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The waterfall Day 8 – July 5 – Paramus, NJ to Trenton/Ewing/Princeton, NJ via PA (172 miles)
A weird noise and then no lights. What?? There was no power. Yes, that’s how our morning started. At least we were already up and could put on some clothes in the dark. Showers would have to wait. This was our first time in a hotel without power. Using the emergency lighting, we navigated the long hallway to the lobby where other early risers had congregated wondering what was happening??? Since it had just happened, the food out for breakfast was still fine to eat. Anything that needed power didn’t work – juice dispensers, pancake and waffle makers. What?? There was a waffle maker!! Susan and Claire have been wanting a waffle the whole trip and nowhere has had a waffle maker before, so now they were bummed that they couldn’t with it right in front of them. Or could they . . . . ??? It still felt hot. So, with a pioneering spirit, they filled up the waffle maker with batter and with no idea how long to leave it in, they were still pumped to eat waffles in the dark that were
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a view of it from the little bridge a little gooey inside. Sometime during breakfast, we found out it was only our hotel without power and as we finished up, the power came back on.
Yea! That meant Pam could get a shower while Claire and Susan worked on the blog. Cackling and crying could be heard from the blog writers the whole time. If laughter is the best medicine, we should all be good for the day. Oh, and as we left out of the hotel, Claire worked her magic talking to the desk clerk about our road trips and they gave her 5000 points for the power outage.
After making the detour to visit our aunt yesterday, today was a day for a leisurely pace. That was good since we were getting on the road really late. Our first stop was to visit the Patterson Great Falls National Historical Park on the Passaic River. One view of the falls reminded us of Multnomah Falls we saw on the Columbia River Gorge 2 years ago. With paths, a bridge, and an old mill (from 1781) all around the falls, it was an enjoyable stop. Leaving out of Patterson we drove by Lambert Castle.
Our
next destination was Morristown. We stopped to get gas and for a pit stop, but like Oregon, an attendant has to pump the gas (boy was he slow) and the bathroom was “Out of Order”. Gee . . . what a bad pit stop. We didn’t find a bathroom until we got to the museum at Washington’s Headquarters. But, the museum gave us a number of interactive learning centers to try out and, of course, Pam and Claire got silly trying on period costumes. After that, Susan and Pam began their trip down memory lane. See, back in 2005, they were in the area for a wedding. Wanting to show Claire all they had experienced, we circled around “The Green 1776” (a green garden space in the center of town) and then headed to “The Madison Hotel” built in 1936. After walking through the historic hotel, we had to eat “crab bisque”, what we ate 14 yrs ago. It was still as good as they remembered and Pam even went off her strict chronic migraine diet to partake in the tastiness.
Continuing on the memory lane tour, Susan and Pam set out to find the bakery in neighboring Madison,
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The castle we saw NJ where they ate some delicious chocolate profiteroles. It no longer exists and will remain in their memory. We stopped in New Hope, PA with its cute shops and would have liked to have stopped to stroll the quaint streets, but it seems as if everyone in Pennsylvania was in New Hope. No hope in New Hope.
Soon we stopped at Washington’s Crossing. Now, there were no airports anywhere in sight, but we were on the Pennsylvania side. Both a guide we walked by and a video we watched said it took 12 hrs for all the troops to get across the Delaware river in Durham boats, but the two differed on the rest. One said it took 4 hrs to march to Trenton and the battle was 1 ½ hrs long. The other said 7 hrs to Trenton and battled for 2 ½ hrs. Not sure who’s correct, but interesting. And Washington’s 2 backups didn’t show up; they must have missed their flight. As we crossed to see the NJ side, we saw it . . . a sign for an airport! Washington’s Crossing was nice and not crowded at all so we strolled the grounds.
We
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Claire and Pam playing dress up traveled through Bordentown, Don’s hometown, where we stopped at Clara Barton’s school house and Thomas Payne’s statue. We had intended to eat there, but the restaurant was closed this week, so we made other plans in Princeton.
A quick stop at the hotel to change clothes and we headed to supper at the upscale Peacock Inn. This was a special treat since our mother had told us she would pay for our dinner to celebrate Claire’s birthday. We all decided to celebrate our birthdays. Wow, the food was delicious and the 1911 atmosphere, along with the three sisters’ laughter made it a superb meal. Then, we dove into chocolate ecstasy when we ordered 2 chocolate souffles to share for dessert. With chocolate off her diet and rarely ever eaten, Pam took the first bite of the chocolaty gooiness, rolled her eyes and said, “Ohhh, myyy!” Susan and Claire broke into laughter and Claire quickly inquired, “Was it better than Intercourse yesterday?” With that we all bust out laughing so hard we were crying. A quick trip through Princeton University’s beautiful campus finished the night.
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Barbara
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Airport
I am so surprised you couldn’t find the airline George Washington used. Our genius president says there is one there. Maybe the signage got messed up. ??. Sounds like a good time.