Let's Talk: When the Snow Storm Hits

                                 

We are now a week out from our lovely visitor Winter Storm Jonas. He was kind enough to drop all winter's snow on us all at once. Everyone has had a different experience and stories of their own relating to Jonas. 

For me, I was snowed in Friday to Monday, like many of you. I watched people slip and slide down the road, slide into ditches and burn the rubber on their tires on the hill, which seemed to turn into a mountain, to get in or out. 

But, situations, like Winter Storm Jonas, seem to always teach a lesson and have stories to come out of them that have an impact on how we respond to the next situation like it. 

Winter Storms of the Past 

At the beginning of this storm, several different people were telling me stories of snow storms past. The more notable storms were that of '78 and '93. I heard that the storm of '78 compared more to this one than the one of '93. In the storm of '78, I was told that it took residents at least a week to dig out. In both storms, power outages occurred. 

The notable storms, that I can remember, were Super Storm Sandy and the perpetual snow systems last year. Neither one, however, compare to what I have seen this year. In all my years of life, I have never seen so much snow at one time; two feet in my case. 

That much snow inevitably causes problems on several fronts. So, as the snow begins to melt away and we are able to once again get out and about, here are a few lessons I learned or was reminded of.

The Treehouse Coffee Shop

Something I have really enjoyed doing lately is visiting independently-owned specialty coffeeshops. This interest really peaked when I decided to do an assignment on them and really got into research and interviewing owners. 

The Nutty Irishman

I really got to dig into the goals of the shops, topics of beans, brewing and barista training and the community aspect of the coffee shops. 

So, on an out-of-town trip, I decided to look for indie coffee shop. And I found one. 

The Treehouse Coffee Shop in Audubon, New Jersey. 

The Treehouse was started in May of 2003 by Tina and Randy, with the additional help of family, friends and a few loyal staff. 

"It was an exciting time. We felt a calling to open a shop that showed love through care oriented customer service and delicious food," commented Tina, owner of The Treehouse. 

In first going to the coffee shop, I found the name really interesting. Come to find out the meaning behind it is very cool. The name came from Psalms 1 and Ezekial 47. 

"Both of these verses describe healthy trees growing by streams of water. These trees grow leaves to heal people and food to feed people," explains Tina. "Over the years, we have evolved and grown so much in our ability to obtain the idealistic goals to which we originally felt called. The 

Treehouse has matured, and we are developing new recipes and procedures to meet the ever evolving dietary needs of our customers. We have a dedicated and experienced staff who have genuine relationships with our customers (i.e. The leaves). We have connected with local farmers, a CSA based out of Camden County to incorporate wholesome foods into our recipes (i.e. The fruit)." 

The shop is customer friendly in so many ways. The atmosphere of the shop is inviting and relaxed. The floor plan is mostly open except for the L-shaped wall that displays their merchandise. They have tables of all shapes and sizes, circular, square or rectangle, mainly two or four seats. They have a small area where you can find children's toys and books. Their menu is filled with homemade and freshly baked items, including gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian options. 

In addition to the all of the above mentioned, The Treehouse also hosts several nights of live music and open mic nights. You can check out their calendar to see the different types of live music and open mic times available. 

Finally, the wide variety of beverages. Their beverage menu includes classic espresso beverages, "Gang Creations," which are different combinations they have created, non-bean beverages, such as tea, milkshakes, smoothies and iced coffee beverages. 

The Treehouse's coffees come from local roasters. The shops most popular blends are from Crescent Moon Coffee Roasters in Mullica Hill, N. J. 

A unique fact about this particular Roasters is they practice relationship coffee

practices. Tina explains what this means, “This means, they have developed relationships with the farms they purchase their beans from through visitation of the farms and proper

compensation for the raw beans.” Another local favorite roaster is Revolution Coffee Roasters out of Collingswood, N.J. 

On my visit to The Treehouse, I decided to try one of their gang creations titled the Nutty Irishman, which is an espresso beverage with hazelnut and Irish cream syrup, with a little whip cream on top. My boyfriend also tried a gang creation titled the Cara-Van, which is an espresso beverage with Caramel and Vanilla syrup. 

Our final conclusion . . . we thoroughly enjoyed our coffees. The flavor was really good and the coffee was hot. I think next time I will opt out of whip cream, I think it took away from the flavor.  The young lady behind the counter was very kind and patient as we asked what several of the creations contained. 

I would highly recommend visiting The Treehouse. The coffee was great, even though I didn’t have any of the food, you could tell it was baked and made fresh, the atmosphere is relaxed and inviting and the staff was very kind and helpful. 

So, if you are ever up in the Audubon, New Jersey area drop in and give The Treehouse a try.


Do you have a favorite independent specialty coffee shop? Give me a shout and I may just try it out.

