4th of July!

I’m a little behind on this post.. The Hardersen’s wrapped up their trip in New York on the 3rd of July. We had such a wonderful time and it was so much fun showing them the city with some of my favorites as well as a couple of new places. After they left my traveling time was officially coming to a close. 6 states in a week WA-OR-NY-CT-MA-NJ followed by company in the city for a long weekend :) 

I spent the rest of the evening on the 3rd relaxing and trying to catch up some much needed rest. By the 4th I was ready to be back in action though! The weather was gorgeous, so we decided it was a great day to head to the beach. This time, we headed to Long Beach. Going to the beach is something I’m still getting used to because the beach scene here is a lot different than what I’m used to, ie. usually wearing nothing less than a jacket and jeans. Going to the beach and being able to lay out is definitely a new experience. There are so many beaches within a short train ride too so it’s pretty convenient. For the 4th we grabbed a couple of our friends and hopped on the train. This was a “pay” beach where you actually have to pay to use it. The train station has a special deal where you can get a roundtrip train ticket and onto the beach for $21 though so we took advantage of it. I’m not sure what the money goes towards, but I would expect with keeping it well maintained and weeding out people who don’t want to spend the money.

It ended up being a perfect day for the beach, and surprisingly the beach wasn’t as crowded as we thought it would be for a holiday. This time I even swam in the ocean! They have it marked off for where you can swim because of currents, but it was so much fun! The water was VERY salty too. I’m not sure I’ve ever really swam in the ocean so I’m not sure if it was saltier than normal, but even just having your head under water you could taste the salt. After a great afternoon, we headed back to the city to prepare for the night’s festivities. Our friend Heidi lives in a hi-rise building on the Upper East Side and invited us over to watch the fireworks on her roof. It’s funny, because the people who actually get the best view of the fireworks are people in New Jersey, because they do them in the Hudson River (which divides New York and New Jersey). We still had a pretty great view though! It was really cool too because we could see fireworks from all over the city. You don’t see people doing them on the sidewalks and streets like back home (I think it is illegal) but there was still a good amount of people lighting off the big ones!