Hopara

We know what you’re thinking.  What are we doing talking about cool parts of New Jersey?  Well, as much as we hate to admit it, from time to time (including today), we head out to New Jersey to visit friends and family who have decided that paying New York rent makes no sense anymore (we have tried to explain to them that the cost of owning a couple of cars, gas, heating bills, kitchens the size of our apartments, etc. more than cancel out any savings that might be had, but alas, we are ignored and then treated to hot dogs on the barbeque).

While we’re tempted to start with the nicer parts of the Jersey Shore (read: anywhere Snooki & Crew are not), we think that it might be better to begin with the one of the ubiquitous suburbs you find as you drive through the state.  What do people do in these places?  Is it really just a morass of strip malls, shopping centers and big box stores?  The people of Morristown, New Jersey, beg to differ.

Our Jerseyite friends point out that they’ve got food that’s just as good as Manhattan’s (we love our friends, but disagree - we believe that there’s a difference between a solid meal and a transcendent one, and we have yet to experience the latter in Jersey).  That doesn’t mean that there isn’t good food, though - we think that the Italian food at Pazzo Pazzo is excellent, the steaks at Rod’s Steak are deservedly famous (their name leaves little to the imagination, though) and we’re even impressed by local favorite (and mini-chain) the Sushi Lounge. 

In terms of shopping… well, this isn’t our favorite destination for that.  Some people have fun perusing the local lingerie shop, Dain Shoppe, but it’s not really our thing.  What we do like, though, is pretending we’re athletes when we don’t know the rules of the game, which is why we’ll head over to Indoor Cricket USA to try our hands round the wicket (that’s right, we have no idea what we’re talking about).  For something a bit more sedate and educational, our pick is the Morristown National Historic Park, where you can spend an hour hiking along the various trails and another exploring the museum that commemorates Washington’s winter encampment from 1779 - 1780.  

Don’t feel like staying in town?  We’ll have to write about that in another post…