East Coast Love

Family

It has been almost a year since I have been back to the East Coast to visit my family. This is the longest I have I gone. Less than a week after I moved to Kauai, I found out my sister Dian was pregnant. After becoming an aunt for the first time, I headed back to PA every chance I got. I love living on Kauai but I don’t love missing my nephews grow up.  I also don’t love being so far away from my family.

I was so happy to get to spend a good amount of time with my younger brother Sam and his girlfriend  Laura. They live in Philadelphia and it was so much fun to spend time in the city that I love. I attended Temple University for undergrad in Philly and I also lived in the city for about two years. Philadelphia has changed so much and I learned it is filled up with many “hipsters”. According to dictionary.com a hipster is “usually a young person who is trendy, stylish, or progressive in an unconventional way; someone who is hip”. Apparently plaid is very hip because I saw more guys wearing plaid than I thought was possible! There were so many fun, new bars!

Spruce Street Harbor Pop Up Park  was awesome! This is the second year in a row that it has been going on and my first time ever. There are hammocks overlooking the water, nightly light shows, food trucks, good beer and free games. The best part was it was free to enter! In the winter, there is  ice-skating at the river rink (where I spent many nights as a teenager) but in the summer there is now roller-skating/blading.

Ocean City NJ

Must get arcade photos at the beach!

My sister and I  spent a night down the Jersey Shore in Ocean City with my sweet nephews.  Although there is no way to compare Jersey Beaches to Hawaii beaches, there is nothing like the Jersey Shore. I grew up heading down the shore with my family and later as a teenager with my  friends. I recently tried to explain to one of my friends from Hawaii what Jersey is like. She was shocked to learn that you must pay to go onto the beach and that lifeguards blow a whistle at you if you swim outside of the flag zones! And when I showed her a picture of how crowded the beaches are she actually cursed in shock! However, for all of Jersey’s faults, there is nothing quite like the Jersey shore.  My nephew and I had so much playing in the waves and sand! Many of Jersey’s beaches have boardwalks that have restaurants, arcades, games, mini golf, fudge, salt water taffy and rides. In the morning it can be hard to cross the boardwalk to get to the beach because there are many joggers, rollerbladers, bicyclists and families on 4 wheel bicycle car type things. I have not been back to Jersey since before I moved to Hawaii and it was amazing!

Boardwalk

It was great to spend time with my family on the east coast  but I can’t wait to head to Asia!