After seeing Susan's Aunt Zena, Susan and I wanted to see Frank (Aunt Zena's son) and his wife Barbara. Unfortunately, Frank has recently experienced a hospital stay and didn't feel up to a visit. We were disappointed not to be able to connect with them and wish him a speedy recovery.
We blasted out of Baltimore and up to the Jersey shore to see Tony (Aunt Zena's other son) and his wife Lilla at their new beach house in Sea Bright, New Jersey. We had a pleasant drive up Interstate 95, the New Jersey Turnpike and then over to the shore. We hit Ocean Boulevard just north of a town called Long Branch and turned north toward Sea Bright. The last three miles between Long Branch and Sea Bright took over one hour to drive. The traffic on Ocean Blvd. was a a standstill. Little did we know what a harbinger of what was in store for us that was (more later).
The first night we arrived, Lilla gave us the grand tour of the new beach house. It is very roomy and quite lovely. Lilla is in the midst of furnishing and decorating it with her inimitable good taste, style and flair. Tony has also made his contribution with the very interesting and classy prints that they have framed and hung as the central decorating theme in the house. The house is very light and airy with lots of windows and bright colors. Congratulations to both of you!
The pictures above are some outside shots of their place. It is situated right on the river that leads inland from the ocean, has it's own seawall and they could tie up a boat right in their back yard if they wished. The long distance shot with the two boats above was taken from across the river in Rumson, New Jersey. I apologize for the quality of the shots, they were taken using my iPhone.
Tony took us for a long walk on the beach while Lilla prepared dinner and we discovered that you can see New York City in the distance. Dinner the first night was Yummy! We had both lobster and shrimp!
The next day was Saturday and everyone was kind of lazy, so we didn't do much but hang around on the deck out back by the river and chit chat. After a wonderful lunch of handmade panini, we got things in gear and Tony took us all for a tour of the beach cities nearby. We went by Bruce Springsteen's estate in Rumson and I took a picture of his front gate that I have included above. You can't see anything else from the road because of the lush landscape. We went through Rumson, Long Branch, Asbury Park (where both Springsteen and Bon Jovi got their starts playing the beach clubs), Bradford Beach and then back to Sea Bright. In Bradford Beach we discovered Beach Plum, a little place that serves up great homemade ice cream.
Saturday evening we went to dinner at Angelica's, a short walk around the corner from their house. It is a noisy and crowded Italian restaurant full of locals, so you know the food is good. We shared a couple bottles of really good wine and walked back. Very nice evening!
The next morning we bid adieu to Tony and Lilla and headed south with high expectations of a leisurely drive down the coast. HA!
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