My Favorite Vacation: New Jersey and Philly

Growing up, my family and I didn't get to go on any "real vacations," due to lack of money, amongst other things. The only "vacations" we had, were when we went camping and fishing. These things don't interest me anymore, as we did them way too often.

Now, I am married, and even though I am not working, my husband makes enough money for us to go away sometimes. It isn't always far, but sometimes, we get to get out of Virginia and go somewhere else, which is my favorite thing to do.

My favorite vacation wasn't really a vacation, as much as it was going to attend a wedding, but it turned out to feel like a vacation for me, and it made me very happy.

Last month, my long-time friend, Tara, got married on Long Beach Island in New Jersey. Actually, she and her now-husband won the wedding, via contest. As soon as I heard the news, I told Ben, and we sat down and booked our hotel, Fairfield Inns and Suites, in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, for the weekend of July 24-26.

Mt. Laurel, New Jersey was supposed to be only about six and a half hours away. I say "supposed to" because it was longer. However, I'll get to that in a moment. To get to the hotel by check-in time, we left around 9:00 AM on Friday, July 24. After stopping by Wal-Mart, we were on our way.

After about half of the trip, we stopped at TGI Friday for lunch, to stretch our legs, and go to the bathroom, before the second leg of our trip. After getting our bellies full, we were off again. We didn't get far. Once we got near D.C. around 3:00, there was a lot of traffic. We weren't aware that this started at 3:00. It took us about 2 hours to get through twenty miles. It was pretty ridiculous. This was one of my only complaints about this trip. While wading through the traffic, I tried not to sweat it, and sat back and watched "How I Met Your Mother" on my laptop.

Once we got through the D.C. traffic, the rest of the trip went pretty smoothly, and we got to our hotel at around 9:00. After bringing in our belongings, I took a shower while Ben called in an order to Soprano's, for dinner, for delivery. At about 10:00, we finally got our food and chowed down. It was delicious. I am a fan of Soprano's. A little while after eating, we went to bed.

The next morning, we woke up at a decent time, put on our swim gear, and went downstairs for breakfast, which wasn't horrible. After that, we went for a swim in the pretty cold pool, then for a dip in the hot tub. Once we had enough of that, we asked for a suggestion of a place to buy postcards, and went back up to get dressed and head out. We went to the Cherry Hill Mall. I loved it there. They had an Apple store, a Sephora, a MAC store, and a Godiva! I also came across a cool tea store, called Teavana. I got eyeshadow and eyeliner from Sephora, truffles from Godiva, tea and a steeper from Teavana, postcards from Hallmark, and my husband got something from Radio Shack. Then, we we left and got lunch at McDonald's. We took it back to the hotel and ate. We went for another swim and hot tub run. Afterward, we got ready for Tara's wedding. It took me longer than I thought.

It was over an hour drive to Long Beach Island, but it was really pretty. It'd be nice to live in Beach Haven. I never wanted to leave. But anyway, the wedding started early, and it was beautiful. The only bad part is that the minister forgot the readings that two other girls and I were supposed to do. After congratulating Rick and Tara, it was off to the library in Mt. Holly, where the reception was located. We stopped off at Wawa, because we were parched. Half the wedding guests were there!

We got to the reception around 9:00. It was a decent reception, except for hardly any of their friends dancing. I only danced to one dance song... The food was good, especially the paella. I was stoked the newlyweds walked out to the Firefly theme. The best man speech was the most epic thing I've ever heard. The girls and I got to read our readings at the reception! We left shortly after the [cup]cake. We got to the hotel, showered, and went to bed around 2:00 AM.

We got up on Sunday morning, showered, got dressed, packed up, and checked out of the hotel. We went to meet Rick, Tara, and their friend and his mom at Cherry Hill Coach Diner, for breakfast. I had some delicious chocolate chip pancakes. Once we left them (sad,) we were off to my first-ever trip to Philly.

Our friend, Manny, whom had come down from New York City, to spend the day with us, procured us some free parking in a church staff's parking lot, so we didn't have to pay $20 for all day parking. I don't remember what all we did in order, so I'll just list what we did: Independence Hall, Liberty Hall, Johnny Rocket's (for a snack,) South Street, my first real Philly cheese steak, my first cab ride(s,) Love Park, and the Rocky steps and statue. It was good to Manny again, as we hadn't seen him since April.

After we dropped Manny off at his friends' house, and headed out of Philly. After stopping for gas, we were on our way. I fell asleep when we were somewhere in Maryland, and didn't wake up until we were almost in Amherst, Virginia. We got home at around 4:00 AM, I do believe.

While exhausting, it was a great trip. I will always treasure my first trip up north. Why was this vacation my favorite? I got to see great friends, a lot of history, and do a lot of shopping. It was totally worth the long drive, and I can't wait to do it again. Who knows? Maybe even Ben and I will live there someday, and one of our friends will visit us, and call it their favorite vacation.