The Highly Decorated, The First of its Kind and the Safe Haven

  

On this same trip out-of-town that I have talked about in several of the latest posts, the theme was history. Each of below listed historical places were places I had visited for the first time. Each experience was filled with a tremendous amount of learning and the continued awe I have with American history. Each place took a couple hours to go through. The Eastern State Penitentiary had an audio tour on the day we visited, and, again, this was the first time I had ever been on audio tour. 

USS New Jersey

This was a pretty extensive self-guided tour. We walked the entirety of that ship. This ship had a distinguished and incredible career. Here are just of the facts that are posted outside of the ship: 

• The New Jersey is America's most decorated battleship. It has 19 Battle and Campaign stars. 
• The New Jersey served in more conflicts than any other battleship, providing fire support against enemies in World War II, Korean War, Vietnam and Lebanese Civil War. 
• The New Jersey is the longest battleship ever constructed. It measures at 887 feet, seven inches, equivalent to three football fields. 
• The New Jersey fired more 16 and 5-inch shells than any other battleship in history. 
• The New Jersey served across 48 years (the battleship was decommissioned and reinstated three times); saw more than 55,000 Sailors and Marines serving onboard.

To walk the inner-most parts of the battleship was incredible. We got to peek into the room in which the anchors where stored, we got to walk down the very halls and entered the very rooms that thousands of Sailors and Marines frequented. We got to see where they slept, where they ate and where they did their laundry. Some spaces were tight and others were not necessarily meant for tall people. We got to see the communications room and got to hear some of the audio from times the missiles where being launched, we got to see the navigation deck and all the instruments that went into navigating. We got to see the guns that shot the 16 and 5-inch shells and the amount of gun powder required to shoot the guns. 

Seeing such a large-no pun intended-piece of history was just awesome. To see this battleship's greatness in its retired state, I can't imagine it in its height. 

For a full history of the USS New Jersey, you can visit here. 

Eastern State Penitentiary

I was a little apprehensive to visit. I had visited one other penitentiary at a different time, and did not enjoy that experience. But after some convincing, I went. What an experience! The day we went, they only had an audio tour available. 

The audio tour lead you through 10 key spots through out the penitentiary, but after that you were free to visit any of the other spots listed on the map they gave you as you entered. 

Eastern State was in its natural state. No renovations have been made, the plaster on the walls is peeling off, the cells are in ruins, trees are growing in some cells and and rust covered the different metal surfaces. 

What I believe made this audio tour unique and what set our tour as a whole, as oppose to a guided tour, was the fact that we got to hear the voices of previous inmates and guards. They talked of their experience, the sights and sounds that could be found in the prison. These narratives gave life to the prison; they called to thought what other stories the prison held.

According to the history the audio tour gave, Eastern State was truly the first of its kind. The whole purpose was to cause penitence—remorse and/or regret—for what they had done. In the early days of the prison, prisoners were in complete isolation. Each cell held one prisoner and each of these of prisoners had the basic necessities to survive—a bed, a toilet and sink and a desk or a small dresser—as well as a door in the back of the cell that lead to the exercise yard. As years passed and controversy over the prison got heavier, cells began to hold more than one prisoner. Again, in the early days of the prison, there was no life sentence and prisoners were not executed there at Eastern State. While the prison held many notable prisoners, the most notable of was Al Capone. 

Words cannot accurately describe the sights and historical significance of this place. I am glad I decided to go. 

Cape May Zoo & Lighthouse  

This was a neat little trip. At the southern most tip of New Jersey, you find these two spots. 

The first place we stopped at was the Cape May Zoo. This is a free, non-profit zoo. But, even more cool than that is the zoo houses moderately to critically endangered species. While small compared to other places, the zoo has a number cool animals—snow leopards, Siberian tiger, numerous different species of turtles and even albino deer. For some of the species, the zoo attempts to breed them in order to sustain that line of animals. 

The second place we stopped was the Cape May lighthouse. According to the Web site, this is the “third documented lighthouse” in southern New Jersey. Just a short distance away is the beach, the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware visible from the shore. In addition to the lighthouse, we got a bonus historical spot. On the beach not far from the lighthouse, we stumbled upon an old World War II bunker. The bunker was brick and blocked up, with zero access in. According to the sign, this bunker was built after the attack on Pearl Harbor to protect the coastline from the Germans should they get so bold as to attack the U.S. 

These historical sites were just a few of the treasures of American history, and I am so glad that I got to experience them. 

I have attached just a few of the photos from the trips to let you see just how cool these places were.

Let's Talk: Flying

So, on a recent trip out-of-town, I decided the most efficient way to get where I was headed was to fly. 

I don't fly often, so its quite natural that I would get nervous.

But I tried really hard to sit back and really take in this flight and not let my nerves get the best of me. So here a few things I realized during my flight: