Tacos, Fondue and a tour of Hoboken

Chloe after the "Brits" left...

We’ve decided that we're not "Jet-lagged", we're "Brit-lagged". After Jean and Gordon left, we enjoyed our last evening at the condo--a bit of wine, a little TV and some take-away Indian. The next day, we packed everything up and John took Chloe and our stuff back to the motorhome while I played maid and laundress. The place looked spotless when I left and I think Octavia was quite happy to see us leave.

Octavia....glad to see us gone!

The next day, it was time to unpack and pick up some groceries at the ShopRite and do more laundry!

Post British Invasion

I just finished making up the bed, grabbed a glass of wine and as we were contemplating dinner, Jim called. We met him for dinner at the Taqueria. Glad that we opted for Madame Claude's for our Saturday night dinner instead of this little dive. The food was good, not exceptional - but we had a great time with Jim. After dinner, he suggested a drive to Hoboken. We didn't realize how close it was to us--instead of a right turn into the Holland Tunnel- go straight and you're there! While Jersey City is ethnic, Hoboken is very white and Italian. Since it's the home of Frank Sinatra, Jim turned on the "Sinatra" channel on the radio while we drove through the city. We stopped at the "Melting Pot" on Sinatra Boulevard for dessert--a heavenly chocolate fondue served with bananas, strawberries, cheesecake, pound cake, rice crispy bars --and some cognac. We did a mini-tour of the city (really beautiful architecture- more high style Victorian than in Jersey City)...then it was back to Jersey City and a bar on Grove Street that has flamenco dancing on Tuesday nights. What a town!

Until next year....

Our last day with Jean and Gordon is always hard. The morning was busy—with packing for their flight home and cleaning up Jim’s condo. Since we had time before their flight, we went to a local restaurant, the Hamilton Inn, for brunch. Jersey City has such a nice feel—so much like Charlestown. The people are remarkably friendly and the architecture reminds us so much of our old neighborhood.

At the end of every trip together, once the bags are all packed, the realization hits that we probably won’t be seeing each other for another year. The trip to Newark airport was short—and it was so sad to say our goodbyes. But, now it was time to plan our next adventure together….who knows where 2011 will find us?

Chelsea Market

Once we figured out how to use the Keurig coffee maker and enjoyed the individually brewed cups of coffee, took our turns at the huge showers with multi-showerheads, and got ourselves dressed, we reluctantly left our “condo” and drove to NYC to wander through Chelsea Market. Saturday was a crazy day—tourists, tour groups and New Yorkers—shopping and eating their way through this old market.

The Chelsea Market was built within the former Nabisco factory complex where the Oreo Cookie was invented and produced. The 22-building complex fills two entire blocks bounded by 9th and 11th Avenues and 15th to 16th Street.

In 1997, the building was re-purposed into a kind of “gourmet urban food court” with bakeries,

fish shops, a dairy store, produce market along with clothing stores, wholesale kitchen equipment and the Food Network’s headquarter upstairs.

Jean and Gordon found the most amazing little stall selling flavored salts, vinegars and sugars- complete with tastings. They walked out with blueberry balsamic vinegar that was good enough to drink.

We managed to find our way back to Jersey City and Jean and I took off for the Path station to take the World Trade Center line to Century 21.

Century 21

(Photo courtesy of Flickr)

It was our last chance to shop at this 4 story mecca of discounted designer clothes, shoes, accessories, cosmetics and household goods. The narrow aisles are packed with people from every part of the world pulling wheeled carriers loaded with their treasures. Checkout alone can take 30 minutes.

It was our last night and our “graduation dinner” just had to be at Madame Claude’s. We had the same waitress and had a wonderful meal.

Madame Claude's

Wall Street, Ground Zero and "The Mosque"

Friday morning and we joined the Wall Street warriors on the water taxi to the east side of Lower Manhattan. It was a crisp fall day and quite lovely in the sunshine—but in the canyons of Wall Street, jackets were essential.

