Back from NJ

Our two week trip to the East Coast went very well. We stayed with Luke's parents, Mark, and Erik on LBI (south of Beach Haven) for a week. The beach was beautiful and I got to see big jellyfish in the water for the first time. I wasn't so crazy about the squishy remnants of their carcasses, but no one got stung and it meant that the water was warm. We had two wonderful seafood dinners and I have a newfound affection for scallops.

One of the highlights was taking Mark out to his first NJ bar. $1 coronas and $1 Jager shots at the local beach bar. Ended the night with a chilly (chillier for some) swim and some star gazing on the beach. Crabbing was another first for me. We caught mainly small ones, but here's a pic of the bigger crab. Too small to get much meat off of, but fun to play around with. And of course, chasing after people with the crab in hand.

After NJ, I drove down to DC to do some research. I stayed with Rita, a college friend, and borrowed Jack's prius for the drive. On the way I stopped at Camp Ritchie, MD, one of the focal points, if not the actual focus of my research. The camp is beautifully laid out and seeing it in person gave me a better sense of the setting of the Ritchie Boy's training experiences.

I spent 2 days in the National Archives, and two days interviewing former Ritchie Boys. Bernie and the entire Lubran family were exceptionally warm and welcoming to me. His help in finding Ritchie Boys has been very important to my research and it was wonderful to feel so personally welcomed into his home. In my time I collected 4 interviews, over 400 pictures of documents from the NA, visited the Holocaust Museum, and made a contact at the Museum of American Jewish Military History. Of course now I have to transcribe and sort through all of the data I collected.

I hadn't been to DC in several years and I was greatly impressed by the city. Everyone was very warm and friendly, and the city had the older European feel, not unlike Boston. You had the quirky vibe of a big metropolitan center, but without the urban jungle feel that I get in Manhattan.

Returning to NJ, we attended Brendan's BA bash before heading home. Unfortunately, when we got home we discovered that Luke's roof had been cut, and his car had been broken into (just the face plate was stolen). It's funny, but it reminded me strongly of the "dorm" feeling of our home. Although I love living here and I love our apartment, it will be nice when we have things like a garage and do not have to park our cars in open, generally unguarded lots out of eyesight from our actual home.