Jersey Shore

Yes you read it right Joanie headed to the Jersey Shore this weekend to visit her cousins (Joe, Paige, Mia and Kole). The bus ride was a short hour and a half and if Joanie had any sense of direction she would have been there at 5:30 instead of 6:30pm. When Joe gave directions to grab the bus he never mentioned the Port Authority was an institution. We all know by now, Joanie struggles with directions and that place needs its own map. Anyhow, since there was a wait what better time to get a nice cup of Carvel Ice Cream cake and take in the sights of the bus terminal.

The bus arrived in Tom's River, which is only a few minutes to the house. Joe picked me up from the bus stop and off we went. First, I find out the kids were keg party. No... they were not drinking just swimming. After the party we picked up a friend of Mia's and headed to the boardwalk. The waves were HUGE, the rides were fun and the pizza was Gigantic (and delicious). Kole won a prize which could not have been a better end to the night. Well, that was until the car ride home. Kole is six going on 45 yrs old and apparently is an Italian opera singer. I know I didn't believe it either until he said "Daddy hit it" and Joe put in an Andrea Bocelli CD and the little munchkin started singing the songs... in Italian. Not only was he belting it out but telling me, "I have to wait for the sad parts".

On Sunday, Kole comes into my room (Mia's room that I took over) and says "Marcia do you want to get up or do you need five minutes? If you need five I will wait outside the door". Precious right? After breakfast, Kole, Mia, Joe, Paige and I headed to the beach. The waves were awesome the water was great and yes I got a bit fried.Well sitting there with the tannest family I had to do something. Mia looks like a banana boat kids model with a perfectly bronze sun kissed tan and I was a ghost. I got jealous so had to get as much sun as possible to try to catch up. So I got a bit crispy in the process.

All in all a great weekend with some fantastic kids and some pretty cool parents.

Visiting The City

Joanie and Tu had their first and second visitors, Bria and Meghan, who joined them for the weekend. Joanie &Tu took Bia to visited there new apartment complex this weekend. Bria won a Emmy for her acting job as a prospective tenant so we could take another tour of the grounds. They loved Bria so much they actually were trying to convince her to stay in Florida and not move to New York (darn we won't get that referral..lol). While at the complex they stumbled across a surprise...the East River...it's literally in their back yard.  

This weekend was a scorcher. Joanie thought she was back in Texas. Being the smart Florida girls that we are we figured a nice leisurely walk along the water would at least give off a cool breeze. We found out that that rule doesn't  apply in the Big Apple. Apparently, there is no breeze to be found but the view was smooosh (Kiss sound) benneissimo. with the heat looming we walked and walked from Midtown to lower East Village to East Harlem to West Harlem then down Central Park back to Midtown. Five hours later and many eloquent words from Bria we decided to eat. Bria now gets why we are always eating. The restaurant of choice for the weekend was Cafeteria. When they say restaurant of choice they are referring to the fact they ate there three times. Let's just say a discovery of the Berry Mojito it is a little drink from the angels.

Let's just say Bria is glad she took the advice to bring walking shoes. Joanie and Tu were surprised to see a Bria in a pair of Reebok and not in a fashionable pair of Shape-Ups (not everyone can be as high on the cool scale).  To quote Bria on a few occasions "are you guys serious, you said we were just going across the street and that was two hours ago and we are still walking". The poor thing was beat by the time she left Joanie and Tu. Meghan on the other hand arrived on Saturday and had to take the walking adventures in flip flops...oops guess they  forgot to tell her they like the heel toe express.