Burlington City day trip

BURLINGTON, Friday, August 17, 2013

Our plan to take the Maurice River Cruise with Captain Dave on Friday fell through.  The boat

was fully booked and there were no seats left.  It is our fault because we had to postpone

calling for reservations until the last minute because one of our group was sick and we didn’t

know if she’d be well enough to come along. She was not!  And more on that later.

Anyhow, we talked about alternatives and finally agreed on lunch at the Café’ Galleria

in Burlington and a stroll through the Historic Burlington Antiques & Art Emporium,

one of my favorite places to visit.

I usually find something to buy, but this time, I went out empty handed and one of my friends bought something.Barbara Solem bought two books. 

By the way, our lunch at Café’ Galleria was entirely Vegetarian and almost Vegan!  Gail Kerr and I had corn pudding and fried tomatoes, which came also with grilled zucchini, and Barbara had a veggie burger with sautéed vegetables on top.  We all agreed our lunches were delicious and I might add that along with the gorgeous paintings on the walls, and the beautiful view of the Delaware River, the prices were very modest.  It is a superb place to eat a meal. 

We ambled on down the charming main street of Burlington unti with got to the Antiques Emporium  which was 3 blocks from the Café’.  There are 85 and more dealers in this enormous building.  You’d never guess from the outside, it is down a broad alley, and then you go inside and it is 14,000 square feet!  I have no head for such figures, I would tell you it was the size of a jumbo Quonset hut shopping place or the size of 4 big barns, but I think you get the picture, there are at least 4 large aisles lined with individual shopping stalls which reflect the unique collecting eye of the owners:  There are antique toys, of course furniture (my favorite its rustic) and everything from frilly 1950’s aprons to gorgeous hand crafted cedar canoes. 

 

 I asked my two companions to each pick a favorite item.  Barbara’s favorite was a giant statue we all thought might be molded plaster or some kind of fired ceramic material, def. not wood or metal.  We couldn’t ell if he was a Civil War general, or General Custer.  Gail’s favorite was a two tiered pie crust style table.  My favorite item was a sleigh, a real transportation type sleigh, not a toy sled

 However, I was also entranced by the aforementioned hand made and utterly beautiful, graceful canoes, which were about $1500 – more than I could afford for a whim. 

After strolling along the Delaware River and talking about the mysterious island, we drove to St. Mary’s cemetery.  Barbara is writing a book on Batsto and she has been searching for graves of the several important families of the Batsto dynasty.  More on her book later – she is 3 chapters into it.

Now, back to the sick friend.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to wear tall socks and to spray with insecticide before hiking in the woods especially in April, tick season, and August, chigger season.  Last year I was the notable victim with the most sever case of chiggers anyone had ever seen.  This year, Barbara Spector is the victim with a case of Lymes disease.  She had headache, aching joints and exhaustion, so she went to the doctor and had a blood test and was positive for Lymes.  She is recovering now on antibiotics.  Spray, and if you don’t feel well, aske for Lymes test – the quicker you catch it the better off you are.  And on the subject of bugs – I bought these nifty mosquito repellent plastic bracelets for the wrist or the ankle from amazon.com.  Very inexpensive and a great way to keep off the mosquitos, especially now that West Nile has reached New Jersey.  So spray, and wear the repelling bracelets.

If you want to stay out of the woods, remember to hike our charming small towns, Mullica Hill, Bordentown, Burlington, Tom’s River and many others.

Happy Trails!  Jo Ann