The water taxi docks by the South Street Seaport, once the sight of the busiest seaport in America.

From there, it was a short walk to Wall Street (where Gordon noticed a dog dump right near the Wall Street sign…how appropriate!) We walked the length of Wall Street. Interesting—there were more tourists than suited financiers. The Asians were taking photos of each other in the “George Washington pose” at Federal Hall. And the streets around the NY Stock Exchange were packed with camera toting tourists.

The New York Stock Exchange
Note- how did Wall Street get its name? After the Dutch purchased “New Amsterdam” from the Native Americans, a wall was erected that formed the northern boundary of the new colony. The first “walls” along the street were basic plank fences, but as time passed and tensions with the mother country grew, a stronger, taller wall was built in order to defend the colony against both the British and the American Indians tribes that still dominated the area. The British removed the wall around the turn of the 18th century.

We stopped at Trinity Church, home of the oldest congregation in America, established in 1697 under charter by King William III.

Trinity Church

Jean and Gordon got a kick out of the plaque on the floor: “On this spot stood Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her gracious visit 9 July 1976 His Royal Highness The Prince Phillip stood nearby”.

Ground Zero was showing signs of progress. Quite a change from the past few years when it seemed that there was no progress at all.

Ground Zero...

Building was beginning on a World Trade Center Memorial (expected to open in 2011, at the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks) The memorial, dubbed 'Reflecting Absence', will have cascading waterfalls with illuminated reflecting pools at the exact site of the former towers. The names of the 2979 people who died during the attacks that day will be inscribed around the edge of the waterfalls.

We stopped at St Paul’s Chapel.

St Paul's Chapel

The rear of the chapel faces Church Street, opposite the east side of the World Trade Center site. After 9/11, St. Paul's Chapel served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the WTC site.

With all of the heated discussions, rallys and political sound bites about the proposed Ground Zero Mosque and Muslim Community Center, we had to see the actual site. It is an active mosque today..

The proposed site of the Islamic Center

We found the site guarded by a single New York City cop who was happy to give us his two cents about the center, it’s questionable funding and just about everything else (including his belief that all wars are caused by women and religion). He lived through 9/11 and was involved in the cleanup.

John and I grabbed the water taxi (with Chloe in tow) back to Jersey City while Jean and Gordon continued their exploration of Manhattan. When they got home, we hustled them off to dinner with our old neighbor from Charlestown, Jim. He left Charlestown several years ago and moved to Jersey City. With an invitation for drinks at his condo before dinner, we walked in and our jaws dropped.

The View to die for!

The views of Manhattan were spectacular. The city was sparkling with lights and from every window you could see another piece of NYC. We were ‘gobsmacked’.

Madame Claude's Thursday night
We drove a few blocks away for dinner at one of Jim’s favorite spots—a little French inspired restaurant called Madame Claude’s. On Thursday nights, the owners and his friends play music –French gypsy music. The restaurant was small and absolutely charming. The menu- gorgeous! La Marocaine – a crepe with spicy lamb sausage, mushroom and crème fraiche, Couscous Madame Claude- stewed chicken and lamb sausage in Moroccan spices served with vegetables and couscous. There was duck confit, braised lamb shanks…and crepes with baked pear and chocolate sauce. All this and BYOB!

And to make a wonderful evening even better, as we told Jim of our challenging trip—4 people in our crippled motorhome. he casually offered his condo to us for the weekend—he was off to Vermont on Friday. We literally jumped at the offer—what an amazing way to end our trip with the Brits!

New York City!!

Time to leave lovely New Jersey and our gorgeous campsite and head to Jersey City. The campground there leaves a lot to be desired—just a large parking lot. But this parking lot is right across the Hudson River from Manhattan – with the PATH only a few blocks away and the water taxi leaving directly from our parking lot. We got set up and headed directly for NYC.

The Path Station on Grove Street

The PATH experience wasn’t quite as terrifying as we remembered. The last time we were there, the PATH trains felt like they were going to disintegrate under the Hudson.

