I had posted earlier about my daughter's favorite restaurant just outside the gate of Ft Dix called Yordana's. If that pizza and seafood place is her favorite, then she has a close second when it comes to regular American fare; a chain called Friendly's.
When she first described it to us, we thought it might be similar to Freddy's Frozen Custard, a place we have here in San Antonio. I was way off.
Friendly's is closer to an IHOP with an attached Ice Cream stand. It has more of a real restaurant feel with waitresses seating you and such. And of course, a wide selection of food on the menu.
I would even say it had sort of a Village Inn feel to it as well. It doesn't matter, the food was good.
My daughter went with a bacon cheese burger that looked good and was apparently quite tasty for her. She had the standard fries which she enjoys.
My wife went with one of those plates of mini-burgers and special waffle fries covered in cheese and some mini cheese sticks. Hell, she's probably still stopped up after all that cheese!
I could not pass up a chance to try a Reuben sandwich, and I will tell you, it was stuffed, and done right. The best ever? Surely not, but certainly worth a try if you are in the area. You'll note that my waffle fries came without the aforementioned cheese, but I do confess to having dipped into my wife's. Good stuff.
We couldn't help ourselves, what with being on vacation and all, and where normally I decline on dessert, I ordered up a scoop (or so) of ice cream, trying out the new mint chocolate chip and the peanut butter chocolate. My daughter got the same. Just a note between me and you: Peanut butter does not belong in ice cream. But my daughter enjoyed hers.
It isn't fast food and the food is good and fairly reasonably priced. I can see why my daughter wishes Friendly's would make their way to San Antonio. Bring 'em on - Friendly's is a Tasty Treat!
But the story isn't over just yet. You see, towards the end of our meal, an SUV pulled in to the lot and parked right in front of the window where we were seated. An older retired couple got out (I make that comment based upon the white hair) and proceeded into the restaurant. Within a minute or so, we could see the vehicle had a dog (or two) in it. My wife started getting nervous immediately.
You might recall an incident I posted about some time ago where we found a dog in a parked vehicle with the windows rolled up in the heat. That is some cruel and illegal and stupid business. Anyway, in my line of thinking, the temps outside were not Texas style scorching, maybe in the mid 70's, and perhaps the rear window of the SUV was cracked a little. My wife was having none of it, and she was getting more and more upset by the minute.
When we left the restaurant, my wife was pretty intent on calling the police and in fact wanted me to find the people (who by the way were seated in the both directly behind us unbeknownst to my wife) and kick their elderly asses.
Instead, we found this comforting plate posted on each of the rear passenger windows. What you can't read is a message that says the owners are in fact very concerned about the welfare of their pets and that the vehicle air conditioning is running so the dogs can remain comfortable. No need to call police or jack with the blue hairs. If only more people were so thoughtful.
I know, say what you will, but my wife and I enjoy hitting garage sales and flea markets whenever we get a chance, even if it means doing so while we are on vacation with no reasonable ability to bring back any large purchases we might happen to make.
When my daughter described a market she had been to not far from her home in New Jersey, it sounded not only interesting, but simply too good to pass up. The Columbus Farmers Market was apparently started in 1929 and full of real "stuff", not the pre-packaged plastic crap you can find at any 99 cent store. Oh, and I should mention that we decided to go not more than a few hours before our flight back to San Antonio. That is dedication to the mission!
We really had no idea just how big the place was until we pulled in, and even then, we could only see a part of the market. If you are in San Antonio and familiar with the king of all flea markets, Bussey's, imagine a place that makes Bussey's look like a large garage sale. Oh, and if you are also familiar with the indoor flea market on Eisenhauer Road, they have you covered here too. Like the junky feel of what you get at the Fredericks Road flea market, fear not - they have a section of nothing but people selling crap from the back of their station wagon, which may or may not have belonged to an ex-wife or unsuspecting neighbor - not that I'm accusing anyone of anything.
When we first entered and were walking down one of the outer aisles, it looked close enough to be like one of the regular flea markets we are accustomed to, but then I hit a section where one of the salesman was interacting with the customers, trying to market the dresses he was selling like they had just come off of a fashion rack in a back alley in the shopping district of New York. Don't get me wrong; it wasn't that it seemed that the stuff was hot, but more that the guy was really trying to make a sale and it was all very entertaining.
Inside, there were numerous established stores but of a flea market nature - not a Macy's or Saks, but fashions, electronics and housewares for the more frugal in mind. I went into a book store and purchased a magazine that comes out twice yearly called, Weird NJ. And it was well worth the $4.00 I might add. Very entertaining.
And there was entertainment. Lots of interesting folks to enjoy. My wife had made mention of people dressed as Quakers or Amish - she wasn't sure. There were lots of folks running around in dresses with white bonnets on their heads. And the ladies were somewhat conservative as well, (rim shot, please).
At any rate, lots of really good stuff to see. 
