Coming off our wonderful Michigan vacation, I was anxious to be anywhere but home too long. Not long after, we had a fully free Sunday and I don’t work on Monday, so a local adventure seemed called for. Since the direction we were going would take us right past where our youngest son lives, we reached out and were able to do a brunch meet up. It was a bit of a struggle to find place in the area that could do gluten free breakfast, but we finally came up with the Metro Diner. When we went to order, we asked if the gluten free bread was dairy free and found out they were out of the gluten free bread. We’ve had this before and I think it’s ridiculous as they could quickly get some from a local store, it might not be their usual, but for a place with a seperate gluten free menu it seems wrong. Still we were able to get eggs and potatoes and enjoy our son’s company.
After our meal, our son, took us to check out the garden plot he and his partner have at a local park. I left with some lovely basil and proud of the wonderful job their doing with their first gardening endeavor.
For the past year or so we’ve been trying to visit Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, PA. Every time we tried either the weather didn’t cooperate, plans changed or if you have been reading this blog regularly, we were literally in a position that “Spud couldn’t get there from where we were”. This time we made it and it was a beautiful day, slightly warm, but considering it was August manageable. There are a lot of hiking trails there, not too challenging. There is also a nature center with a number of bird feeders outside big windows so you can watch the birds close up. But where are the wildflowers? It took us some time to figure out that we needed to walk down to the section call the Meadow to see a lot of flowers. I’m sure that at different times of year, there are many other things to see. It was a nice visit and glad we finally made it.
I wanted to go into New Hope, PA but since it was such a nice weekend day, parking was near impossible. Instead we kept going up to the 202 bridge, where there are no weight restrictions and drove across to New Jersey. We got to Lambertville, where we almost always find free street parking by going just a few blocks out of town. We quickly realized that wasn’t going to work this time and paid the $20 day fee to park at Lambertville Station.
From there we were able to walk the bridge into New Hope, check out the shops, walk back into Lambertville and eventually make our way to dinner at our favorite resturant, El Tule. We sat outside and enjoyed our ceviche, with some unexpected rain just as we were finishing up, but the umbrella on the table kept us mostly dry. By the time we were walking back to the van, the rain had stopped. We stopped too, at Sandy’s Scoops, to get some vegan ice cream to enjoy later.
We had booked a campsite through HipCamp, our first time doing so. HipCamp is similar to Boondockers Welcome, but with no upfront fee, you pay a fee to stay at the properties they list, many of which are private properties and not campgrounds. We had booked a site at Creekside at Crystal Lake, in Bordentown, NJ. As we approached the road the gps directed us to, there was a sign prohibiting trucks over 4 tons. We figured it was due to all the warehouses and drove around trying to find another way in. As we got to the other end of the same road, but closer to the campsite, there was the same sign. We called the host, who fortuntaley answered. He said no one had ever mentioned the signs before and let us know there were no bridges or other obstacles that would actually restrict us from going up the road. We figured we weren’t a truck and went for it, but wouldn’t go back again due to the signs. It’s a shame, it was a lovely property and there was even a fire pit full of branches and such, but the rain started again, so no fire. It was also pretty close to 295 so there was a bit of highway noise all night. Slept though most of it and in the morning hung out at the property while Steve worked and I did some of my own projects.
We needed to leave by noon, so when Steve had a break we drove into downtown Bordentown. There was a record store I wanted to visit for our daughter’s business, which wound up being a long and fruitful venture. Lisa at The Record Collector really helped me, thinking of things they had that might work for Hillarys Handmade, came out with some really cool stuff at a great price. The town itself seems full of interesting businesses, many that are art based, unfortunatley most closed on a Monday.
I headed back to the van for a drink and some lunch. I had been back a few mintues and had the side door open. A woman walked up and said “hi, I have a Roadtrek at my house just up the hill”. She is a long time van owner, though currently trying to debug the most recent used van she bought. We wound up talking for maybe an hour.
I had planned to go from the parking lot down the hill to checkout the waterfront area there, but by the time I finished talking to the fellow RT owner and finally having some lunch Steve was done working. We drove the van down the hill and looked around. There are hiking trails from there that could be interesting on a day we had more time. We watched a dog run from his owner’s boat up and down a sandbar in the middle of the river and lot of comings and goings, until we figured it was time for us to get going home.
A short stint with it’s own adventures.
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The following weekend as we rolled into September we had an even shorter adventure, but equally nice. Our daughter was a vendor at the Phonexiville Punk Rock Flea Market in Oaks, PA. Spud got to meet a ghostbuster mobile, while we helped our daughter sell her wares and checked out the other vendors. It was a long day and nice outside but quite cold inside. Having Spud in the parking lot allowed us some time to take breaks in comfort and find lunch in the refrigerator. Once we were done helping pack up the event, we had chosen a restaurant to go to in the nearby town of Phoenixville, PA for dinner. What we didn’t know was that the downtown was closed off and there were special events going on or just lots of outdoor dining. Parking was impossible; we were tired and hungry, so we decided to just go to our Harvest Host spot and make dinner from what we had with us.
Our Harvest Host was G Lodge Cafe, where we would have breakfast in the morning. We ate dinner, wound down and slept. Then in the morning we literally rolled out of bed, got dressed and headed in for breakfast. We had checked ahead that they had gluten and dairy free options and although they wouldn’t be a place to go if you have Celiac or severe allergies, we had very tasty omlettes, potatoes and gluten free toast.
I was searching around for things to do and places to go and found a gluten/dairy free bakery not too far away in Berwyn, PA but it wouldn’t have been open if we left right from breakfast. Since our Harvest Host was right on the edge of Valley Forge Park, I searched Alltrails and came up with an area for a nice hike at Pawling’s Farm. We followed the trails and did a loop that took us along the river and back past the historic barn on the property. Now we had certainly burned off the calories for any baked goods we might buy.
When we got to Berwyn a few blocks from our bakery destination and there was a pleasant surprise: a farmer’s market was going on. We of course had to stop there first, although we were heading to another later. We bought some amazing Pico de Gallo from Taste of Puebla, although we didn’t know how good it was until we got it home later. We picked up a few other things and then headed over to the bakery. We each picked one treat that we took home for later and had a nice chat with the woman working, who is the mother of the baker.
Then we headed toward our original farm market stop, the Media Farmer’s market, where we have been many times and have some favorite vendors. There is a large organic farm stand, one of my favorite mushroom vendors, Midnight Mushrooms, and strangely enough, Taste of Puebla was also there. I thought I had recognized the name when we bought the Pico, but what I’ve always bought at Media is the vegan tamales. They come frozen and are great to pull out on a night when I have nothing else planned.
We wanted a little more time out, so we thought we’d find a picnic spot for lunch and a game or two before going home, but then it started to rain a bit. By the time we got to the dump station in New Jersey, it had stopped. After finishing our cleanout, we stopped at Oldman’s Creek Preserve in Swedesboro, NJ. We hadn’t been there in a few years but remembered a nice picnic area with two or so tables. For some reason the tables were gone and we were the only ones around. There was a picnic table under an awning near the office, so we sat there and enjoyed the quiet and our lunch. Then on to home.
More adventures soon.
