Jersey, Sure!

Well things are finally starting to settle in around here. Our apartment finally is "live-able," we are starting to become familiar with the area (we can definitely get to the Target without the GPS now), and we have food in the cupboards and fridge. In fact we felt settled in enough the other day to make a trip to the Jersey Shore. We've had quite a bit of strange weather lately, including a daily record of 5 inches of rain in one day earlier this week. Strange coincidence that just after the Seattleites move here we help Philly set a "rain record?" I think not. ;-) We've also had plentiful thunder and lightning storms too. It is definitely fun to watch the lightning out the window, since it's something we don't see all the time in Seattle, but I'm over it now. The other morning the thunder woke us up at 8am (a little too early considering we didn't go to bed until 1am), and then kept me up most of the night last night. And we're not just talking rumbling in the distance. I'm talking woke you up in the middle of the night because it was rumbling the floor and felt like it was clapping down right on top of the apartment building! It's cool, but I could go a few days without it so I can get a good, solid, night's sleep in.

Back to the Jersey Shore. We decided since we knew it was going to be one of the only nice days (nestled in amongst the storms), that we ought to take advantage of it while we still can. I had never been to the Jersey Shore or boardwalks before, so we decided to go for it. We picked a beach called Point Pleasant. It's about an hour and a half drive from us, but we hit quite a bit of traffic heading in so it took more like 2 hours. At first we couldn't find parking, but then we lucked out and ended up with a spot on a little side street (don't worry, it was a safe street), and didn't even have to pay for it. I learned on this trip, however, that on nice beaches like this on the east coast, you have to PAY to go on the beach. What the? I guess that's normal out here. I also learned the beaches are SO DIFFERENT (and nicer) than the PNW coast. The sand was... sandy (not rocky), the water was the perfect temperature (didn't have to dip in and come running back out with goosebumps), and there were actual waves. I've never seen David with such a big smile on his face as when he would body ride the waves in and crash onto the shore cracking up. It was true happiness. Ha ha!

After we enjoyed the sunshine and waves for a few hours, we walked the boardwalk to look for places to grab a drink and a bite to eat. I had never seen a real boardwalk before, so I'm pretty sure I was just walking around in awe. A carnival right there ON the boardwalk? Whoa! We ended up stopping at a Tiki bar right on the beach. I'm sure David could give a better description of how the interactions went with our waiter- but let's just say he was less than pleased. The guy was pretty flamboyant, and as David said, "much more interested in dancing and putting on a show then getting us our drinks." He went up on the stage and started booty dancing to a Miley Cyrus song, meanwhile we had ordered our bucket of Corona nips at least a half hour ago and still hadn't received them. Once we finally got our drinks we relaxed a little and ordered some food. I had a dozen steamed clams and David had BBQ Pork Sliders. Both were really good and it was very fun to hang out in the Tiki Bar and relax. It felt like a little mini-vacation for a day. The picture of us above is from the Tiki Bar (post receiving Coronas). It was a good day and I'm so glad I got to experience the Jersey Shore before the summer is over!

I am enjoying my last few days of freedom and David is full swing in his job search. I am actually going to make my first trip to Temple today to get my id card and turn in some paperwork. I'm going to practice taking the SETPA (regional rail) and everything. David already is getting some responses to resumes he sent yesterday and is excited to be getting going with the job search. We also are starting to actually have plans on our calendar too! Looks like Saturday we are going to get to see David's good friend Tina play soccer here in Philly (she plays for the WPS Magic Jack), and then Sunday we are going to have the couple we know that lives in the same apartment complex over for dinner. We love each other a lot, and we love our new apartment, but it's fun to have plans too! :-)

More to come soon! Miss everyone so much!