NYC/NJ BwB: June 15 Biergarten + Eco-cruise (See post #101)

[Quoth]

What a nice outing! Thanks, Naz, for putting it together! Sooooo good to see you guys again and to meet new folks. My only regrets were not getting enough time to talk with some of you one on one and having to leave early before Doug could use me to experiment with strange (barely legal) alcoholic concoctions. Well, there's next time for that. ;)

[naz]

Thanks for a great day, everyone. I'm sorry I made everyone walk so much. It seems that all the meetups that I organize happen to include a ton of walking. Next time, we can do something more passive, I guess.

Here's a sort of short recap for those who weren't able to make it:

I found the X's at the light rail station in Newark Penn and after making our way to the festival area around noon (like, EXACTLY at noon - my OCD self is so proud), we spent about an hour milling about and trying to find everyone. It was crowded and somewhat confusing, but after a while, we all managed to get together. The festival area itself was nothing special - typical street fair type of stuff - funnel cakes and face painting and all that. There were some Japanese events, but they were a bit sparse. The cherry blossoms were in bloom though, and that was nice. We took it upon ourselves to just walk through the park and engage in some impromptu bird-watching courtesy of the X's and their vast ornithological knowledge. At this point, there were about 11 of us: me, Xray, Mr. X, Etulftune, her bf and another friend, Lany, Quoth (which was an awesome surprise), Zar Lannister, Silver Spearwife, and a non-board friend of mine.

Walking through the park with cherry trees here and there, we ended up at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart by about 3pm, where I engaged in a bit of architectural pedantry. TC and her husband joined us here. Then, it was another hike back to our cars, where we squeezed in and drove to Hoboken for drinks and dinner at the Pilsener Haus biergarten around 5pm. Fitheach met us here, plus another of my friends and his gf.

The biergarten was fun. There were lots of people and it took forever to get our orders, but we had a great time regardless. The X's were chatting it up with a couple of German visitors (what did they think of our American biergarten, btw?) who were sitting at our long table. My non-board friends were certainly non-bored; they were fascinated by Xray and her job, and by the existence of our westeros.org community in general. At about 7:30, we paid our bill and made it back to the train station, where we went our separate ways (hopefully in time for everyone to catch the tv show).

Again, thanks to everyone for coming such a distance. I know it was a long way for some of you (what with the vagaries of NJ's public transit system), and Newark isn't exactly the most exciting place in the world, but I had fun just hanging out with you all. Special thanks to Silver Spearwife (and my buddy Andrew) for driving us around.

PS: Next adventure? I'm open to suggestions.

[Quoth]

For what it's worth, I love hiking so the walking was more than fine with me. :) And everyone, boarders and non- boarders were terrific! Really nice day. :thumbsup:

[Xray the Enforcer]

1) Thank you again Naz for organizing the shindig. Had a glorious time.

2) One of the Germans is a regular at the beergarden, so that should indicate to you how he feels about it. :)

3) I loved the extra walking. So much different than what I do every other day of the week.

4) I will post a species list of birds we ID'd.

[the maid of woodlynne]

So glad you guys had a great time! Thanks for the pictures.

Hopefully I can make it to the next one. It really was the right call for me to stay home, as I'm still not back at work yet. Stupid bronchitis.

Anyway, :grouphug: and :kiss: for all of you.

[Relic]

man, another missed outing. one of these days i might actually check this area of the board in time.

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

huh. I was sure "Relic" was there. We even checked the only part of him we had seen on the board to make sure. :P

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

I have uploaded all my pics here

If anyone wants pic removed, just let me know.

(And if you look at the other folders, there is one from our picnic in 2007)

[Relic]

huh. I was sure "Relic" was there. We even checked the only part of him we had seen on the board to make sure. :P

? How do you mean?

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

? How do you mean?

It was a joke. One of the non-borders (Ty) asked who was in the area that he could pretend to be (someone not physically seen). I think he just wanted to be like the cool kids and have two names.

Anyway, you (your name) fit the bill.

[Mauvka]

And he's been asking me about who this Relic fellow is ever since. An introduction needs to be made now, I think ;-)

[fitheach]

Haha Relic's in the hot seat!!

I had fun, hope to be on the hike next time- I love the walk/beer meet ups!

[Capt. Zemblanity]

It looks like everyone had such a lovely time. Thanks for posting the photos. Hopefully I can make it the next time.

[Mauvka]

Now that Spring is more properly in the air, any chance on another outing?

[naz]

Now that Spring is more properly in the air, any chance on another outing?

I can't do anything until the semester's over. So, after May 16. And I'm busy Memorial Day too. Anytime after that is fine.

[Capt. Zemblanity]

I am free until about mid June, except June 2nd.

[naz]

Let's toss some ideas around.

Personally, I thought the combination of walking outdoors and dinner/drinks afterwards worked out really well. I wouldn't mind doing something like that again. What do you guys think? Nature hike? Museum? Bar/cafe/biergarten? Any locations you have in mind?

One place I like to hike in particular is Breakneck Ridge. It's on the east bank of the Hudson up past the Bear Mountain Bridge. It's just past the town of Cold Spring, but before Beacon.

It's not a walk... it's a hike. It's fairly steep for the first half-mile, meaning there's some scrambling. Then it levels off and continues in normal trail fashion for any number of miles into the Hudson Highlands. For an easy trip, we can climb up to the main ridge, and come back down the same way (1 to 2 miles) or come back down another way which is more wooded and less steep (3-4 miles). The views from the summit are spectacular. Google "breakneck ridge" and you'll see what I mean.

Afterwards, we can either drive back down to NY/NJ and do dinner/drinks there or drive up to Beacon, which is a fairly quiet town, and has some nice restaurants. It's also home to the Dia:Beacon, a great art museum with some nice Richard Serra pieces, among other things. If we do the Dia: Beacon on the same trip, then we'd have to hike in the morning and bring some food with us, so that there's enough time to visit the museum and then have dinner in Beacon.

The Metro North runs up to Beacon and there's even an unofficial stop at Breakneck Ridge, if you tell the conductor you want to go there (usually on weekends; I don't know if they still do that, though). But it's easy to drive to as well. We could just as easily meet up at, say, the GWB Bridge bus terminal and carpool there.

I'm obviously open to other suggestions, including stuff in Manhattan or other boroughs. Breakneck may be too far for Central or South Jersey dwellers.

We could do a hike through the Meadowlands, as well. The Hackensack Riverkeepers do a boat tour, which is pretty cool. Everybody drives through the Meadowlands and no one realizes what an ecological goldmine it is.

Or, if you're service-minded, we can do a river cleanup with them as well. It could be an official BwB community service event. Heck, if it's big enough and we get organized enough and can raise $1500, we can do our own BwB-sanctioned charter cleanup event.

You know... this might be something we can do anyway, in addition to any just-for-fun outing. Xray: let me know if you're interested. We can do it in George's honor. In honor of his beloved Jets/Giants who play in the Meadowlands.

[Turinqui-Calima]

Breakneck Ridge is awesome and fantastic, but I think it might be a bit too much for a BwB meet, to be honest. I think we might be excluding people if we plan something like that.

Also, Naz, could you change the title of the thread? I keep seeing it and thinking there's a meet tomorrow...

[naz]

You're probably right about Breakneck. But I'm liking the Meadowlands eco-cruise idea more and more. Even if we don't do the cleanup event and/or that's a separate thing.

Afterwards, we can hit the biergarten again. It's close by.

Or we can do Medieval Times, which is super close to where the boat cruise launches.

[Xray the Enforcer]

I'd love to do a clean-up event, personally.