Jersey Shore 2013 - a Wal-Mart in NJ to home

We still didn't find an amazing bagel yet!  But today, we found a bakery that had the absolute best banana chocolate chip muffins!  It is called Moester's and it is right off of Route 72 on the way to Long Beach Island (Woo hoo! This will be a stop each year on our way to Chowderfest!)

 

We decided to spend the day at Island Beach State Park today - just chilled and beached.  There were showers and a concession stand here - good since we were at a Wal-Mart last night! :)  We wanted to boondock here tonight but you weren't allowed, so we ended up at a Wal-Mart again tonight (talk about a cheap road trip!)...we found a place to get hoagies nearby, so did that and then fell asleep stuffed!!

Today was our last day, so we had to find a great bagel!!  We found a place called Bagel Exchange where we got a pumpernickel and a French toast bagel - very good, but even better was we sat on the boardwalk overlooking the Atlantic (in Point Pleasant) to eat them. 

We then spent today driving north as far as we could go in New Jersey - through Spring Lake, Belmar, Avon-by-the-Sea, and Bradley Beach.  All of these beaches seemed very nice - there was a boardwalk that runs all along the beaches.  We stopped and looked at Asbury Park (isn't Bruce Springsteen from here?) We ended at Highlands, NJ, which was as far as we could go - we could see the Statue of Liberty across the water (Sandy Hook Bay).  Our last stop was to get Italian ice at Strollo's (Chelsea's recommendation).  It was delicious!

 

 

We headed home from here...we had a good time exploring the Jersey shore - last minute trip turned out to be lots of fun! :)

 

Jersey Shore 2013 - Long Beach Island to a Wal-Mart in NJ

We decided to eat at one of our favorites on Long Beach Island for breakfast - Moustache Bill's in Barnegat (by the lighthouse).  We frequent this diner in October when we come...first tried after seeing it on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives when Guy had the uniquely shaped pancakes.  Our kids used to get them when they were younger.  Doug really wanted a moustache one today, but they said they were too busy!  (Probably not because he was an adult, right??)  We still had a good breakfast! :)

Today was a lazy day - it was cloudy out and then started to rain.  One of the best things about owning a Westy is that if you get tired, you can just put down the seats and take a nap!  That's just what we did - found a little park with no one there, parked, and took a nap!

 

That evening, we went back to Ocean City, NJ for the Art of Surfing festival.  They had surf art, jewelry, and crafts (all beachy).  Then we had a great time eating on the boardwalk starting with all kinds of samples, from taffy to fudge.  Then we found a place called Hula Grill where we chowed down pork bbq with a special Thai sauce and sticky rice.  Then Doug had to have a dipped ice cream cone.  Finally, he couldn't resist a $1 piece of pizza.  Needless to say, we were stuffed!

We were tired of paying to basically just sleep at a campground, so we decided to boondock tonight!  We found a Wal-Mart where overnight parking is allowed (we found that most of the supercenters allow it).  Not the best night's sleep, but free!

Jersey Shore 2013 - Avalon to Long Beach Island

We ended our evening last night with amazing ice cream and started the day today with out of this world cream donuts from Kohler's Bakery in Avalon!  They were so fresh the cream was still a bit warm!  Can you tell we like to eat??

We continued our trip on beach road traveling through Sea Isle City which is another cute, quiet town.  We then stopped in Ocean City, NJ at a farmer's market (can't pass up one of these!).  We got some snacks for later and continued on to Atlantic City.  We thought we would spend the afternoon here, but were maybe here an hour.  I didn't like it at all - very run down.  We walked through the Showboat Casino and out to the boardwalk.  I wanted to see the steel pier where the horses used to jump off a diving board into the water.  Not much to see these days but rides and carnival games.  Needless to say, all I could think about was Sandy, and where we had parked her.  It just didn't seem like a very safe location, so we headed back to her.  The city was just so depressing, I was so glad Sandy was still there and in the same condition we left her!!

 

It was still fairly early, so we drove north to Long Beach Island where we knew we'd be happy!  Doug hasn't seen it in the summer for a long time - we are used to the October crowd.  It was very odd to see the field where the Chowderfest tents are (in October) all empty!  We decided to get some chowda in a bread bowl from Country Kettle - mmmmmm! We perused the town and even got to hear a concert in the park across from Surflight Theater.

 

We had gotten a campsite before going on to Long Beach Island called Baker's Acres.  It was a quiet campground, but very dark and woodsy - so much that we drove Sandy to the bathrooms!  Off to bed for the night!

Jersey shore 2013 - Cape May to Avalon

Cape May to Avalon

One of the goals of this trip was to find the best bagel on the Jersey shore!  Found a place today, but just a so-so bagel... but eating it while gazing at the Atlantic makes it taste just a little better!

 

 

Yesterday, while hitting a couple shops, we got a tip on where to find beach glass.  In my book, that trumps everything, even food, so before we ate we headed to Sunset Beach in Cape May to see what treasures we could find.  Turns out, a lot of people beat us there!  I found a couple pieces, but I bet coming in off season would help my treasure hunt for beach glass!

Our adventure of the Jersey shore continued to the Wildwoods...wow has that place changed since I was a kid.  We even drove past the hotel in North Wildwood where we used to stay with my grandparents...gone! :(  We continued north through Stone Harbor, where they were doing beach replenishment, then on to Avalon.  Both of the towns were quaint, little, low-key towns that would be cool to check out off season when they aren't so busy.

