BirthNight

Lori's 'birthnight' was spent down on the Jersey Shore, and we all certainly exhausted routes to our destination! Lori, Maria, and Van left work early and had a rendezvous on 42nd to Lincoln Tunnel our way to the Dark Side. Sarah flew in to Newark from Boston and took a car service down the Parkway. Kim had the top down and the music blasting all the way from Connecticut. And then Michele took NJ Transit all the way down to 'Squan. Everyone here? CHECK!

Once we were all accounted for and the beer was on ice, we enjoyed our drinks and some apps on the deck. Cooper ran around the backyard for a bit before heading out to the Manasquan Fireman's Fair with his grandparents and Liza and the twins.

Cooper had a great time on the rides with the boys.

And he even won a little monkey with the help of Alex and Mark.

Our band of six jumped in the car and drove to Ocean Grove for dinner at Seagrass. Ocean Grove is a weird morph of church-owned property that later became a true municipality. Basically if you live there now? Most likely you are Methodist or gay.

The old 'blue laws' are not in effect any longer, but it is still a dry town. Not a problem, the restaurant is BYOB. Oh, and we did. Six for dinner. Five bottles of wine.

Happy Birthday Lori!

Back at Maria's parent's house. Had a couple more drinks and hung out on the deck for a while. Beautiful night. Perfect weather. The birthday girl fell asleep in her chair. She was snoring, but is adamant that she was not. The last of us lasted until a little after 2am.