PembertonandWrightstown

Today, Thursday, February 5, 2015, my intrepid explorer buddy, Barb Spector, and I drove to Pemberton to visit the Grist Mill Antique Center and then to Wrightstown to have lunch at Sebastian's Schnitzel Haus.  

The Grist Mill Antique Center is just packed with delightful and charming items of which I selected three to purchase:  a LYONS TEA tin, because it was my Great-Aunt's name, a vintage Valentine for myself, and a delightful hand-painted wooden house because I collect them.  The ladies were very helpful and we commiserated over the great sad event of the closing of the Pemberton Train Station Museum, which I LOVED and mourn.  Some petty political dispute brought about the disaster of the closing of the museum and worst of all, the trains which had been donated and sat on rails outside the museum were scrapped.  Yes, I said 'scrapped' - it is a CRIME!  The last time I visited the train station, a large crowd of happy families, hikers, mountain bikers, and train enthusiasts were touring, and enjoying the trains, the museum and the rails-to-trails hiking and biking path.  It was truly delightful.
Today, when we drove there, the hiking trail was frozen over, and empty and the ghosts of the trains that had been entrusted to the enterprise cried out to me.

We couldn't hike the rails-to-trails path because it was a sheet of ice.  Three other hikers came off the trail and told us it was wretched and not to try it.  We didn't have our trax with us, so we passed it up for this trip.  Maybe in the spring or summer we'll try again.

So, on to Wrightstown which I have long wanted to visit since my name is Wright!!
There really isn't much town there, but  to me, an amusing, string of restaurants offering cuisine from foreign lands:  You can get Mexican tacos, Shishkebabs, Italian or French.  We opted for German and were warmly welcomed into Sebastian's Schnitzel Haus.  I suppose being in the neighborhood of Fort Dix has spawned this array of foreign food eateries, to give soldiers returning from overseas duty, a taste of the place they left.

Naturally, being vegetarians, we didn't order the schnitzel so I can't really say anything about the traditional foods.  We settled for potato pancakes, salad, and were given a free sample of spaetzle, a kind of egg noodle which I love.

All in all, despite the frigid temperatures, we found a warm welcome in Pemberton and at Sebastian's.  I only wish the train station museum could have been saved.  It was a treasure.  I'm glad the grist mill found a new use.  It is sad for the mills to disappear when they were the center of life for so many villages and towns in the past.

Happy Trails! Happy Valentines Day to you too - maybe take a date or a best pal to Sebastians for lunch or dinner and get a vintage Valentine at the Grist Mill!