Blogs from New Jersey, United States, North America - page 13

Well, here we are again, all packed and ready to go. It looks like the weather tomorrow will be good - a little on the warm side, but not too hot. We are meeting for breakfast at 7 and should be on the road by 8 - hopefully it is late enough that we miss the commuter traffic near Fort Washington. I am really glad that we delayed starting by two days, it gave nme a chance to relax after a crazy hectic weekend, allowed us to isolate and fix a radio problem, and most importantly, I got to pick up my grandchildren from their first day of kindergarten (Cassidy) and pre-k (Everett). With any luck, my next post will be from somewhere in Ohio tomorrow evening.... read more

Aujourd'hui on part de Sandy Hook vers Cape May. C'est une navigation de 20 heures en mer. La météo nous annonce un vent du nord de 10 à 15 noeuds. Ça sera la première fois que nous allons faire de la voile avec le catamaran. Depuis que nous l'avons remâté, nous n'avons pas eu la chance d'en faire...Alors, on fera notre baptême en mer.... 20 heures en mer! Dirons quelqu'uns! oui, oui 20 heures! Mais qu'est ce qu'on fait pendant ce temps là? La première chose que nous avons fait est de préparer nos 2 cannes à pêche, de préparer le dîner, on essaie de réconforter Rubia parce-que nous avons decouvert depuis quelques jours seulement qu'elle semble avoir le mal de mer en navigation, aussi on se demande comment peut-on avoir autant de mouche dans le ... read more

Well, here we are the day before we begin - all of the planning is done, the motorcycles are customized, and all of our bags are packed. The weather report is a little discouraging, though. There is a 60% chance of thunderstorms tomorrow, but we are not planning on postponing unless it is really a bad storm. I have uploaded a jpeg of our planned route - pretty much just hopping from National Park to National Park by the most scenic route we could find with a few stops to see friends thrown in. I'm really excited - we are going to see some breathtaking scenery, and I'm sure we will meet a lot of interesting people. I'm also looking forward to seeing my buddies reaction when they see the great plains, rocky mountains, etc. because ... read more

The second part of our trip we visited Bob's friends around Vineland, NJ. On the way from PA, we spent some time in Cape May on the very tip of NJ and well known for its lovely old homes. The regal 1881 Queen Victoria features corner bay windows, a concave mansard roof, and a fancy console cornice. Cape May is a town-sized textbook of late-19th-century American domestic architecture. Its picturesque houses range from Stick Style and Queen Anne to Colonial Revival and beyond, with a generous helping of Second Empire-influenced Mansards tossed in. Thanks to a major preservation push in the 1970s, many of the town’s larger houses have been converted into bed-and-breakfasts, providing a bo... read more

So on July 15, we pulled into the driveway of my parents home in Livingston, NJ. Road trip complete. The contented feeling of returning home and reaching your final destination after an extended vacation is a good one. As I mentioned at the beginning of this road trip series of blogs, NJ was not the culmination of this adventure. I now write you from Göteborg (that's Gothenburg in English) where school and city life have begun. So far so good, but huge chunks of our hearts remain in Kauai, NJ and Halmstad with the mountains, oceans, friends and family we love and miss so much. Sending you all love and aloha!... read more