We beached for a couple hours in Avalon.  We ended up avoiding the charge of a beach tag...just casually get in the water when you see the patrol lady coming!  We got that advice from a nice boy as we were going onto the beach!

We camped at Avalon Campground - it was an ok campground.  The sites are close to each other and bathrooms just so-so.  We decided to go into Stone Harbor to get something to eat and then check out Springer's for ice cream (rated #3 on Trip Advisor) - we knew when we got there it had to be good by the length of the line!!  Doug tried almond amaretto and I had mint chocolate chip. We decided it was worth the wait...

Jersey shore 2013 - Chambersburg to Cape May, NJ

I thought I should get caught up on our blog today - it's a snow day in March 2015.  I write notes in a journal when we travel which is more convenient when you're on the road and don't always have wi-fi.  The problem is that sometimes I don't have time to catch up on this blog!  Well today is the day to write about our spontaneous trip to the Jersey shore back in the summer of 2013!

A little background...Doug spent his summers at Long Beach Island as a kid and for the past 10 or so years we have been visiting once a year for Chowderfest in October.  I spent some of my childhood summers in Wildwood with my parents and grandparents and haven't been back for a while.  We would visit Stone Harbor and Cape May while in Wildwood so I have some vague memories of those towns.  We decided a road trip starting at the southern most part in Jersey to the northernmost might be fun.  So, we had 6 days and decided to take Sandy and go on an adventure! :)

  

I didn't want to travel on the turnpike, so we set off on Route 30 and went "back roads" the whole way there.  It seemed like a long trip - it ended up taking us four hours and forty-five minutes.  Made  a couple stops along the way:  Wegman's for sushi and a little roadside fruit stand.  We drove to Cape May at the southern most part of Jersey. We hit a happy hour for some frozen drinks, walked around the town, checking out all the old Victorian houses, then found a seafood restaurant called H&H Seafood. The lobster was calling my name so we settled on that along with some corn on the cob.  It was good, but just not as good as Maine lobster (fresh in Maine!).  They had a great little outdoor seating area right on the water.

 

We finally ended the day in Adventure Bound Camping Resort and just hung out in Sandy.

June Road Trip 2013 - Charleston, SC to home (Chambersburg, PA)

One last trip into the historic downtown Charleston.  We hadn't checked out any of the shops yet!  We started by walking through the Charleston City Market (we weren't that impressed).  My goal was to find a donut and cupcake shop! :)

 

We stopped in The Peanut Shop again, just like the one in Savannah, for lots of samples!  We checked out a couple other shops, then found a Farmer's Market which was pretty cool!  We got a smoothie called a Painkiller (excellent!) and also picked up some boiled peanuts to take home for Chels and Adam to try.   Next we headed to the donut shop (that I, of course, found on Trip Advisor) - too late!  Once they run out of donuts, they close!  We continued on and did find the cupcake shop - well, Katelyn saw it - I would've walked right past it!  It was called Cupcake downsouth.  They were pretty good - we split a key lime, chocolate salted caramel, and red velvet.  Then we headed back to Sandy.

 

We drove around the historical section of Charleston next - we saw the cobblestone streets, Rainbow Row (little houses that were different colors), and some other old houses.  Katelyn and I also checked out the Pineapple fountain.

After that we started our drive home... we couldn't do a ten hour drive, so we stayed overnight at a Hampton Inn outside of Richmond, VA.  Turns out we got a free night because there were some partiers that kept us awake.  I complained in the morning and they said the night was on them because of their 100%  satisfaction guarantee!  (That was even cheaper than camping!!)

We had a really nice trip - I will say it was extremely humid and if we hadn't purchased the fans when we got to Savannah, we would've been very uncomfortable sleeping!  I also want to purchase a rain flap - that way we could camp even if there is a chance of rain (which it seems like every night there was!).  I may not choose to travel south again in the summer - who knows??  Originally, I had wanted to go to Florida!  Maybe we could invest in an A/C unit for Sandy! :)

June Road Trip 2013 - Charleston area - Day 3

Today was another beach day!  We drove to Folly Beach and drove around to check things out.  We found a place to park - as long as there are no signs telling you not to park and all four tires are off the road, it's free! :)

It was another windy day on the beach! :(  This time I laid on a towel, since last time Katelyn suffered! :)  The sand is very thin and sticks to you - I definitely recommend chairs for all the beaches we have visited on this trip.  The water temperature was nice, but there was a very strong current.  Doug and Katelyn stayed in a lot longer than me!

When we got tired of the windy beach, we decided to find a place to eat.  We settled on The 'Wich Doctor.  Katelyn and I split a pizza with 1/2 jalapeños (Katelyn's choice!) and Doug got fish tacos - I had one.  Both were very tasty.  Afterwards we stopped in a couple surf shops.

We decided to try a campground tonight because it was our last chance before we started our trek back to Pennsylvania.  We stayed at Oak Plantation.  It was a nice open campsite - I would stay here again.  We swam in the pool for a little - nice pool, but right beside the highway so a little loud.  We hadn't done a campfire yet, because it had been so hot, but again, being our last night, we had to make s'mores!!  They didn't have fire pits, so you rented a fire ring instead (that was new for us).  We didn't last really long because the bugs started to attack - that was our cue to head into the Westy!