Travels and Treats

It was his idea to go.  "Let's go to the Great Swamp to see if they have any amaryllis bulbs yet."  We picked out the bulbs and then he detoured away from me while I checked out the Christmas ornament section.  I thought he was in the next aisle, but when I rounded the corner, he wasn't there.  It took me a while to find him because I actually didn't want to go into the "greenhouse" and be tempted to buy any new plants.  I'd just finished repotting all the orchids at home the last week and with bringing in the few plants we overwinter indoors, space is at a premium.  There he was, conducting business as he made himself at home near the cyclamen.  And, since he kept talking as I approached, I did decide to do some plant shopping and came home with a small cyclamen and an even smaller Christmas cactus about to bloom.  

I wanted to look closer at this mushroom garland but it was out of my reach and by the time I found the chatterbox I had forgotten about it till I uploaded my pictures.

I think I have some wooden mushrooms around here..... and some screw eyes.  Then again, it might be a wild goose chase.  Instead of going home on the highway, I convinced HWNSNBP to take the back roads home so we could enjoy the scenery.  There is a Japanese word for when the sunbeams filter through the trees - komorebi.  Thankfully it was a sunny fall day and we did get to enjoy the komorebi.

Which reminds me that I didn't post anything about our Lighthouse Challenge yet.  I won't repeat all the lighthouses that we visited, just some highlights of the days.  When we started out on that Saturday morning we got down to the end of our street and I realized that I had forgotten to put earrings on.  Not a big deal, but I feel better when I have them in so HWNSNBP turned to go back to the house and I remembered that I had a spare pair in the overnight bag, so we turned around in a driveway that was decorated as such..........

After the first two stops at Tinnicum and Finn's Point, we stopped at the Amish Market in Bridgeton and he treated me to a whoopie pie.

Thank the clouds for briefy letting the sun illuminate East Point Lighthouse for this picture.  It was way too windy for the flag apparently.  

Hereford Inlet Lighthouse is not on the official list of stops but it is on the way so we stopped to take our obligatory gazing ball picture in the front garden.

We made it through to Barnegat by the evening and woke the next day to get on the road early to make the last 4 stops.  This is a view of the ocean from the lighthouse at Sea Girt.  We did have gorgeous weather.

I loved the side of this building we passed on the way to the end.  Luckily we were stopped at a traffic light so I could reach across to take a picture.  I'm not sure what town it's in though.

We ended the challenge at the Twin Lights.

Our challenge souvenirs this year were log books.  Each sight had a page with a copy of a log entry from one of the lightkeepers over the years.  You got a stamp on each page as you completed that stop.  There were 4 additional stamps and 2 secret stamps that you had to ask about at each stop to get.  We only knew that because we are on the email list for the challenge and it was published there.  There were a couple of people who overheard HWNSNBP ask about it and were a little upset that they didn't know about it in their journey.  He got one of the committee members to take our picture in front of the lens in the museum.   

This past weekend we went to the condo on Thursday night - kind of a last minute decision - so that HWNSNBP could do some surf fishing Friday as we were planning to go to Delaware to babysit on Saturday.  I also wanted to get pictures of the full moon rising - always a toss up on that one.  He did get a picture of the sunrise on Friday morning as he headed out for his coffee.  

And he did hit up the bakery a little later in the morning and brought me back this treat.

The full moon wasn't until Saturday night, but we went up to the bay beach and waited for the almost full moon to rise as I'm pretty sure that, had the clouds not been there, it would have started out behind the lighthouse across the bay.  It wasn't this pretty when we first got there, but it was so peaceful we decided to stay a while and it was HWNSNBP who first caught a glimpse of the moon as it came out from behind the clouds.  I was so happy to get the reflection in the water.

And even happier when the swans started swimming in the pink water towards that direction.  I kept whispering to them to swim faster, swim faster, so that I could............

