Sunday, August 24, 2014

Sunday visiting WWII Planes & Museum

Wings Of  Freedom, Wall, NJ
Monmouth Airport

Today was such a beautiful day at the Jersey Shore.  
We decided to take a ride over to the Monmouth Airport to see Wings Of Freedom, which was a display of a few WWII War Planes.  Today was the last day of the display.  Davey got to walk through the planes and even watched one land and take off.   We're excited to find things about WWII because Davey will be learning about it during 7th Grade this year.




Lunch at Stay Gold Cafe 
800 Main Street, Belmar

This was such a nice place to have lunch at on a beautiful Sunday near the beach.  They did not have a gluten free menu, however, they told me they could modify some items for me.  I opted for a salad with grilled chicken, roasted peppers, tomatoes and a delicious homemade balsamic dressing.  I made them aware that I could not have gluten or dairy and the waiter told me that would be a good choice.  I did want the spring rolls, however, he told me they recently changed to a different wrapper which was not brown rice, so I was not able to try those.  I was happy to see that they were willing to work with me and modify items for me.  The staff was all knowledgeable about what gluten was, which was reassuring.  

The salad was so yummy and I would definitely go back again.  The lettuce was fresh and crisp and the salad dressing is homemade and had a nice sweet taste.  


I was hoping to try the cappuccino and was so pleasantly surprised that they offered almond milk.  The cappuccino was delicious too!  It was a big cup and I enjoyed every bit of it.


They also had a phenomenal juice and smoothie bar, but we were just too full from lunch.  I will definitely go back to try some juice and smoothies.  

I loved the atmosphere and the staff was super nice and friendly.  The food was perfect and the price was actually not bad either.  We will definitely be back.  I would love to see a place like this in Brick, NJ.  I keep hoping!!  We need it desperately!!  


History Museum and National Historic Landmark
2201 Marconi Road, Wall, NJ


This was such a wonderful place to take Davey.  It's a science and history learning center and they have an awesome military vehicle display that Davey loved.  They have WWII displays, history of television, radio, computers and it's a wonderful walk down memory lane.  Admission is free but they do take donations.  They also have several cute separate museums, including shipwreck museum, surfing museum and more.  It's a great place to visit to learn about history and science.  I loved that they offered guided or unguided tours.  Davey had a chance to speak to several of the volunteers and learned a lot.  It was neat seeing my very first cell phone in a cabinet on display from the early 80's, the old typewriters I learned how to type on and to see how huge the computers were from when I first started working in offices.   

There were some awesome displays ... 


This is called Theremin, a Russian wave machine that makes electronic music from wave sounds.  
We made some neat sounds with it while we were there.


How cool, Davey thought this looked just like the Death Star.  It was called the Tel Star satellite, which beamed the first TV signals across the ocean, 1962, the year Kevin and I were born!  


Here's some of the first TV's with antennas, no cable, no remote and only 13 channels.  Unfortunately, I still remember those old TV's with the antennas and the picture tubes.  The tubes would go and you would have to replace them all the time and I have tried to explain to Davey how we only had 13 channels and all the channels didn't even work.  We had channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 ... that was it!!  By the way, the picture was never very clear and you would have to jiggle that darn antenna sometimes to get the picture to show up... sounds crazy right?  Davey just cannot believe that we didn't have cable and that we actually had to get up to turn the channel.  Montclair did not get cable until I was out of high school, so I grew up with only 13 channels.  I still remember what it was like when we were finally able to get cable.  



And of course there were record players!  I remember them well!  


Here's my very first cell phone!  Not sure how I fit it in my purse, but I loved that thing!  


Here was my dad's - he had it in the car!  Yes, that is a cell phone made for a car!  


Yes, this really is exactly what the computer systems looked like!  I remember them too!! 


I learned how to type on a typewriter and they didn't have home computers yet. I can still remember how many jobs I applied for that didn't even have computers yet.  I was actually not even allowed to use computers in the early 80's because my boss thought it was not a good way to get all the work done.  Luckily, I did it anyway.  Ok, well she was not happy about that, but I got a nice little handshake from the President of the Company for it and it changed the way they did everything from then on.  Hours of work could now be done in minutes ... it was really a very exciting time and something I will never forget experiencing.  I was absolutely in love with computers!  I took every class I could and absorbed it all.  Computers were something I embraced and I had always wished I had computers when I was in school.  Several years after I graduated, schools started to get computers in the classrooms.  Computers open up so many worlds to us.  It's hard to imagine a world without them anymore.  I think of how much has changed since the early 80's and how many people from all over the world we can now learn about, grow together and share lives together, even from thousands of miles away.


The volunteer explained to Davey how the huge computer next to him is now able to fit in his tiny little cell phone.  I love seeing the look on Davey's face hearing that!  Mine too ...


Some neat displays ...


All I can say is this place is phenomenal and we didn't even know it was there.   

If you would like to learn more information, please contact them on facebook or their online website.  They also have talks and told Davey he can come back any time he has a school project, wants to volunteer or just wants to learn.  I love it there and we will definitely be back!  The volunteers were all knowledgeable and encouraged Davey to learn and I just loved that!  I love seeing my son learn and to see him get excited about history and science is a wonderful thing.

After the museum we took a short trip to one of my favorite health food stores, Nature's Corner Natural Market in Wall and I picked up a few things that I will review on my blog shortly.   Then we picked up some vegetable plants at Barlow Flower Farm for our garden for the Fall.  If you have not stopped by Barlow's yet, I would take a trip there because it's a wonderful Garden Center and has some organic vegetable plants and seeds.  They are located at 1014 Sea Girt Avenue, Sea Girt, NJ.  They did have a little room with birds and butterflies, but it's closed now because of some remodeling, but it still has some great stuff!  I'll post about them too!  

Thanks for reading ... 

Remember to always, be inspired ... 
Carrie Hughes

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