Vickie's (and Geri's) Cross Country 30! : Family, food and fun!

Monday - Thursday (day 2-5)

Day 2: Driving Day
Well after departing from our friend in Virginia we headed up to New Jersey, with one important but too short detour along the way. We stopped by Columbia, MD to have lunch with my aunt and my cousins. It was nice to have a bit of time to catch up and just hang out before we headed out.

While in Maryland, chatting with my aunt we discovered that Maryland is the land of crazy expensive and unnecessary tolls, this prompting a mapping adventure to see how to avoid the $16! in tolls. Well thanks to some tips from Aunt Sue and no thanks to the GPS recalculating halfway through we were able to avoid the tolls with a slight delay but hey we did get to see some cool areas of Maryland.

Soon we were in Delaware, however that was for all of maybe 20 minutes before crossing over into New Jersey where we'd lay our heads and make our home for the next few days. We were staying with my mom's cousin and his wife in south Jersey. We spent the rest of this day recovering from the previous day's marathon driving adventure and stayed in.

Day 3: my Birthday!!
July 1st brought the reason for this crazy adventure, my 30th birthday!, it also brought the early wake up call to get Geri to Warrington for her meetings with World Team (separate post to follow). After dropping Geri off in PA, I went over to my cousin Jaime's house in Burlington, NJ. We spent the day with her two little ones, Katie and Addison, running errands. Had my birthday lunch with the girls at Chick-fil-a, my favorite. Then we headed back to the house to relax for a bit before my birthday dinner with more family. This time was filled with a marathon of my favorite tv show Once Upon A Time. I was able to catch up on all the missed episodes from the end of this past season. yeah!! Dinner was at On the Border!, with my cousins Jaime, Jodi, Shawn and Trevor and two of my aunts Aunt Cathy and Aunt Sandra. It was nice to hang out and dinner was yummy :). After dinner I went back to Jaime's for one last episode of Once to finish off the season and to talk for a bit before heading back "home."

Day 4: Shore
Another day of driving back to PA to pick up Geri. After picking up Geri we headed back into NJ and met up with my Grandpop and my Aunt Pat for lunch.

We went to a small local restaurant (mom and pop type place) it was yummy. I was able to get a local favorite, pork roll and cheese sandwich. ahh! Jersey food :) after lunch we decided to head down to the shore. We went through Atlantic City so she could see the streets of "monopoly" before heading over he bridge to Ocean City, NJ. We spent some time walking on the beach and on the boardwalk and sampling some of the local fare. We at pizza at Manco and Manco, best pizza in OC. Also, we got some fudge and salt water taffy.

Day 5: Exploration
Today I took Geri to my former hometown of Riverside, NJ. I drove around the town and pointed out various points of interest such as my old house, friends houses, and the school. As well as, "downtown" Riverside. We stopped by L&M bakery and got some yummy goodies. Then we went to hang out with my cousin Jaime and her kiddos again. We ordered out dinner, Panzarottis and Boost slushes. It was a favorite NJ dinner and on my must do list while there. After hanging out for a little while longer we headed back "home" to pack up and get ready for the next leg of our journey.