A Beautiful Spring Day Off

Spring is here! Today was one of those truly spectacularly beautiful days. The weather was simply perfect, ideal. Neither too hot nor too cold. There was not even much in the way of humidity. It was simply as wonderful as you could ask for, a day not to be missed or to fail to take advantage of.

Yet, you might not have known it only a few hours before my girlfriend and I went out to enjoy the day. In fact, it started out just a little above freezing, admittedly, early in the morning. Having just finished an overnight shift, I was thinking of taking an early morning walk. But after taking a glance at the temperature - which read that it was in the lower 30's Fahrenheit - it felt like I might need to bundle up a bit more than I cared for. Being tired, I gave in to laziness and went to sleep instead, figuring that a walk in far more comfortable temperatures would be more tempting.

When I woke up, we went out. There is this pizza place, DeLucia's Brick Oven, in nearby Raritan which her coworkers have apparently been raving about. She and I had talked about going there for a while. We walked in, and were told that we needed to have placed an order well in advance. After asking if we could place an order for an hour or two later, figuring we could come back after our visit to the park, I was informed that they would be closing then, before reopening at 4pm.

So much for that.

Still, we went to Duke Farms. I have been paying that park frequent visits in recent weeks. Some of the pictures which I showed her were of parts of the park which she was unfamiliar with (it's a big park). So we finally went, and I took her to the Meditation Garden, which has a distinctive Far Eastern/Japanese feel. It was the perfect day for it, although the spring colors already seemed to be fading away.

We relaxed, taking in the beautiful day and the fresh air. I started another Vonnegut book, "A Man Without a Country." Granted, I have read it before (probably a couple of times, actually). Yet, I had just recently found it, and have kind of been in a Vonnegut mood of late. So my rereading of the book this time around began in the beautiful Meditation Garden at Duke Farms on an almost perfect spring day. You have to appreciate good things when they come, don't you?

After our visit, we went to eat at a Japanese place (nothing to do with the visit to the Meditation Garden), and then got some desserts from the Cheesecake Factory at the Bridgewater Commons Mall. We rarely go to malls these days, and when we do, it seems like it is usually to eat. But we did not stay, opting instead to bring the cakes back home. She got plain, while I got White Chocolate Raspberry. It was really good.

Anyway, I digress. Below are some pictures of this idyllic day. At the very bottom, since it apparently is the anniversary of another spectacular and memorable spring day, are pictures of a visit that she and I paid to Branch Brook Park back in the spring of 2013. Those pictures are some of my favorite pictures of us together.

Enjoy!

This was my personal favorite picture of us. She just looks really beautiful here, and this was a beautiful day at Branch Brook Park in Newark, back in April of 2013.

This, I believe, was taken from the same day as that first picture, which is my favorite. But this one is nice as well, with the pretty cherry blossoms right behind us. Another picture where we are showing off our tans, eh? Damn, we look ghostly pale!