Our last day in New Jersey

Friday was our last day in New Jersey!  And by the time this post is scheduled, we are already in Chicago, likely in a very messy house with lots of organizing to be done!  The movers came and got our stuff in New Jersey from Tuesday through Thursday to pack and load all of our stuff, so Wednesday was our last night sleeping in the house in Ramsey.  Each night our dog Griffey was on high alert as he got home and some things were packed into boxes (Tuesday night), everything but the bed was packed (Wednesday) and then nothing was left (Thursday).  Thursday night, we stayed in a hotel room in Allendale (town right next to Ramsey).  Moving here over 2 years ago was a fun adventure for the 3 of us - and the next few days will be a fun adventure for what has now become a party of 4.  With a 6-week old baby, the drive will move at a much slower pace :).

We're very excited to move to Chicago, but it is a little difficult to leave the place we've called home for 2+ years.  Sure, there are some things we won't miss about New Jersey - such as:

• Yankee fans (at least some of them) who seem to think it's their God-given right to be in the playoffs every single year,
• the way roads like Route 17 are set up so you can't make left turns and have to drive 2 miles past where you want to go just to turn around and go 2 miles back to get there (don't miss it on the way back - because this could end up costing you 8 additional miles of driving),
• the fact that we couldn't eat food from the Midwest - don't let anyone out here convince you otherwise, it's not better here.  The rare and more expensive dinners - yeah, they're possibly better in NY/NJ.  But for almost any type of your medium-to-lower priced meals, where we grew up and where we're going is much better.  Delis are the one notable exception to this rule; nothing holds a candle to NJ/NY delicatessens, 
• the poor cell phone / smart phone internet reception here.  Charlie has always noticed the difference, and his few trips to Chicago confirmed how much better it is there, and his mom noticed how bad it was when she was here,
• not being able to do any shopping on Sundays, except for grocery stores all stores and malls are closed on Sunday due to Bergen County being one of the last counties in America to still have what they call a Blue Law which outlaws all shopping on Sundays. 
• not being able to pump your own gas at the gas stations, although pregnant Katie really liked this because she didn't have to get out of the car, it just doesn't seem to be a job that is worth paying people once all the gas stations introduced pay at the pump.  And because you hand your card to a guy who then swipes it for you, we have heard on the news that there are a lot of incidents where credit card numbers have been taken from a side-swiper and the people don't realize it, which this would never happen in the rest of the country because you swipe your own card.  
• being so far away from where many of our friends and family are.

But New Jersey is the place our son was born, we've been married for longer during our time here than in Columbus (though not by much), and it's the longest Griffey has lived anywhere in his short life!  We did a lot of cool things while we were out here, and we'll miss that proximity to so much that the Northeast has to offer.  Griff will certainly miss the large backyard, but he'll like our new house (with a smaller yard) in Chicago, too!

Various "last time living in Jersey" things we did:

• Charlie taking the (really) long way home from work one night to get a meal at his favorite buffalo wing joint of all-time, Candlelight Inn, a couple of weeks before we moved.
• Seeing one last out-of-town visitor the week before we left - Julie, who coincidentally worked with both Charlie (at KPMG) and then Katie (at AEP).  Julie was in New York for a trip for AEP, and was kind enough to take the train up here to meet Brayden.  As promised - she got a picture with the baby on the blog!  

• Seeing friends Brian, Adrienne and their 11-month old daughter Charlotte came down for a quick visit to meet Brayden for the first time last Sunday morning.  Although we were an hour away from them, we always enjoyed meeting up with them and will definitely miss them. 

 

• Finishing all the frozen meals Charlie's mom had made to help us get through the early weeks with Brayden - since both our parents have been up here so much since he was born, this was actually the time when these meals were the most helpful!
• Spending Griffey's last 3 days at Best Friends Pet Care ("Doggie Day Camp") while the movers were here.  Griffey gets a report card each day, and he played with his best buddy Kirby most of the days.  He also got to have one last play day with his other friends (Charlie's co-worker's dogs), Dallas and Benji.

• Saying goodbye to both sets of co-workers.  Katie brought Brayden into her Toys R Us office on Thursday to introduce Brayden to her department and to say goodbye, which was really sad for her because she learned a lot during her time there and met some very nice people.  

• Eating Thursday meals from our most-frequented places in Ramsey.  Lunch was from Goldberg's famous bagels, which is about the best Deli place you'll find.  Dinner was pizza from Kinchley's Tavern, which we haven't gone to quite as often the past year, but was easily our most visited restaurant before Katie was pregnant.
• Walking through the house on North Central one last time Friday to spackle the walls and do some final cleaning.

So Arrividercci, Adieux, Adios, Auf Widersehen, Sayonara and Goodbye to New Jersey from the Mowry family!