I recently stayed in Tenafly. My old roommate’s wedding had events in Hackensack, Closter, and Teaneck, so it was a central enough spot to stay to get everywhere.

Quick aside, I was informed that both sets of parents wanted an extra Jewish celebration, so I got the privilege of getting to 2nd hand experience those parts of their heritage. Whole lot more Hebrew than I normally hear in my day-to-day. And coming from a different culture that also dates back thousands of years, there’s a beauty in seeing how theirs has both preserved itself and stayed alive. Good amount of overlap, we both like hoisting up the bride and groom, we both like dancing in circles. I’m a bad Gujju who doesn’t Garba, but the Hora was pretty fun.

Tenafly was a quaint little town. From my hotel, I could walk to a neat shop selling records, cds, and gunpla. Dessert places for ice cream, froyo, baked goods. A good variety of restaurants. A cute cafe.

A more reasonable number of emotional support vehicles.

Kids walking around naturally in their herds.

A nice little time capsule for the suburbs before the propagation of McMansions.

Now to toss out some rocks.

I’m in the glass castle known as the One Star State throwing stones, but throw I will.

New Jersey I have known you for three decades now.

How are your roads still this bad.

How are they still this congested.

How does it take half an hour to go 5 miles.

I’m not gonna argue that Texas or Pennsyltucky have sensible speed limits. But c’mon, how do y’all’s drivers manage to be both slow and aggressive.

Speaking of those two states. Thanks to living in them, I have become intimately familiar with toll roads. How does the NJ turnpike have this many potholes. Two narrow lanes shared by real trucks and cars. Take your pick, either risk getting side swiped by a trailer that won’t ever notice you or your wheels. I literally blew the front tire on my rental on the drive back to the airport.

Overall grade. B-.