Saturday continues.....

Really, the whole purpose to this trip to New Jersey was to see Tom's mom and her brother who was driving down from Virginia to visit her.  He is 82 and she is 89 and he drives down alone once a year. Our plan was to videotape them together trying to get them to reminisce about their childhoods.  We had been trying to reach Uncle Bill all day by phone, but our cells were in and out and we never could. Since it was getting late, we assumed he had seen what a mess NJ was and had decided not to come.  However, the storm had hit him as well in VA and he had no power, so he decided to come to NJ to get out of his mess!

Anyway, he arrived just as the sun was going down, grabbed a quick slice of pizza and cannoli and promptly declared we should go to the casinos in Atlantic City where we knew they had power. It seemed like a good idea as Tom's mom was becoming more and more agitated as she couldn't turn the lamps on and couldn't have her cup of tea so we took Marie home then headed to the city.

 Back in the day, Tom's mom and dad loved the slot machines.  They had cards to every casino and always had buffet coupons, show coupons and all kinds of bonuses from those cards.  In fact, when Joe passed away in 1997, we put his casino cards in his urn.  Eleanor's memory is fading and she really doesn't know how to play anymore and the fun of hearing a few coins clanging when you win is long gone.  Now you get a piece of paper that comes out of the machine to redeem with a cashier.  I don't know how to play the slots so I'm no help either but we put her in front of a nickel machine and she seemed happy enough.

 After a bit, we took a stroll on the boardwalk.  Eleanor loves this as well but she struggled after awhile.

 They all waxed longingly for the days of the Steel Pier and the diving horse.  Tom worked on the boardwalk back when he was teen (kind of our version of Lagoon) so has fond memories of the place.

We ducked into another casino so Eleanor could sit for a bit.  While Tom and Uncle Bill went to redeem his 56 cents in big winnings, I did some people watching while Eleanor continued pushing buttons as the money was long gone.  Suddenly a woman appeared and asked if we needed something.  Turns out Eleanor had been pushing the "help" button over and over!

After the lengthy walk back to the casino where we parked, we stopped for a small sandwich and a hot cup of tea for Tom's mom in a small cafe before taking them home.  The power was still off and she just could not understand why we were all doing things with flashlights and why she couldn't turn on her lamp to do her crossword puzzle.  We got them tucked into bed and headed back to Marie's where she too was still without power.

Armageddon Saturday Part 1

So after a perfectly lovely day, we went to bed and woke to a storm in the middle of the night, the likes of which I've never seen.  We had left our bedroom windows open to catch the breeze and suddenly there was wind, constant thunder and lightning and the sound of cracking tree branches surrounding us for about 40 minutes.  We lost power and when morning came and we could look around, it was clear why.
 

Marie's house is surrounded by woods and our plan for the morning had included clearing a path she has been working on between here and the golf course that backs up against her property.  Instead, we spent the morning cleaning up branches and twigs for her to use in her chiminea and Tom using this small wood saw to remove the bigger branches that were either blocking her driveway or on top of her gardens.

Joey, who until a few months ago was chief of police before he retired, was very happy to NOT be in charge of this mess and brought us a case of bottled water.  Many people in NJ have well water on their property which requires electricity to run the pump.  Hence, no electric, no water, no toilet....you get it. Makes me glad we have our plastic tubs full of 72 hour kit necessities however due to the fact they're sitting in our garage in UT, they weren't much help here!

After working in Marie's yard, we headed to Joey's to check out his damage (and to use his bathroom facilities as he has city water which was working).  He and his neighbor had to dig out the big gun chain saws while we raked and cleaned up his back yard of the smaller stuff.  We had planned to spend the afternoon at the dock on Joe's boat but needless to say, that was put on hold as well!

The town looked like a disaster area and we were plenty filthy so Victor told us we could come to his house in Ocean City to clean up.  Miraculously they hadn't been hit there.  So odd that the storm would come inland but skip by the shore.  Marie said that as she had gone to bed about 11PM, a newswoman had said a big storm had unexpectedly hit them in Washington DC and looked like it was headed towards Philly.  The Jersey folks said this was way worse than any hurricane warning storm they've ever received.

After showering at Victor's house I took some photos of his darling neighborhood while the others cleaned up. This big patio is over his garage which is actually a garage for his plane which he can pull out onto the runway which lines up directly behind his house.  Cool, huh?

Just a sucker for these cute Victorians....reproductions or not.

We headed into town to grab some food and ended up with pizza.  I headed to an Italian bakery down the street while they waiting for the pizza and came back with the best fresh cannoli ever!

We were starving to we just couldn't wait to get to Tom's mom's house to get
started.  Everyone was out of ice and water so when we came around a corner and saw them unloading a truck at a convenience store, we screeched to a halt along with all of these other cars!

Day One

 We stayed at Tom's sister's house during our NJ visit.  Got up bright and early to head over to her friend Victor's car museum.  We've been there many times but it's always fun to go and see what new awesome thing Victor has found or restored for the collection.  On this particular morning we got there early enough to meet his group of retired friends who come every morning for a couple of hours to share donuts, coffee and wonderful stories. They could each be a character in a movie featuring "thoze guyz from Jerzey".

After some shopping we made dinner and the family came over for some wonderful food and great conversation.  Marie even made Tom's favorite homemade blueberry pie!

Tom, Victor, Karen (Eleanor's caretaker), Mama Eleanor, Joey, Marie and Karen (Joey's wife)

Back East

 We've made this trip many times but after flying into BWI (on our first eastern non-stop Southwest flight ever!) the drive seemed very relaxing and shorter than usual.  Maybe it was the subdued lighting.

Catch Up

I am the worst of all possible bloggers and am painfully behind in documenting our goings on.  Here's a quick overview.  Staying at mom and dad's and catching up on family stuff.

                           Meeting the newest Campbell family member.....baby Nixon Miller.

 We've always wanted to go to a Utah Blaze game (arena football) but have never done it so when Taylor's friend offered us four freebie tickets we figured it was time.  Jessica and her friend Will joined us.

Mom and dad were in charge of a neighborhood party at their local park so we joined in the fun.  Live music, grilled hotdogs and yummy fixings.

Tom getting his boogie on.

Aunt Susie with baby Nixon

 Some kind of water contraption that ended up drenching the person sitting with water.  We had to run some errands and missed mom drenching dad.


Jessica is playing softball for her company team and Eryn has joined them as well.  A few of us went down to watch in Salt Lake then Tom and I took Jess for ice cream after.

Jessica, cousin Eryn and Jessica's roommate Tonya.