Once we arrived at the Christopher Street Station, we got our bearings and walked through Greenwich Village—down Bleeker Street to a little bar on MacDougal where we spent the afternoon people watching.

On the way home, a stop at Murray's Cheese..

Philly’s 9th Street Italian Market

Philadelphia’s 9th Street Italian Market (the oldest and largest working outdoor market in the US) was in full swing on Saturday morning.

We had a great time wandering through the stores and the outdoor stalls, checking out the fresh fruit and veggies walking into stores filled with amazing Italian meats and cheese, fresh pasta, bread and spices. Gordon’s chef genes kicked in as he planned our evening meal of grilled chicken breast stuffed with pancetta and pine nuts.

The Italian section of the market turned Hispanic as we walked south.

At the end of the market blocks, we got to the “Philly Cheesesteak” corner – with dueling restaurants of Pat’s and Geno’s. John and I had tried Pat’s so decided to Geno’s a try. (Our decision- go with Pat’s). We split a cheesesteak and an order of cheese fries….just to give the Brits the obligatory taste of this Philly classic. (Their concensus- “once was enough”)

Cheese Fries!

Jean did, however, do a great job on the ordering of our cheesesteaks, following these simple rules:

How to Order a Cheesesteak: A Guide for Tourists
There is a protocol to ordering a cheesesteak at the cheesesteak epicenter of Ninth and Wharton, which, if not followed, can result in being sent to the back of the line Soup Nazi–style, or even worse, getting less meat. At Pat’s and Geno’s, you must order by saying the name of the cheese you want and then “with” or “without” (or as it is often pronounced in South Philly, “wit” or “witout”), which means with or without grilled onions. A correct and traditional order there would be “Whiz wit.” “Mushrooms witout” will get you a steak sandwich with mushrooms but no onions or cheese. You order and pay for your drinks and fries at a separate window.
Acceptable cheesesteak condiments include peppers of all kinds, hot pepper relish, hot sauce, ketchup, dill or sweet pickles but not mustard and mayo (although a really good steak won’t need any condiments).

Once we got back to Laurel Pond, Jean and I made a beeline to the Outlet Mall—just a mile away—and got a short shopping trip in while the guys started the fire and cracked open a few brews. We got back in time to play sous-chef to Chef Gordon and helped him chop and dice.

Amish Country

Time for a day trip to see the surrounding countryside. We headed to Amish Country in Lancaster, PA. John stopped to show them the old AuWerter homestead, now the After 8 Bed and Breakfast.

Across the street, we stopped to check out a local farmers market – filled with fall vegetables and fruits and the most amazing selection of gourds, pumpkins and squash. Gordon shopped for our dinner that night, filling bags with fresh squash, yams, tomatoes and new potatoes.

We stopped at the Intercourse Farmers Market—which was really more like a tourist trap filled with Amish people selling junk to “the English” (as they call non-Amish). In this case, they really were selling to “the English”—although our only purchase was a piece of shoofly pie.

Jean and I opted for a walk while the boys went to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania—claiming over 100 locomotives and cars from the mid-19th and 20th centuries, including the Pennsylvania Railroad Historical Collection.

Gordon was in his glory with a building filled with railroad cars and engines. (We had to laugh when we combined photos from the trip and found dozens of photos of the train wheels, train engines, and the undercarriage of rail cars.)

Our evening- more wine, more great Gordon prepared food, a roaring fire and again, a drunken hot tub party….It doesn’t get better than this!

A little slice of American History….Philadelphia –The Cradle of Liberty

After breakfast and negotiating the first morning with 5 in the motorhome, we got into our routine. Jean and Gordon, sleeping on what we called “The High Altar of Love” (instead of sleeping on the inflatable mattress on the floor, we had to put the mattress on top of the extended sofa). While the view was lovely—window level, the drop off the side would be catastrophic. They got the coffee going in the morning, Chloe managed to sleep in until 7 AM and then she’d give them the greeting of a lifetime every morning…thrilled to have 2 more adults paying attention to her.

