OAKLAND,NEW JERSEY, ELKS CLUB

Oakland, New Jersey Elks Club is located just a mile from our good friends, Jim and Ginnie Palumbo. The grounds at the club are elegant, with a gazebo, tennis and basketball areas, a huge barbeque and picnic area and then...the Ramapo river flows at its feet.

Among the landscaping plants was the biggest hosta I've ever seen in North America, about four feet across. Beautiful.

I spent the afternoon reading at the riverside and watching the geese swim back and forth under a nearby walking bridge.

The bridge may have been meant for people, but this deer took advantage of it as well.

When Jimmie got off work, they came and got us, and the four of us went for dinner at one of their favorite Italian restaurants.

The zuppza de peche loaded with calamari, scallops, huge delicious mussels, and shrimp with angel hair pasta, excellent.  It came with soup or salad, and wonderful french bread and extra sauce. The guys had meatballs with their pasta. It doesn't get much better than that.

We sat by the river and visited with Ginnie and Jim until it got dark.  Beautiful  swans swam by, gobbling something they liked.

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A couple of fishermen took advantage of the dusk and put their poles in  from a small boat. Earlier in the day, a kayak went by and a heron landed on the bank, but I didn't have my camera ready at that moment. Next time.

MYSTIC SEAPORT-THE TOWN

Mystic Seaport has a mysterious name. It conjures up the movie, Mystic Pizza, a romantic comedy filmed partly in Mystic Seaport and nearby Groton, Connecticut. There is an element of mystery as the pizza continues to become well known. Ah, so much for the movies. It did put Mystic Seaport on the map for those of us who didn't know about its other qualities, such as a whaling and fishing history.  Jim and I  spent quite a bit of time, there since Jim's daughter-in-law lived most of her life in Mystic Seaport. Jim and Wendy Jaillet were married there as well. On our first visit we simply walked the town and looked around. Following is some of those photos.

 Rolling into town from Newport, R.I.

 A beautiful lighthouse-still in use.

 Swans are not U.S. natives. They were put here to eat up troublesome algae. Notice the darker, young swan. The Ugly Duckling story.

 New England has many, many bridges. This draw bridge is tough to photograph, the heavy concrete counterweights lift that bridge.

The boats pass through, and down they come.

This picture of a picture gives a better perspective of the bridge. Walking under those huge counterweights takes an element of faith. I guess its always that way, even when crossing a bridge in a car with huge trucks rumbling next to you, with your life depending on steel supports.

In many communities public benches are chained to prevent theft. In Mystic, they simply make them heavier.

 I enjoyed unique and different art work. Different, that is, in topics. Much ado about whaling, boats, sailing and fishing, obviously. The woodcut below is an antique we saw in a museum.

Conclusion: Mystic is the perfect place for a fish-loving, bridge building, romantic, movie-loving artist. And we tourists, too.