Oh, and the food was plentiful. I only needed a snack when I spotted this guy at a stand selling these long twisted pretzel bread things. Imagine the bread sticks you get at Olive Garden but two of them twisted together, then topped with, I don't know, pizza, peppers, Philly cheese steak? The man offered us tastes of the PCS and it was so good, but I opted to just go with a cheese covered pretzel. Just call me an ambulance now because I can read myself getting fatter.
Unfortunately, there was just just too much to see and not enough time to see it. We didn't get to see even half of the place I'm certain. If you make the trip, get a little cart!
When you plan a trip and purchase airline tickets and schedule time off from work several months in advance, you really have no inkling of what the weather is going to be like, aside from the season. It could rain the entire visit, and we would still be happy to visit our daughter & son-in-law, but in addition to the visit, I was eager to go into New York City. My previous visits had been limited to the confines of JFK International, La Guardia and Newark Liberty. Oh sure, you can see landmarks as you are flying in and out of airports, but to get the real feel of things, you have to be on the street walking amongst the people. Raining would make that suck.
I had no interest in driving into the city - trying to figure out where to park or worse, navigating through the sea of cabs, sightseeing buses, stretch limos and jaywalkers. So, we opted for the sensible way to enjoy different views of New Jersey and to avoid the aforementioned traffic issues in NYC; we took the train.
We drove to a NJ Transit station in Bordentown, a really neat little place worthy of a walking trip to visit the tree lined main street full of shops and well maintained older homes. If I had been blindfolded and dropped off in the center of this town, I'm pretty sure I would have never guessed I was in New Jersey, and that I blame on the stereotypes we see on TV. We were prepared for rain since the areas south of us were getting nailed with storms, and it looked like by afternoon, we would be getting wet.
The short trip from Bordentown to Trenton passes right through three or four contiguous state parks. From seeing recreational boats in the canals to swamp lands, the view is green and wide open. Aside from a few scenes in The Sopranos where people were taken out into the sticks to be disposed of, this is a different view than what I expected.
We switched trains in Trenton to make the roughly one hour ride into New York's Penn Station. From what little we could see of Trenton, it looks pretty nice - of course, we saw roughly one full block of the city, walking across the street from where one train dropped us off to go inside the station. Who knows, the place could be a dump just around the corner. 
We got onto a double decker train taking the lower seating section. As we would pass through each station, I was just above eye-level with the platform which gives a view of how close the train slides by just inches from the wall.
And during the ride, it was amazing how the view changed almost like the click of a light switch. Finally, I got to see some of the rundown, ugly wasted buildings I had expected more of. Yippie! But the scenery really did change, typical of any place where some sections of town are really beautiful, some places are just run down, and other places are fairly bland. It would be just the same if you drove from one side of the country to the other and never once got off the interstate. You only see just that small sliver on either side of the road, but never get a good feel for what lies just beyond. And that was why I wanted to actually get into the city to see New York first hand.
Pulling into Penn Station, the last half mile or so is fairly dirty and ugly. You come from a tunnel into the train yard and it just isn't pretty at all. My wife was pretty much ready to simply sit on the train and let it take her back to New Jersey without even getting off to see anything. 
Thankfully, inside the station is much nicer! And that is where I'll leave off. More later on Times Square, Central Park, Lady Liberty and such.
When she first described it to us, we thought it might be similar to Freddy's Frozen Custard, a place we have here in San Antonio. I was way off.
Friendly's is closer to an IHOP with an attached Ice Cream stand. It has more of a real restaurant feel with waitresses seating you and such. And of course, a wide selection of food on the menu.
I would even say it had sort of a Village Inn feel to it as well. It doesn't matter, the food was good.
My daughter went with a bacon cheese burger that looked good and was apparently quite tasty for her. She had the standard fries which she enjoys.
My wife went with one of those plates of mini-burgers and special waffle fries covered in cheese and some mini cheese sticks. Hell, she's probably still stopped up after all that cheese!
I could not pass up a chance to try a Reuben sandwich, and I will tell you, it was stuffed, and done right. The best ever? Surely not, but certainly worth a try if you are in the area. You'll note that my waffle fries came without the aforementioned cheese, but I do confess to having dipped into my wife's. Good stuff.
We couldn't help ourselves, what with being on vacation and all, and where normally I decline on dessert, I ordered up a scoop (or so) of ice cream, trying out the new mint chocolate chip and the peanut butter chocolate. My daughter got the same. Just a note between me and you: Peanut butter does not belong in ice cream. But my daughter enjoyed hers.
It isn't fast food and the food is good and fairly reasonably priced. I can see why my daughter wishes Friendly's would make their way to San Antonio. Bring 'em on - Friendly's is a Tasty Treat!
Instead, we found this comforting plate posted on each of the rear passenger windows. What you can't read is a message that says the owners are in fact very concerned about the welfare of their pets and that the vehicle air conditioning is running so the dogs can remain comfortable. No need to call police or jack with the blue hairs. If only more people were so thoughtful.
