East Coast Trip Part Four: NY (again) & New Jersey

Yeah, I'm a slacker. Haven't been motivated to blog lately...funny how I blogged MORE when I had homework to be doing than I do now when I have lots of free time.

After our trip to Boston, we came back to Phil's parents' house in Denville, NJ. We rolled into town right in time for a really awesome fireworks show put on by the city. We were joking a bit though because we watched the city blow up the taxpayers' money from a recently built pedestrian overpass, which most people in Denville (or at least Phil and one other guy I overhead joking about it) also think is a huge waste of taxpayers' money. Oh well, such is life. At least I got to see some fireworks on the 4th.

The next morning, Phil, Tim, Melissa, and I woke up bright and early to catch the ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I had been to NY 3 times before but Phil had yet to take me to the Statue of Liberty because A) its time consuming and B) its sort of a tourist trap. But I think everyone had a good time. We got to go up in the pedestal and get some really awesome pictures...






















Afterwards, we drove through Hoboken so I could get a pastry at Carlo's Bakeshop (from Cake Boss). Unfortunately, the line was like 2 hours long! (P.S. it was about 100 degrees that day too). So I snapped a picture and we got the heck out of there!


Then Phil took me to the little town he grew up in...Dumont, NJ. We drove by his old school and his old house and the old field where he used to play ball with his friends and it was just the cutest little town ever. We had lunch at a sub shop in town and it was quite delicious. Then we visited the cemetery where Phil's Grandpa is buried so we could bring him some flowers for his birthday. After that we went to Ridgewood where supposedly (according to Albert) there is a really amazing cupcake place. Well...we found a cupcake place, and it was pretty amazing, but Albert did not recognize the packaging of the cupcakes we brought home and thus it was determined that we went to the WRONG cupcake place. How many cupcake places can there be in Ridgewood!? Apparently, at least two.

That afternoon and evening we enjoyed a great celebratory party at Phil's parents' house (for Phil's birthday and my degree completion). The whole family (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma, bro, bro's girlfriend Kay) was there and we played games in the backyard, ate lots and lots and lots of food, and ended the night with a rousing round of Rock Band. I'm definitely better at singing than anything else, but my drum and guitar skills have vastly improved.



It was yet another fabulous day! Stay tuned for Part Five, which hopefully doesn't take me 3 weeks to write this time!