#WANAfriday (8/28/13): Fall Bucket List

Catchin’ up on #WANAfridays!

Here’s the #WANAfriday prompt for August 28 from Siri Paulson:

Fall bucket list — what experiences do you want to have / what do you want to spend time doing this fall?

While I hate to say Good-Bye to the Dog Days of Summer (read about the meaning of Dog Days here on WANAfriend Elizabeth Fais’  blog), I realize that fall is just around the corner. Our nights are getting a bit nippier and average daytime temperatures are dropping, too.

Here’s my bucket list:

1. First and foremost…check to see if WAWA, our local gas/convenience store, has started to offer its annual special fall coffee: Pumpkin Spice.  (Yes!  My dear husband brought me my first cup!)

2.  Publish my 200th Post Celebration for my blog.  Here are number one and two on the bucket list combined:

3. Buy mums and pumpkins at a farmer’s market for the entryway of my house. Buy a basket of apples for making apple pies.

4. Make one last visit to the Ocean City Boardwalk.  This trip has its own bucket list. It’s gonna be a long day to get all these activities in!

•  Buy a new Jersey Girl zippered, hooded sweatshirt. You can never have too many Jersey Girl sweatshirts!
• Get a bucket of boardwalk French fries.
• Get a price list for buying and shipping Johnson’s caramel popcorn (and buying a bucket to check the flavors.)
• Watch the taffy-making machine at Shriver’s Salt Water Taffy and fill a bag with my favorite flavors: molasses, chocolate mint, chocolate, licorice, green apple, and a few more.
• Buy Manco & Manco pizza for dinner.
• Walk the length of the boardwalk and back (five miles) to work off the French fries.

Read more about the Ocean City boardwalk here: O is for Ocean City, NJ: Pizza, Saltwater Taffy, Frozen Custard, Caramel Corn,

5. Keep my blog going. Add two or three posts a week.

6. Visit my sister in California and explore the San Diego area. Maybe I’ll get to meet Zoey the Cat who lives out there! Here’s a sneak preview of the San Diego Waterfront: Tall Ship Parade, 2013, Festival of Sail in San Diego by Russel Ray. And here’s Zoey the Cool Cat now! What a cutie!

Zoey the Cool Cat. Russel Ray photo

Here are a few other WANA112s who have written about their fall bucket list.

Ellen Gregory (who, being Australian, is talking about spring)
Kim Griffin…Fasionista Wannabe
Liv Rancourt…What’s On Your List?
Siri Paulson…Fall Bucket LIst
Dianna Bell…Springtime

The Last Meow

A cat’s bucket list? Well, same as always: Eat, play, sleep. But maybe we can add playing in the leaves to that list.

Meow for now.  =<^ ! ^>=

What’s on your bucket list for the fall? Put your link in the comment section of this post.

Jersey Shore Towns Reopen and Welcome Visitors

The terrible devastation ($38 billion in damages) of many New Jersey shore towns caused by Hurricane Sandy (October, 2012) required enormous clean-up and reconstruction projects in a relatively short period of time. Now, seven months later, these resilient NJ shore towns welcome tourists back to the beaches, ocean, boardwalks, and their communities.

President Obama visited the New Jersey shore on May 28, 2013 to check on the rebuilding progress. He walked with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on the Asbury Park boardwalk and spoke to the crowds gathered there to see him. School children lined the route of President Obama’s motorcade. President Obama noted the enormous work that had been completed, but he acknowledged that repair work needed to continue before recovery would be complete.

New York Daily News photo

USA Today photo

The next post reviews the hurricane situation, showing how one community, Margate, NJ, prepares to meet the challenge of revitalizing storm damaged homes still in need of repair.

N is for Nora’s Ark: In Times of Trouble People Help People (Hurricane Sandy)

Hurricane Sandy makes an abrupt left turn and heads directly to New Jersey coast.

Ocean City, NJ is my favorite beach town and I have written about it before:

O is for Ocean City, NJ 2012/04/18

Saturday Silliness – Basset Hound Doo Dah Parade  2012/08/04

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride

Bike MS-Video-City-to-Shore Success 2012/09/30

Bikers walk their bikes to the staging area after completing the race

Bike MS City-to-Shore 2012/09/30

Breanna enthusiastically marches around the area carrying a sign with the positive news that a cure for MS is in sight. Children can learn the value and positive benefits of volunteering at an early age.

Relay for Life (Cancer) 2012/06/25

Relay for Life opening parade

P is for Parade, Pies, Paint–Doo Dah Parade, 2013 2013/04/18

I. Will. Not. Go. One. More. Step. And. You. Can’t. Make. Me.

O is for Ocean City, NJ: Pizza, Saltwater Taffy, Frozen Custard, Caramel Popcorn  2013/04/17

Eating ice cream on the Ocean City Boardwalk with my grandchildren and their cousins.

A Cat, A Crab, and a Sunny Day 2013/05/09

Photo credit: David Nahan, Ocean City Sentinel

The Last Meow

Good idea. Time for the beach. Let’s go!

Meow for now.  =<^;^>=

O is for Ocean City, NJ: Pizza, Saltwater Taffy, Frozen Custard, Caramel Corn

A to Z Challenge, Letter O, Post #15.

Wow, we are moving along in this A to Z Challenge!  Day 15 with 11 more posts to go.

O can only stand for one thing for me: Ocean City, NJ.

And guess what. Food Network Magazine says the same thing in its May 2013 issue “Walk the Walk: These amazing boardwalks are worth a stroll this summer.”

Ocean City, NJ is right in there with Myrtle Beach, SC; Kemah, TX; Old Orchard Beach, ME; and Santa Cruz, CA. The authors of this article acknowledge that there are many great boardwalk towns along our coasts, and they loved them all: big, small, run-down, flashy–and especially those fighting their way back after Hurricane Sandy (Coney Island, NJ). They settled on five boardwalks in the article.

For Ocean City, NJ, they got most of my boardwalk favorites: Manco & Manco Pizza, Shriver’s and Fralinger’s Salt Water Taffy, Kohr Bros. frozen custard, and Johnson’s caramel popcorn.

We also love George’s Homemade Ice Cream, Hula Restaurant and Sauce Company (formerly Hula Grill) for the best coconut shrimp anywhere, Bashful Banana for yummy muffins, and Ward’s and Mallon’s Bakeries for the yummy cinnamon rolls.

If you want to do something other than eat, you can go down to the beach, or stay on the boardwalk and ride the rides at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, Playland’s Castaway Cove, Gillian’s Island Water Park. Miniature Golf? We’ve got plenty of that, but watch out for gorillas, sharks, alligators, and pirates along the courses.

You can tell that I love Ocean City, NJ, and I have written about it before, and I’ll probably write about it again.

O is for Ocean City, NJ   2012/04/08
Dining Out: Pizza at Home and Pizza in Italy  2012/08/08
Saturday Silliness: Basset Hound Doo Dah Parade 2012/08/04
Relay for Life: Wash Out or Not 2012/06/25
Bike MS: City to Shore, September 29, 2012

The Last Meow

We kitties love the beach, too. And lookee there, we even have a shop just for us, right next to Johnson’s Popcorn. I can get my very own Ocean City Beach Patrol sweatshirt.  Meow for now. =<^,^>=