NJ--it's not just for garbage barges

[rootofnewt]

Many of you know that explodingcat grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia. Several years ago, his parents (empty nesters by then) moved to the NJ side of the river--further south, though, so they're much closer to Philly now.

When I tell folks that we're in NJ, they always assume we're further north. And yes, NJ is a small state by Western standards, but it's also very densely populated and has roads which--when driven--evoke nothing so much as a physical paean to some god of entropy. So even though I'm just an hour or so south of NYC, I'm in South Jersey. Just south of here are the fields and gardens which make NJ sort of the breadbasket of the MidAtlantic region. Tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, sugar plums . . . I've bought a lot of tasty produce in this often mocked state.

Anyhow, I'm in NJ--exit 4, for those who are curious. Yesterday we visited the Philly Zoo. We have a membership, so my only cost is gas, bridge toll (four bucks deducted from my EZ Pass account), and the emotional toll of driving on the Schuykill Expressway.

Today we stayed closer to home and visited the Garden State Discovery Museum. Our local VA Discovery Museum membership allows for reciprocal admission at many museums (ACM and ASTC). We'll probably visit the Please Touch Museum at least once this trip, too. And I might try taking Ronan in to see the Franklin Institute, though I'd rather visit that while grandma or grandpa babysits, to be quite honest. The Museum of Natural History is also an option. I suppose I should see which one is more likely to have something of interest to a two-year old.

Right now, I'm sitting in the living room of their newish townhome. Tom is sitting by another window, working. I'm watching a storm move ever closer. The back "yard" is a few hundred acres of wetland--put into public conservation. So it's a view of scrub, marsh, and trees, with darkening clouds looming to the west. It's kind of nice to sit in the heart of suburbia and see something so wild. Turkeys, foxes, raptors . . . lots of neighbors out back.

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

South Jersey is why there's not hysterical laughter at the thought of "The Garden State".

[krasota.livejournal.com]

Northern NJ is also pretty gardentastic. MiL grew up near the DE Water Gap. It's all agricultural or wild up there. Really pretty part of the country.

It's really just the part up by NYC that's heinous. Tom didn't see Newark until 2005. And that's when it all clicked into place. Vast container wasteland.

FiL grew up in Trenton, which is somewhat gritty, but it's not that big and is much nicer now than it probably was back when sewage treatment plants didn't exist.

[schmoomom.livejournal.com]

I actually didn't. Funny! B's best friend lives in Newtown Square, and he went to Widener (and I to West Chester).

You went on the SureKill? Ah, memories. I remember taking a friend's boyfriend (and my boyfriend's roomate at the time) to the Franklin Institute to watch an Imax...he was tripping on shrooms, and I didn't need to be, first Imax I saw!

Say hi to South Street, if you're that way, for me :-)

[krasota.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I call i the SureKill, too. ;) And the river is really pronounced Poopkill, of course.

I don't know if we'll go to South Street this time. I tend to do more shopping in Chinatown.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

Tom grew up in Langhorne (which is near Newtown of no square).

[anmorata.livejournal.com]

I've always heard that south Jersey is so radically different than the part of the state that seems to be an extension of New York. It almost seems like South Jersey could be its own state, even. ;)

[tyme.livejournal.com]

Hah... A lot of people have the same imagery of north Jersey when I tell them I'm from NJ. But I grew up out in Atlantic City, and did things like wander the pine barrens and eat blue berries and the most amazing tomatoes ever for fun in the summers.

Then I go visit family in NY and pass through the industrial wastelands and wall to wall buildings and remember WHY people think of NJ as they do.

-Tyme

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

The Brooklyn Children's Museum has recently re-opened its expansion. *An entire city block*. I still haven't made it over there, but am very excited about seeing it.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

Someday we'll make it up there. It's not that *far*, it's just a long drive, y'know? Maybe we'll manage to get up early someday and take the train up.