Get them in the moonlight before the moon disappeared again behind the clouds.  And if you look to the left you can see the lighthouse there too.

Saturday morning we left early to get to DE so that Rachel could spend some one-on-one time with GS2 while we watched GS3.  (Their daddy was at a wrestling event.)  She took him in his costume to the Delaware Children's Museum for some special Halloween activities.  We got to spend some time with this little love.  Those eyes just make my heart melt.

Naptime was short but he didn't fight it at all.  

We had lunch when they came back and then we went in two cars (no room for Grandma and Papa and 2 car seats) to the UD Creamery - a little ice cream stand on the University of Delaware campus near the football stadium run by the agriculture students.  There specialty for the holiday is the "Trick or Treat" ice cream which is French vanilla ice cream with candy.  It was another delicious treat on another beautiful day.  There were a lot of people there and we had to initially share a picnic table with a couple of students.  Luckily there wasn't a football game there that day or we wouldn't have been able to go.

I've finished my Inktober tangles and my birds which I'll be posting soon.   Yesterday I had two dr. appts. - one with a back surgeon and the other was for a vein study in these old legs that are not working like they're supposed to.  HWNSNBP came with me to the surgeon and I think he finally understood why I'm having so much difficulty.  The dr. showed us both what a normal spine looks like and what mine looks like and it was abundantly clear that mine is not normal.  Insurance doesn't let you jump to the surgery part without further tests and non-surgical intervention so, even though the doctor agreed that it looked like that was going to be the final outcome, I have to have another test and do some PT first.  As for the veins - that doctor is in such demand that I won't be able to follow up with the test results until January.  It's going to be interesting.

This has gotten quite lengthy and I really need to get up in the stamp cave to get a couple of Christmas cards done.  The JB challenge this fortnight is to use a creature on our card.  I think I've got a couple of ideas.  Happy Halloween!

Lighthouse Weekend and October Round Up

We were blessed with another wonderful weekend this month.  It happened to be the weekend of the Lighthouse Challenge.  HWNSNBP and I set out early that Saturday morning to begin our 483 mile door-to-door road trip.  These clouds caught my eye, and I know it's a stretch but they reminded me of the gray streaks in the hair of Elsa Lanchester when she played the bride of Frankenstein in the movie of the same name.  A little apropo for the month of October.

Further down the road, I was able to get HWNSNBP to stop briefly so I could get this picture through the car window of the sun illuminating the feathery grass in this field.

I've posted many pictures of the lighthouses before and I won't do it this time, but I will share the picture of one of our favorites - East Point.  Our tokens that we collected along the way this year were postcards featuring information on one of the lighthouse keeper and one with a picture of the lighthouse and information on it.  At our first stop of the day we paid the small fee of $4 each for a little 4x6 photo album that had just enough pockets in it to contain all the postcards collected.

Having done this a number of years, we usually plan our bathroom stops along the way - Wawa (a chain of convenience stores/gas stations in NJ) usually have well kept facilities and we can also pick up snacks there.  I don't remember ever seeing this info on the door handle or even the handle itself before, but I wish that there were more of them in other public places and not just bathrooms.  We are still pretty diligent with using the hand sanitizing spray in the car whenever we get back in after an outing but not having to touch the door handle is a plus to me.

Coming out of Cape May we were in a bit of traffic because it was such a beautiful day.  I thought this looked like the cat was whispering into the horse's ear.  I wonder what he could be telling him?

Hereford Inlet is not on the scheduled stops but it is on the way from one point to the other and just a few minutes there usually allow us to get our obligatory gazing ball picture in the front garden.

We overnighted in Barnegat and got a somewhat early start on Sunday to complete the route.  Our last stop was at the Twin Lights in Atlantic Highlands.  This is the lens that they have housed in an outbuilding next to the north tower of the lighthouse.  This venue is also a museum inside which we have visited before.  It was a bit hazy and I knew that the view from the front wouldn't be much so we just collected our tokens and were on our way home.

