Saturday was my last day in NYC and it started out with the tour I was most looking forward to. The Village Tour. It was their first tour of the season and kind of a rainy morning, so Roger and I were the only ones on the tour. Which was rather great. We could ask questions, didn’t have to worry about hearing the guide, or being in the way of locals trying to go about their day. The tour guide gave us an interesting history of the village and New York in general.We saw some notable places and heard stories about notable people. But really it just felt good to be in that neighborhood. So very different than midtown.

After this we wandered over to SoHo to check out the street vendors selling their arts. Here I finished my final daily mission . I found my one of a kind something special for myself. We met a lady selling jewelry made from old glass street lights as well as from other scrap items. Very cool. Sole Arts was the vendor who sold me these beautiful pieces. I’m excited to have found such a neat and unique item. I’m truly amazed by people to can make beautiful things with their hands.

With our last burst of energy, we hopped the subway one last time up to Union Square to check out the Farmer’s Market. It was quite a site. A beautiful assortment of vegetables, fruits, homemade honey and syrup. It was lovely.

Then, I wasreminded of one of the things about New York I don’t like. Finding a public restroom. I’d heard tell that Starbucks were good places to find a restroom. Luck have it, I stumbled upon one of the 280+ Starbucks on the island. Waiting in line for 10 minutes for that restroom was the most painful experience of our trip. Not because I had to pee so badly, but because my feet hurt so much. Standing in one place was torture. After that, I decided our time in Manhattan was done. Time to go pick up our rental car and head to the Jersey Shore for part two of our adventure.

We picked up our stupidly expensive rental car (yay NYC!) and Roger successfully navigated us through Manhattan traffic back to our hotel to pick up our bags and be on our way. Atlantic City bound for a night of dazzling lights and walking the boardwalk. We got a super cheap hotel on the boardwalk (you wouldn’t believe what hotels cost there. It was easily as much as in Manhattan), right across from the Tropicana. The Tropicana promised a light show at 9pm and we were really excited for it. After all, the only part of Vegas we really liked was the Freemont St. light show. Oh my were we disappointed. It was two songs, one of which I didn’t know, the other was an oversexualized version of American Girl. I tweeted about my disappointment and it was liked by some Atlantic City promo bot. Ridiculous. A few photos of the couple scenes that were visually interesting:

Our night ended with some delicious caramel cheesecake in the hotel room and another round of peppermint salve and elevated feet.

Sunday was a bittersweet day. We traveled on to Sea Isle City. The childhood vacation spot for Roger’s family when he was a teenager. We started out the day with a trip to their old vacation home. Now littered with No Trespassing signs. So we didn’t linger for long. Then was a very pleasant visit with a favorite person from Roger’s childhood. Someone of whom I’d heard many stories. Red Dog, aka Eric. He is the owner of Red Dog Bait and Tackle. Roger used to bail out boats for him and rescue stranded folks who had rented boats and run out of gas or whatnot. We had a lovely visit with him. I wish we could have stayed longer. Our next stop was meant to be Pat’s. A favorite cheese steak spot. Sadly, Pat’s was gone. As were several of the other places Roger had hoped to show me. But we did get to stroll the boardwalk, played skeeball and pinball in an arcade, and had some ice-cream in a delightful little shop. It was a very nice day. Full of happy childhood stories from Roger’s life. With sunburns firmly in tact, we left the beautiful little island of Sea Isle City and made our way to Red Bank, NJ.

Red Bank was an impromptu stop with two goals in mind. Visit some key Kevin Smith film hot spots, and have a seafood dinner. We arrived on Broad St in Red Bank to find it lively with people. I surprised by that on a Sunday night. Also by the number of dessert spots. So very tempting. Our first Kevin Smith locale was “The Stash”. A comic book store Kevin Smith opened in 1997 after making a name for himself as a writer/director/actor of some cult films.I had first visited here in ’99 and had a tiny brush with fame when I met Walt Flanagan who had a role in a few of Kevin’s movies. True to form, I blinked in the photo. But the comic shop was great. Lots of comics and fun movie paraphernalia. Alas, on this trip, the Stash was closed. But here’s a photo proving I was there 🙂 Next on our tour was the Quick Stop. Made iconic thanks to Kevin’s first film, Clerks. We stood outside like giant nerds and took photos. I bought a diet coke and a tastykake while we gawked at movie history.

After our little tour of Kevin Smith’s movie heritage, we headed over to the shore in search of a seafood dinner for our last night on vacation. We found a lovely hoppin spot called “On the Deck” which had a pretty view of the water and the NYC skyline. Dinner was delicious and the staff were so great. I thought maybe they thought we were critics the service was so good! 

With tired legs and tired eyes, we journeyed our way up to the JFK airport area, traversed three Burroughs, drove across at least three scary bridges, but made it to our beautiful Best Western Inn 🙂 The unpacking/repacking process began. AKA How do I fit all the shit I brought back into the suitcase with the stuff we picked up along the way. Fortunately, we are not buyers. We didn’t have much extra to bring home. But enough to make it tricky to pack everything back up and make sure both bags were under the 50# mark.

I tried to blog and start my Weekly mission, but the internet would not cooperate and sleepiness took over. Another vacation come to a close.

I loved my time away. My heart and mind were happy and satisfied so often. I plan to think more about what exactly made me happy in those moments. We can’t live our life on vacation. But I think I would be wise to try and bring some of those elements that bring me happiness and satisfaction into my daily life. Or, if not daily, at least regular.

Thanks for joining me on my east coast adventure. I’m off to start my photobook and complete my missions for the week. Tomorrow, a new week of missions begins!

~Teresa