The day was a bit cloudy and not exactly hot so we decided to make the trip to Philadelphia and do the obligatory American history tour along with a trolley tour of the city. While a visit to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall may be a thrill for the patriot from the Midwest, we were trying to be sensitive to the needs of our holidaying Brits and minimize the lessons on American history. We didn’t make them sit through the multiple videos in the Visitor’s Center, but did sign them up for the guided tour of Independence Hall.

We made a side visit to see the Liberty Bell before starting the short tour. The group on our tour was very white and mostly old (lots of WWII vets and their wives). Jean and Gordon did a yeoman’s job of feigning interest in the rooms in Independence Hall.

We heard the story of this “the birthplace of America”- built in 1732 as the Pennsylvania State House. Within the hall, the Second Continental Congress met in May 1775, and The Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776.

It’s also where the Constitutional Convention met to draft, debate and then sign The United States Constitution on September 17, 1787. Not exactly a grabber for the Brits, but as always they were real troopers.

We finished the tour and jumped on the City Trolley for a double decker view of Philly.

We got to the center of the city- seeing the interesting architecture of City Hall (as we waited in the Philly traffic) – before getting off at the Reading Terminal Market.

What an amazing place—aisles and aisles of food stands. We hit it right at noon and it was packed with the lunch time business crowd.

John grabbed a table while Jean and Gordon stood in line for the DiNic’s Roast Pork Sandwich-a huge sandwich of roasted pork, provolone cheese and greens.

I raced over to Salumenia for a classic Italian hoagie. Before we waddled back to the bus, we managed to try an Amish hot pretzel and buy some chocolate covered expresso beans. Just making sure we were covering all the food groups.

The bus took us from central Philly, past the Love Fountain in the center of the city to the outskirts of town, past the famous “Rocky Steps” and the countless Philly museums and through the colonial city back to the Visitors Center.

On the way home, we stopped by the ShopRite and picked up fixings for dinner. With Chef Gordon in town, we wouldn’t have to bother with going out to get great, gourmet food. Jean and I, with wine in hand, took on the sous chef role, helping with the chopping while Gordon prepared the chicken for the grill. Our campground was perfect—a firepit, gas grill and our own personal hot tub. The first attempt at starting a fire was a challenge. We had more smoke than fire and our neighbor decided to rescue us with a supply of dry bark to get a real fire going. Wine, great food, a smokin’ fire let to the first of our drunken hot tub parties.

We got back into the coach to find that we had been infested with flies—they were everywhere and Gordon went from Chef Gordon to the Great White Fly Hunter. Armed with John’s fly gun, he must have brought down at least 30 of them, losing all of our rubber bands in the process.

Gordon- The Great White Fly Hunter (Note the angle of the slider room on the right side!)

Jersey Diners and the Jersey Shore

No need to wake up early- everyone slept in, enjoying the space and privacy that Kate and Mike’s house afforded us…. In only a few short hours, we’d be in our crippled motorhome. After saying our goodbyes to Kate and Mike, we headed to the Summit Diner for a hearty breakfast.

Jean and Gordon, having already been to the Diner once before, were pros at ordering. Hash and eggs, toast and coffee for the three of them. I opted for their amazing cinnamon French toast. Mmmm!

On the way back to the motorhome—about an hour south of Summit, we decided to take a bit of a detour and travel the Jersey Shore. We had thought about spending a Sunday afternoon on the Shore and were glad that we did a bit of a preview. It felt a bit like driving the coast of Eastern Florida—lots of ticky-tacky beach resorts, boardwalks and Coney Island type rides. Occasionally, we’d drive through an obviously upper end town- huge homes and lots of Wall Street money. We stopped, hoping to walk the boardwalk with Chloe but found that all of the Jersey Shore towns ban dogs from the boardwalk and the beaches. So much for a return visit to Jersey…
We got settled into our cramped quarters- Jean and Gordon unpacked and we started the holidays…lots of drinking wine and talking sh&%.