Mary and I took made a trip east to New Jersey as far as the seashore to explore and visit some business locations. We had some supplies to pick up in Lancaster which inspired our making the trip rather than paying the cost of shipping 50 lbs of earring backs. A company called Lancaster Metals Science makes the custom designed wire loop we glue to the reverse of the earrings and the finish our recent order.
On our way we went through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to stop at the Poconos Environmental Center. We have not heard from them in 3 years though they had been a pretty reliable buyer. The center was open though not busy and the part time volunteer store manager was not in. However they still opened the gift shop for us which was small but crammed with lots of shelves full of kid items. None of our product was on display probably meaning it sold out which is a good sign. Their last order was for more than 100 pairs so I was expecting to switch out some for some new. We left several pair as a gift and walk some of the trails, clockwise as their COVID-19 rules dictated.
It is interesting that this nature center is in the middle of the recreation area. I have not been here before but it appears there is a lot to do. The public lands surround about a 30 mile stretch of the Delaware River. There are many historical sites, water falls, biking trails and the AT runs through part of it.
Our destination was Ocean Grove, NJ, which would be our home base for the two night trip. The weather was fantastic and being the off season we found one of the charming Victorian seaside hotels to be a reasonable place to stay. Not knowing much about the area we were really happy to discover how interesting and walkable the neighborhood and the surroundings were. We arrived early enough to do a lot of exploring on foot starting with the boardwalk along the beach to Asbury Park and its remnants of a turn-of-the-century ocean front` Amusement park !!! The town still seems to treasure the ruins and is attempting to preserve them. The interesting architecture does entice wanderers like us from a distance.
We turned inland from the beach discovering the downtown area of Asbury Park. On our way we walked by a bar & grill type place with an extensive out door area featuring “Yappy Hour”, where dogs sit there owners down at tables to eat and drink while they mingle and play. In the downtown area there was one street mostly occupied with restaurants where they simply closed the street to expand the outdoor seating. We had already eaten at a place on the beach but we could see there were many more interesting choices for tomorrow.
From downtown Asbury Park it was only a half mile walk back to Ocean Grove. We walked across a cute foot bridge into the neighboring seaside village. Ocean Grove has its own little town center with some restaurants and boutique stores and they seem to be doing well. It was very interesting to walk around this marvelous concentration of old architecture. As grand as the buildings are they barely spared any space between them, which made me thankful for upgraded fire codes.
Tuesday, our plan was to search for some new business opportunities. There were a number of local parks with visitor centers we wanted to check out though most of them were closed. Our Audubon sites were also closed until Thursday so they did not pan out. It was hard to figure out their reduced hours remotely since the grounds were usually posted as open. But we did find the Jenkins Aquarium at Point Pleasant Beach. The gift shop opened right onto a very touristy boardwalk. Right away they they were interested in our earrings. Although they had all the usual stuff that a store in a location like this would need to have, the buyer really impressed me with the line of artisan products that she managed to gather and was very knowledgable of the people and small businesses behind them. It’s exactly the kind of connection we want to make and will probably make this trip worthwhile.
We checked out the aquarium which is an intimate experience with its small footprint. Several larger aquaria with the larger creatures like sharks, penguins, and a couple pinnipeds were not huge but the backstage area and care facilities were made the be visible. We saw caretakers spending time with the animals and hoped that that was often the case. I like to list animals I don’t often see on display and here they had some garden eels and pinecone fish. Garden eels plant their tail ends in the sand with the rest of their long bodies upward in a botanical shaped curve. Where there is one there is often a group looking like grass. I’ve seen pinecone fish in books but never one for real. They have a remarkable color pattern resembling a pinecone, or a pineapple which they are sometimes called. They also have light organs which I could not see with the lights in the aquarium.
After the aquarium we visited a nice little wild bird store near by, however the owner was not interested in carrying any jewelry at all. She was intrigued with our product and gave us a great lead to a gallery called Jesse in downtown Manasquan. They have a great collection of artisan wares that was not specifically local and the proprietor seemed to think our earrings would be a good fit.
For the afternoon we headed north visiting another WBU in Middletown, Poincy Park Nature Center, and an interesting drive out on the Sandy Hook spit of land that juts north which is one of our Eastern National park locations with all the visitor buildings closed we were not able to stop in anywhere. We ended the day repeating our wanderings around Ocean Grove and Asbury Park and along the beach which was so enjoyable in the good weather we wanted to do it all again.
On Wednesday, our trip home, we stopped at a couple more WBUs in Cherry Hill and Lancaster. Cherry Hill is totally on board with us and we had a good meeting with the owner. We also stopped in the Schuylkill Environmental Center which was good timing since they were getting ready to place an order. We learned that they close their roads to traffic when the toads are moving to water bodies to breed in the spring so it was fun to show off our new toad design. All in all it was a nice get away from home. For business we made some good contacts but clearly it is still very difficult out there. Outdoor activity in general is way up which is great to see. Understandably, public visitor centers and buildings still limited or closed all together. Hopefully we can look forward to a more normal 2021.