Margaret's Visit

Two years ago, Margaret came to visit. It was March and she swore the next time she came by it would be for warmer weather. Wish granted! She flew in on Saturday and spent four days in 90 degree weather. Luckily it was a three day weekend for me so we got to do a lot of fun stuff. Last time she had to shadow me at work for a couple days (not that she was complaining). Still, the SRF Charity Golf Outing was on Tuesday. I couldn't get out of it so there were a lot of things we didn't get around to (like seeing Carolyn's farm).

I picked Margaret up at the train station on Saturday afternoon. I had looked up the schedule of trains from Newark to Hamilton and, remembering that she had said something about 3 o'clock, guessed that it was either the 3:09 or the 3:21. To be safe, I got to the train station at 3pm. As it turns out, it was the 3:21 train... 3:21 at NEWARK!!! It was 4:10 by the time it arrived in Hamilton. Doh!

We went back to the house so Margaret could settle in, put her stuff down, and catch her breath for a little while. There wasn't a whole lot of daylight left so I decided to just give her a quick tour of the farms in the area and call it a night.

We were going to start at SRF, but it looked busy, what with the upcoming golf outing and all. Instead we went to White Birch, then Showplace and Gaitway, with a stop at historic Walnford in the middle. Margaret took a ton of photos and we even walked all the way around the track at Gaitway so she could see all the barns lined up against the sunset. I must be getting jaded because I didn't take a single photo the whole time we were out.


On Sunday Erin joined us and the three of us went to Devon. Jenn had scored free tickets and there promised to be carriages and pony jumpers. We had a grand old time wandering the booths and window shopping.

I brought Herbie, whose little puppy brain was rather fried by all the people, dogs, food, and new smells. She was very excited at first, but settled nicely. I was really proud of her and we gathered compliments on how cute, pretty, and well behaved she was.

There was a mentally challenged woman sitting in front of the grandstand with her mother. Herbie picked her out of the crowd immediately and walked toward her, tail wagging. The woman grinned from ear to ear and gave a squeal of delight, gesturing wildly to ask permission to pet my dog. Herbie walked over and was on her very best behavior. Turns out the woman loves puppy kisses, which Herbie coincidentally loves giving, but she didn't jump up until she was invited.The two made friends right away and Herbie even listened when the woman told her to sit and lay down over and over again. Good puppy!

It was a very tiring day for a pup. Towards the end of our stay we found a lovely elderly couple who liked Herbie and offered to watch her while we stood in the sun at the rail to take pictures. I tied Herbie to the bench and she napped peacefully under their feet. After that she was recharged and ready for round two.

Unfortunately, it was blistering hot and all three of us had had quite enough time outside long before the pony jumpers entered the ring. All the same, I got a good selection of photos and we all really enjoyed ourselves.

We made the drive back to Jersey and took turns showering and getting cleaned up. Not long after that Bryce's best friend, Mike, Dev, and C showed up for a night of drinking and hanging out.

Dev brought food and the boys grilled it up in the backyard while C and I took our first double shots of vodka in the kitchen.C warned me right off the bat that I was going to make myself sick if I kept going the way I was going, but Mike told her he's seen me handle my liquor and I backed him up, saying that he'd always cut me off in time before.

As the night progressed, I got increasingly drunk. We were making a valiant effort at watching Tangled, but failed in the end. I was begging for one more shot and getting voted down. They told me I could drink again when we reached the Snuggly Duckling scene in the movie, but when the time came C and I got distracted and locked ourselves in the bedroom instead. Margaret joined us.

What came next was your typical drunk scene, with C and I having a heart to heart about everything and Margaret soberly laughing at us from the other end of the bed. Somewhere in there, Bryce stumbled in. He was apparently also quite drunk and the boys were trying to convince him to sell everything he owns and buy a cruiser.

Me: I love you.
C: I love you too, man.
Bryce: I don't wanna be a boy!

Sadly, C was right and I did make myself sick so my night was cut short. In the end, Mikey ended up scooping me off the floor and carrying me to bed. I'm pretty sure I was still drunk when I woke up at 8am to people leaving the house. The hangover that follows is one I would prefer not to revisit. Ginger capsules and aspirin were my mid-morning companions and I didn't fully feel better until late afternoon.

We re-watched Tangled while I nursed my nausea and headache. I wolfed down some coleslaw for breakfast and managed to keep some coffee down.

Around 3pm we all re-grouped at Mikey's house and went down to his beach on Round Valley. And when I say his beach, I mean the one he made himself. He picked the rocks off of it one by one and toted in 500 pounds of sand, one bag at a time. This must have been no easy task since getting there meant walking down a good bit of winding trail through the woods. Of course people have discovered it and liked it and therefore done extensive damage, and there were tons of people hanging out for Memorial Day, but we had a good time nonetheless. The water is so clean that you can see 30 feet down and the weather was to die for. We swam and splashed and watched Bryce act like a giant toddler. Mike's sister joined us with her boyfriend and their dog, a pit/lab cross named Maggie. The dogs ran and swam and played fetch.

After a few hours, we hiked back to the cars and drove back to Mike's. From there we were headed to Dev's house. We had a bit of a scare when Dev's motorcycle wouldn't start. I popped my hood and we tried to jump it, but we couldn't even get lights. Dev was in the process of calling for assistance when Bryce, who'd been tinkering with the engine, found the starter relay loose. He popped it back into place and announced that we had lights. From there we were able to jump it and get on the road. Phew!

At Dev's we made shish-kebabs on the grill and relaxed. We wound up on the dock where Bryce nearly fell off the new high seats. We watched the sunset over the water before deciding to break diet and go out for ice cream. We made one last stop at the castle before parting ways for the night. I drove Mike home where we hung out under the stars while the temperatures dropped. Bryce, Margaret, and I were ready to go to bed by the time we got home.

Yesterday was the golf outing which will get its own blog entry. We didn't get home until 10pm and Margaret had a train to catch at 6:09am. I hugged her goodbye and wished her a safe flight then went home to catch up on sleep. Her trip really flew by and it was a jam packed weekend. I'll probably be recovering until this coming weekend.

More photos from Devon under the cut.






Handicapped riding demo





Look like your dog competition



































I LOVED this pair.








Herbie's friend












































Well... this is an odd hitch...


...wait, is that a...?


saddle!






































Happy, tired dog



































Unicorn hitch






























































This horse (the leader in the three horse hitch) reminded me of Ozzy


































































































See the dog?


My vicious pit






































Mules!