It was a sunny day but a blustery day so I headed off in the direction
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of Philadelphia. But, first I had to stop to get gas at these prices
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from a guy who told me winter was here.
I picked up Dr Len and we head to Mullica Hill where we first stopped
at the Old Mill
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which keeps these hours
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and has 3 floors of antique dealers. After we took the obligatory phone booth picture
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we went inside where this woman
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wrapped my elegant salt and pepper shakers
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and the Hardy Boys book (sorry, no picture) and Kelly (who had gone to Westminister Choir College) and Don (I think that was his name) wrapped the other gift.
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We started off to explore the town. The Old and New shop was open
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but the Toy and Doll museum was closed
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despite its elegant tree
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and toys
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sign. The Sign of St. George was shut
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as was this door
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to a place that didn't look particularly attractive.
The high point of our visit to Mullica Hill (since at this point we didn't know about the Mansion where Allen Iverson had his wedding reception) was the creche scene at the Baptist Church. After we read about the
holiday
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we saw the whole scene
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complete with camels
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and spectators
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and the 3 wise men.
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The Baby Jesus was already born
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but Mary seemed to still be pregnant.
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Dr Len took this picture of me
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and finally got it centered.
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All this activity made us hungry for something that could ruin our appetites for lunch. Fortunately we found Mirenda's Bakery
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where they make everything from scratch. The desserts
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looked good and this woman
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of the Mirenda family was happy to sell us a cherry danish and a donut.
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Continuing on down the road, I captured a picture of 2 elves in green
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and the bridal shop
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before we considered the Hilltop Diner
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but decided that there was a better lunch elsewhere.
So, we went to the Yellow Garage
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and tried to get the right picture of Dr Len with their very thin friends
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Driving on, we came to Woodstown where the respect of the high school
alumni
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made us know that the diner
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would serve a good lunch. The placemats were good
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though they aimed at a younger crowd than we often see in such
circumstances. The menu
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was vast but there were daily specials
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to ease the selection. Dr Len
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ordered a drink that came from here.
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For starters, I had salad
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with Russian dressing on the side while Dr Len had snapper soup
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of which we estimate they sell 25 bowls a day. This estimate was confirmed by the waitress who broke it down as 10 at lunch, 15 at dinner. They brought this bread
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with lunch. Dr Len had chicken with dumplings for lunch
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which came with lima beans.
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I had the pita pizza
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an amazing concoction that was heavy on the eggplant and not what you might have ever guessed. Our waitress, Cara, had just moved to Salen, NJ from Seattle to marry someone she had met while picking blueberries in Maine. She claimed to be very photogenic (which you can decide) and was happy to pose
alone
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and then with Dr Len.
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The bill was remarkably reasonable
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though we had to remind them to bring Dr Len's
rice pudding
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which he ate despite having not made the clean plate club
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as you can see. Before leaving town, we took this small town New Jersey generic picture
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this picture of the tonsorial palace
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and these 2 pictures of Lem's
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As we drove on, we saw God's store
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with the lighthouse which was to be the theme of this part of the trip. Next stop was the Salem Oak Diner
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across from the oak itself
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which is claimed to be
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the most famous tree in New Jersey, a fact that was disputed by the family when I got home. It's too late to ask Hannah Robinson
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whose remains are fertilizing the tree. After one final picture
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of the diner, we knew it was time to explore further into the town.
Next we went past Barber's Basin
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and some good lawn ornaments
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that hadn't been blown over by the heavy winds that buried many a lawn Santa Claus in the grass. This house had its own train
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complete with Santa Claus
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and a John Deere crossing.
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We're not sure what the decorations there were all about though. As we approached the country club
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we saw their guard dog across the street.
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Our final visit was to the water at the bottom of New Jersey
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where in the distance we could see the Delaware Memorial bridge
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On the wall home, we paused for a photo of this sign painted on a wall.
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