Later that afternoon, the crisp air was clear and we were treated with this balloon flying overhead.  More autumn color.

Here is HWNSNBP auditioning for float driver in the Rose Bowl Parade - not really, but we pulled out all the scraggly cleome and he took it in the tractor up the hill to spread out where he dumps the yard waste.  Some of it also went across the street stratigically scattered in the open area in the hope that it might seed itself there.

Our backdoor and it's alliterative display for October - Ghost, Gomphrena (globe flower), and Gourds.

And our scare Crow on the front steps.  

We've had a threat of an overnight freeze, but we have been lucky to have avoided it so far.  However, I've just been informed by the resident master gardener that all the planters will be cleaned out next week regardless.  It's always a bit of a disappointment, but it has to be done.  I'd just rather see them die from the frost than get pulled out when they're still blooming.  This doesn't include the winter pansies we picked up and whatever mums the deer have not ravished.   And I'll keep those gourds for a while until it's time to take them to a local farm to give to the cows and other animals to eat.  (Have you seen the new trend to give a pumpkin to your chickens, if you have them, and let them peck out the face?  It's pretty cool although I never was a fan of what the squirrels and racoons have done to ours in the past.)

2021 Lighthouse Challenge - Day 2

We didn't rise as early on Sunday morning but were out of the condo by 9:30 and on our way to the Squan Lifesaving Station in Manasquan.  I didn't have printed directions for this one so we relied on Siri to get us there.  Siri sent us past this building and down a one way street to a recreation area.   There was no Challenge signage visable outside this building so we did ride past it before turning ourselves around.  It had taken us about an hour to go 37 miles to get there.

In contrast, it only took us a few minutes to travel the 3 miles to the Sea Girt Lighthouse. 

Instead of getting onto the Garden State Parkway we opted to take the "shore route" which took us through a string of shore towns up the NJ coast though at no point was the ocean visible until we got much nearer to Sandy Hook 29 miles and an hour later.  Sandy Hook is a beautiful barrier beach peninsula recreational area that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Sandy Hook Bay.  Given the beautiful weather conditions, although slightly cooler than the day before, the park was full of all kinds of activity on land and in the water.  The lighthouse and the lighthouse museum building however were closed on the inside and had the challenge tables outside the building.  Sandy Hook is the oldest working lighthouse in the United States.

   This is the back of the barracks that remain from Fort Hancock located on the Sandy Hook peninsula and steps away from the lighthouse.

They face the mainland and have fallen into disrepair.  The majority of them are not occupied and have not been for a very long time.  There appear to be a few that have been renovated and are being used for something.   These pictures only show a few of them. There are many more in various states.  A lot of the porch roofs were being propped up so that they wouldn't collapse and take the whole building down.  Not sure what the plan is for them. 

Leaving the park we have only to look up the hill in the distance to see the Twin Lights at Atlantic Highlands, the highest coastal elevation on the east coast of the United States.  There is very little room on the grounds of these lighthouses to be able to get a picture of both of them together from the front without tumbling down the hill.  So my shot this time was to try to get the two of them from the north side.   It is a grassy hill, but I didn't want to find myself at the bottom.  I didn't realize until later that I didn't get too much detail of these buildings as the sun was behind them.  The lights are connected with a building in between them that serves as a museum.  They remind me of chess pieces.  

Turning myself around just slightly to my left I could see the tanker ships that are waiting their turn to enter the New York harbor and empty their cargo.  This is only what could be seen from my vantage point.  There are a lot more out there but I don't believe as many as what they say are waiting off the west coast these days.  

Turning a little more to my left I could just barely see the NY City skyline in the distance.  I don't remember the trees obscuring so much of the view here.  I don't remember if I had gotten better pictures of that view from the top of the north tower at some point or weather it was just the growth of the trees in the area.  

