Road trip to New Jersey - part 2

On our second day in New Jersey we visited Ella's new middle school and learned that they start foreign languages in 6th grade and not in 7th like our school district. They offer Spanish, French and Chinese. Ella immediately said that she wants to learn Chinese. After the school visit we had lunch at Panera and drove to the Journal Square train station where we took PATH train to New York City. Lila really wanted to visit the Strand book store. I didn't read the map correctly and we took the train to the World Trade Center that is in lower Manhattan. After we checked the map again we realized that we have a long walk to the store. We could probably take a cab but decided to walk instead. We made few stops on the way - Starbucks (of course), street vendor that was selling peeled mangoes and Converse store.

I visited New York city several times before but never in summer so I was very surprised to see the mango vendors at each corner. The mango was delicious!

Here it is - the Strand Books flag. Almost there!

The girls disappeared between the shelves and I found the kids corner and rested there with Eli. We even heard a story from a former New York Public Library librarian.

At the store I realized that there is a closer train station, only few blocks away. On the the way back to the train station we bought more mango. 

In Jersey City we met with Ofir and decided to have dinner in the neighborhood. Google Local brought us to a small Italian restaurant 3 Guys from Italy. It looks like they mainly sell carry-out pizza but they had few tables in the back and simple menu. Our food was excellent!

The next morning Lila had a meeting with a boy from BBYO at local Dunkin' Donuts. While she talked we enjoyed latte (me and Ofir), ice cream (Ella and Eli) and some donuts (Ofir, Ella and Eli) I don't think I ever been to Dunkin' Donuts before so I had to take a picture of my coffee. After that Lila went to BBYO pool party and we waited for her at the biggest Barnes and Noble I ever saw. It had a huge used books section with rare editions, signed copies and all that great stuff. I know it is going to be one of our favorite places.

Soon it was time to leave and head back home to Wisconsin. After few hours of driving we made a stop at a rest stop to stretch our legs and to eat something.

Yumm, milky! Now we will not have to drive 2 hours to Chicago to buy it :)

A view from the back seat (one of the dozen pictures I found on the phone)

We slept at Barkeyville, PA and the next morning headed to Providence Metropark, OH,  where we took a mule-drawn canal boat through real functioning 19th century lock. We visited the General Store and the Mill and than watched the boat going through the lock again, this time from the shore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ella was fascinated by the lady-blacksmith.She could stay there forever.

It was a hot day so an ice cream was in order.

The ice cream helped but not that much. We were happy to return to the car and turn on the A/C. 

We stopped for hearty dinner and decided to go straight home after that.

I was passing by Six Flags Great America at Gurnee when the fireworks at the park went off, making the perfect ending to our road trip.