New Jersey

The next morning, the girls were hopping, literally. Their most anticipated moment was going to arrive that very day. They both had written down in their travel journals, which we were attempting to keep every day on the road, that they were most looking forward to visiting New York City of all the attractions they would see on this trip.

Knowing that we couldn't check into our hotel right away, we decided to pop into New Jersey for two stops we had been planning for some time.

I don't know if any of you have ever watched TLC's "Cake Boss" or not. It is a catchy show set in Hoboken, New Jersey, just on the other side of the river from New York. The family that runs the bakery is now practically considered celebrity due to the show's popularity, and we thought the girls would get a kick out of seeing it and them, and maybe getting a cupcake there.

We took the toll tunnel under the water into New Jersey. The girls had no idea where we were going. When we arrived in the sleepy little town of Hoboken, the traffic became more and more snarled the closer we got to the address on our GPS. Sure enough, there were people everywhere near the bakery. It took us probably 15 minutes, at least, to find an obscure parking space. By this time we had told the girls where we were, and they were as excited as we had anticipated. We walked several blocks to the bakery and discovered a line in front of the drug store a block away. This line, complete with bouncer-looking guys in Carlo's Bake Shop T-shirts, was for admittance to the bakery. Once inside, you had the option of buying the expensive baked goods. The wait was quoted at 3 hours. Three hours!!! Seriously? I don't think so. Forget Jackson's patience level, let's think of Franz! The girls were sure they could do it. I wasn't so sure about myself. So, we settled for taking some pictures out front, where we spotted one of Buddy's sisters talking to customers on the street.

Our little celebrity sighting out of the way, Franz had other things in mind. He remembered watching an episode of some show on the Travel channel that pitted two famous New Jersey slider restaurants against each other in a grand competition. They were originally spin offs of the same company, but parted ways decades ago, and are now intense rivals. One is called "White Mana" and the other is called "White Manna." According to the addresses I'd looked up, "White Mana" was located in Jersey City, and close by. We decided to grab a late lunch there.
Not being a huge connoisseur of sliders myself, I thought they were fine (whatever). Franz said they were wonderful, but would have preferred a different bun. Jackson loved them and the girls were up for anything. At any rate, it was a fun experience.

That was pretty much all of New Jersey we were looking forward to, so we set out for the tunnel back to New York, and the hotel room we'd booked (thanks to saved up points) in Times Square!