This is where we ended the challenge stops.  We found a pizza shop and a bakery down the road aways and had a quick lunch in the car before making the 57 mile trip home.  The total mileage for Sunday was 172 miles in about 4 1/2 hours.

This is the challenge booklet that we purchased at the start of our trip on Saturday morning for $4.  And on the right you will see an example of the stickers that were given out at each site.  

Here is the booklet opened up with all the stickers in place.  We didn't do a night climb (the top center) but they gave us the sticker at the last stop anyway to make the book complete.  They also gave us the completion sticker (center bottom).  I've only put those stickers in one of the booklets for now.  HWNSNBP said he is going to create a frame for this.  We have our tokens from past challenges displayed in a glass topped coffee table at the condo.  

Close-ups of the stickers.

People ask us why we keep doing this even though we don't climb the lighthouses anymore.  Of course there is beauty to be found in the view from the top, but there is beauty just looking up and looking around.  It's such a nice time of the year to take a drive, why not take a drive with a destination in mind.  Sure, it's fun to collect the tokens along the way, but we did part of this on our own last year when it was only virtual and didn't miss getting the tokens at all.  We see parts of our state that we don't see every day.  It's fun to notice the changes in areas from year to year.  There are places that we have stopped before that no longer exist and we are finding new places to explore along the way making note of what we might like to come back to.  We have a comfortable car that happens to be a hybrid and gets great mileage.  I do admit that I only do about 1% of the driving, and on long trips I tend to fall asleep when HWNSNBP is driving, but my only naps on this excursion were before the first stop on Saturday and after the last stop on Sunday.  I don't want to miss any of the scenery in between.  And, you'll see in another post soon, there's always the chance of a bucket list accomplishment.

Will we do it again?  There's our health, the weather, and other social commitments to consider but I'll say probably right now.  It's nice to have something to look forward to.

October Events (Picture Heavy)

Catching up on posting our pictures from our October adventures which are reruns of the past few years at this time but with a little different participation level due to the times we're in.  

Early in October we did go to the Kite Festival on LBI, but kept our distance from the crowds even though the event was outside.  We are lucky to have friends who own a home right off the dunes and they welcomed us to use their upper deck for some picture taking.  

And some butterflies close-ups in the goldenrod on their dune.

And we also did our own version of the Lighthouse Challenge since it was not an official one this year.  We saw what we could on that very pleasant Saturday - traveling through mostly southern Jersey just before the leaves were at peak.  

Tinnicum

Finn's Point

East Point

East Point - another new vantage point of this one

Cape May

There were several horse and carriage drivers lined up along one of the side streets that we went through just waiting for riders.  We thought we might be able to find parking on one of the back streets near the mall so we could get some ice cream but it was too crowded and busy for that.

Hereford Inlet hasn't been on the official list the past couple of years because of an issue between the town and the Lighthouse group, but the grounds are still open so we did stop there.  And just as we were leaving a wedding party arrived there for pictures.

Our traditional gazing ball photo when we're there.

Tuckerton Seaport

And Old Barney as the sun was going down.

Back at the condo we got a little treat of some fireworks out the back.

These are a couple more pictures of East Point with my other camera from the new vantage point and then again by the side of the road.  I was hoping to see some eagles there this time as someone who lives up by us had posted pictures he had taken in September of eagles down the road from this lighthouse.  We we were not lucky enough to spot any, but the tide was in our favor to get the front view of this lighthouse and the flag pole.  

We're going to have a little bit of a warm spell (in the low 70's) for the next couple of days after we had our killing frost last weekend and temps below freezing for the first time this fall.  We'll be trying to take advantage of the nice weather to get the yard cleaned up and finish some temperature-related chores outside.  HWNSNBP is finishing up the second night table for our daughter and this will be an opportune time for him to be able to do the last stage - painting it out in his workshop.  And all those tender annuals that bit the dust in the frost have to be removed.  Some window washing may be on the list too.  We'll see.