner and then returned to Sea Bright, hoping that Loren would fall asleep in the car - but no such luck. So her bedtime was almost 10 PM Sunday night.

On Monday we went to breakfast at Amy's Omelette House in Long Branch (recommendation from Cheryl's Mom). Amy's was outstanding! I had pancakes and Cheryl had the "Stingray" omelette (sausage, asparagus, and hollandaise) with potato pancake, all formed into the shape of a fish! We then spent another gorgeous day on the beach, and Loren took a fantastic nap (2.5 hours) so we got some leisure reading done before heading back out to the beach for the afternoon. That night Cheryl's parents came out to Sea Bright for dinner and we went back to Long branch to Sallee Tee's. Sallee Tee's was surprisingly good - I had scallops and Cheryl had steamer clams and salad with argula, prosciutto, roasted red peppers and a pear. Loren had fries and cheese sticks but she mostly ate Cheryl's pear.

On Tuesday our friend Linda came out with her niece and two children (Hadley and Logan) and we all enjoyed the beach, although Loren was pretty tired by the time we got out there and was not as active as she was all the other times we were on the sand.


Tuesday night Cheryl's parents came over again to babysit Loren so we could enjoy a night off-duty. We went to The Shack - highly, highly recommend this spot for excellent seafood with a Mexican flair. Just remember to BYOB as they don't have a liquor license (not unusual in NJ). I had an excellent Tuna, and Cheryl had a fantastic grouper!

Wednesday was cloudy with a cold breeze coming off the ocean so we ate breakfast and then packed up and left, without a final trip to the beach.

We made a quick stop at Babies-R-Us to get a big box of diapers, and then we quickly stopped at Burger King for lunch before the drive back into the city. It was Loren's first fast food Kid's Meal, and she got a Transformers truck as her toy. Lady Loren also enjoyed wearing a crown.

We hit a 10-15 minute backup at the Lincoln Tunnel but otherwise traffic was light. Loren slept for about an hour, so it was a short nap and hopefully she'll go to bed easy tonight.

We were all glad to be home, but not so glad that we have to go back to work tomorrow.

NYC