My whirlwind week-end to New Jersey

Okay, so let me recap my trip to New Jersey :P LOL, I'll try to be short and to the point, but you know me :P No guarantee!

We left on Friday morning at 6.30am... which was only 30 minutes after the time I wanted to leave. Not bad for girls who stayed up till midnight and 1am to finish cleaning their rooms and the bathroom LOL. The drive to New Jersey was very nice and uneventful. We made good time and arrived at Hilcia's place at noon, right on time and without getting too lost! :P Seriously, it was awesome to meet Hilcia and her husband. They are such nice people, very welcoming and very friendly! LOL, it's always funny to see the husbands' reactions to meeting bloggers... I mean, bloggers communicate with each other all the time via their blogs or emails or chat or whatever other mean... so it's a lot of fun for us to meet each other, but I wonder what the significant others think. Do they think we're crazy? Do they find it weird? :P Well Hils' husband just took it in stride and welcomed us as if we were long time friends :)

After we settled and had some lunch, Hilcia, my sister and I made our foray to New York City via ferry. I have to say, we were extremely lucky that the week-end was soooo nice. The weather was gorgeous and we had plenty of sun which was definitively a plus :) We didn't do anything very touristic for two reasons, actually three: 1) lack of time, 2) my sister has just been to NYC with her friends three weeks ago and 3) I'm planning to come back for RWA this summer. So we just walked around and took in the view :P Time Square, Broadway, the outside of Rockefeller Center... We did hit the NBC store which was priority number 1 on this trip. My sister is a TV buff and she's been wanting some memorabilia :P She wanted to go to the CBS store as well, but apparently it closed down which was unfortunate :( Still, she got her Nerd Herd strap from the show Chuck, so she was very happy :)

We then made our way back to New Jersey where we met up with Hilcia's daughter and went out for dinner together. Hilcia's daughter is another awesome person! She is so fun to hang out with and her relationship with Hilcia is adorable!! It's just too bad she had to work during the week-end... but there'll be a next time! LOL. So we elected to go to a diner which apparently is staple of New Jersey :P We went to the Coach House Diner and OMG, the food was so good!! It really surprised me, because you know how in books, you often read that you should stick to the special menu :P In this case, there was so much choice and the portions were huge! I wished I've had been more hungry :P and that was pretty much it for the first day :)

Saturday started bright and early :) The plan was to go shopping and we chose the Jersey Gardens Mall for it :) We got there pretty early, I think just after it opened at 10am. From then on, it was non-stop till 2pm. LOL, I think I exhausted Hils :P But then, you know how it is when you can get great discount and save lots of money! and guess what? There's no sale tax on clothes in New Jersey!! Hey, for a girl who is used to 12-13% sale tax... No tax is like heaven! My sister and I had an informal list of what we wanted to buy during the week-end and we pretty much completed it :P I came back with new running shoes, a sweater, a yoga mat... but best of all, a new purse! LOL. The purse was pretty much chosen by Hils and pushed on me by my sister... but I have to say, the more I look at it, the more I really like it :P It's really a nice bag... I just need to push myself to use it :P (I tend to keep nice things for special occasions...) The best though is that my sister spent some money as well. I mean, the whole trip was pretty much for her, so I wanted her to enjoy it and make the most out of it... which means buying stuff that she likes.

So at 2pm, we finally stopped for lunch LOL. I think Hilcia was very happy about it LOL. And happy me, I was hungry enough to get my pretzels from Auntie Annes. I love pretzels, especially with the cheese dip, but it's not very popular in Montreal. Actually, it's not popular at all. So every time I go to the States, I try to have some :P Then, we headed back to Hilcia's place to meet up with Christine for some book shopping and dinner again :P

Christine is another awesome person :) Very friendly, nice and genuine :) It was awesome of her to take time to meet up with us :) She was also our driver on this book shopping expedition. We went to Barnes and Nobles first, but I didn't buy anything. Mostly because I had 40% coupons off from Borders and also, the selection at the Barnes and Nobles was so-so. It didn't even have The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook yet... so I decided to wait for Borders. Once we got to Borders, I went wild as usual. Proof? My Hauling Sunday post LOL. It's always fun to book-shop with other books lovers and this was no exception. Christine was very controlled and didn't buy any books since she just got an iPad. As for Hilcia, she stuck to her list. LOL, two bloggers with a lot of willpower :P We talked books and also whether to switch to ebooks or not for series that you've already started collecting in print. After book-shopping, we went to Houligans. Another place with good food and a great view of NYC at night :) Again, once we got back to Hils' place, I was beat and that was it for me LOL. The whole day has finally caught up to me.

Sunday was very relaxed. We woke up at a decent hour, had breakfast and hung out. At 11am, my sister and I took our leave from Hilcia so we would get home early and Hils would still have time to go hang out with her family. We did a little bit more shopping before hitting the road, but nothing drastic. At 1pm, we finally left for home. The drive home was not as enjoyable as the drive to NJ... mainly because I got a speeding ticket T_T and because we got stuck at the customs for 2 hours! Yes, I had to choose the booth where two lanes were merging together. So not the perfect way to end the week-end, but I've decided to not let it ruin the great week-end we had. Since we got home on Sunday, my sister and I got to hang out a little bit with our relatives from Boston :)

Basically, my sister and I had a great time this week-end :) It was a bit short, but it was very productive and surprising, not so rushed. We met wonderful people, got to hang out with them for a great time, had a good shopping haul and time to relax. Seriously, what more can you ask for?

So a big thank you to Hilcia and Christine for such a great time :)