8/19/17, “On the Waterfront”
Ocean City, New Jersey
The majority of today has been
spent on the waterfront, both the Atlantic Ocean, which lends its name to this
region I am calling the Mid-Atlantic, and Great Egg Harbor River, which was the
last National Park Site I needed to visit in the region. I am now less than ten miles from where I
woke up today, and the Great Egg Harbor River was the only NPS unit I visited
today.
This is clearly a very different
kind of trip from the NPS runs I have been doing this summer. However, those runs were done to allow myself
to say, “Mid-Atlantic Complete,” and I have said it today. That mission has been accomplished, and the
next NPS unit I visit will be in Hawaii.
My time on the waterfront has been, for the most part, relaxing, and it
is a good way to close out the summer before I leave for Hawaii, and I am now perfectly relaxed smoking my pipe and staring across the water at lights of
Atlantic City.
Since not much happened
today, this will be necessarily be a short entry. After I closed last night, I brought the
mattress out so that I could sleep outside.
I slept quite well, waking up around 8 AM before I headed down for my
workout in the building’s gym, which was perfectly adequate. After my workout, I changed and we headed
down for breakfast.
My first choice for
breakfast would have been a smoked salmon omelet, but I knew that we would be
having fish for dinner, so I decided against that. My second choice would have involved bacon,
but I was planning on going to Blimpies for lunch, as it is New Jersey’s most
iconic fast food restaurant, and their specialty is a pork-based sub. I then saw that they had an interesting dish
called cream chipped beef. I got
that. It was much better than I
expected.
Not long after breakfast, my
mother and I headed out on our adventure.
In many ways, it was to cash the check that we wrote as we were crossing
the Delaware last weekend. Great Egg
Harbor River National Scenic and Recreational River was the last NPS unit I
needed to visit I the Mid-Atlantic region.
All of our efforts would pay off today.
I knew the stamp to be located inside Estell Manor Park, so we headed
there first, and, sure enough, they had the brochures and stamps. They also had two more brochures (and stamps)
for Maurice River Wild and Scenic River and Pinelands National Reserver,
neither of which are Official NPS units, but I got all three brochures and
stamped each with their stamp.
This was
a success, but I could not claim it yet.
We needed to take a ceremonial picture on the waterfront, so we drove to
a place with a scenic vista. I lit up an
H. Upmann, we took our ceremonial picture, and I made my pronouncement. “New Jersey Complete. Mid-Atlantic Complete.” I was proud of my accomplishment. We went for a bit of a walk before getting in
the car and heading to Blimpies, in a town called Rosenhayn.
I had my navigation on, and I lost focus
about half of a mile from the destination.
We were past the location, and my mother said that she just saw a deli
but not Blimpies. Long story short, the
Blimpies had closed down, and it had been replaced by Rosenhayn Deli. This was neither iconic nor famous. In fact, it was not dissimilar from the one
we went to at the end of our trip last weekend in Lackawaxen,
Pennsylvania. I got a chicken parmesian
on wheat, along with chips and coffee.
The sandwich was too big, and I only could eat half. I then lit up an Aroma de Cuba, and we drove
back dejected.
I was now determined to
say, “Atlantic County Complete,” which meant we would need to visit the country
legislature and the two National Historic Landmarks in the county. We first stopped at the meeting place of the
Board of Chosen Freeholders in Northfield.
Next was the Atlantic City Convention Hall, now known as Boardwalk Hall,
the home of the Miss America pageant.
After I took my ceremonial picture I still had a little bit of cigar
left, and it was going out, anyway, so I decided to save it for the other NHL,
which we would visit on our way to dinner. When we got back to 5000 Boardwalk, we all relaxed for a bit before my
parents and I headed back out to dinner.
We stopped at Lucy the Elephant, the country’s oldest surving “roadside
attraction,” on the way to dinner in Longport.
I got a replica of the elephant and relit my cigar, and we took our
ceremonial picture. That was it. Atlantic Country Complete.
We met my grandfather and his wife for dinner
at a restaurant called Catch. It had a
great seafood selection, and I was pleased to see that they had Gosling’s Rum
behind the bar. I always like a nice rum
with seafood, and this would do quite well.
It was probably close to two years since the five of us had been
together, and a good time was had by all.
The funniest moment of the evening occurred when my grandfather started
saying something that seemed to be intended as a compliment but didn’t really
make much sense. I nodded along
politely, and, after he finished he paused for a moment before realizing that
what he said was complete nonsense. He
then asked me if what he said was complete bullshit, and, without missing a
beat, I confirmed that it was, 100%, that not a single word of it made
sense. We must have laughed about for a
solid five minutes. The food was good,
too. My appetizer was a surf and turf
dish consisting of scallops and short rib.
My main course was wild Atlantic salmon with vegetables. That was excellent, but I knew that I was
eating too much and would soon regret it.
After we were done eating, we demurred on dessert. The only dessert I wanted was a nice
cigar. I went to Ocean City with my
grandfather, and, once I got settled in there, we went out to the pool area,
where I lit up a PDR and we chatted for most of the cigar. The best part about staying with him is that
I can smoke in the house, so, with a little bit of cigar left, we went inside,
and he showed me everything I might need over the next hour or so, incuding
some dessert options. I was quite
content.
We said our goodnights, and I
finished the cigar in a very comfortable chair.
I then made myself a small platter of desserts before heading upstairs
and heading out to the patio, where I sat down, lit up my Ardor, and proceeded
to write this entry, which I will now close so that I can publish and soon get
to bed.
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