Find That 1 Thing: Take a trip with us.

I have returned! Vacation was awesome. We spent 5 days in Ocean Grove New Jersey being beach bums ! We stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast right on the beach so early morning walks were a must!

Ocean Grove is a quiet, quaint Christian town with so much charm.
Cameron learned to ride the waves on day 2 with his must purchase boogie board. He did not however enjoy day 1 when a wave tumbled him under and he experienced a mouth full of salt water. I made him get back on that horse again as we had 5 days ahead of us. Soon he became a body surfer. He learned to go out beyond the crest where one can easily ride over the wave. By day 4 though he was riding them in and even going under those that proved bigger than he wished to conquer!

We experienced new tastes, good times with friends, and daily trips to the weezer truck for delicious Italian Ice.

We then traveled into New York City for a couple of days what a change in pace! We experienced Ellis Island and stood where many immigrants did as they came into this Country. I imagined, as we traveled over on the Ferry what it must have been like for them when they caught their first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty- she indeed is an impressive lady!

From there we took a train into the city and was immediately thrust into the sights, sounds and smells of New York. Mmmmmm my favorite smell was the nuts being roasted on the street corners. So many sounds that were foreign to our daily lives. The sounds of the train tracks as we make our way from place to place on the subway, to horses hooves (and smells) from the horse drawn taxis, We experienced a Bike taxi in which we all 3 rode in a cart being pulled by a bicycle (for a mere $30 for several blocks).

We heard the sounds of 4 men breaking out into song on the subway (very good by the way) in hopes to pick up a few $'s for their troubles. We saw the sadness of homelessness, next to the abundance of wealth. We saw freedom of religion on a street corner as a man knelt on his prayer rug and prayed. We saw the hustle bustle in Central park, and that over sized disco ball that falls each New Years Eve.

We experienced China town in which very few spoke English as they sold their goods and fresh fish at the markets. We went to Little Italy and ate lunch at an outside cafe where our waiter was a gentleman of 69 (he shared)and a true Italian (came to US in the 60's) If he wasn't so nice I would have been certain he played in a mafia movie- We laughed several times over hearing him say
"Forgit about it".

We walked many many blocks to get the Nike Town on our first night there for Cameron to get a pair of shoes only to find when we got there at 8:45 they closed at 8. My heart was broken as this was what he planned on doing our whole vacation this is the one place he wanted to go! That is when we swallowed the $30 and took the bike taxi back to Penn Station to catch our subway when we went into Foot action which was right where we started and he found a pair of shoes he loved!

I was truly inspired by our stop at St Pauls next to ground zero. So many memorials and photos and love poured out there still after all these years. We watched them as they worked to rebuild where so many lost their lives.

No trip to NY is complete without a visit to FAO Swartz so we walked in and immediately went to the BIG piano that was used in the movie BIG. Cameron experienced what that was like and then we walked around in awe of all that was there and new that we would need a complete day to see it all. After visiting a few favorite areas and purchasing a couple cool items we left for one last stop the Apple store! Getting Cameron out of an electronics store where you have free range to play with any thing (and everything is live) is like wrestling an alligator with a blindfold on. He played on the ipad with ease of a pro while Mark and I looked at each other and shrugged.

It was time to head back to our hotel so we boarded the metro and said good bye to the Big Apple!