OH YEAH! JERSEY SHORE YEAH!

Today Christine is very excited because we are going to the home of the TV show Jersey Shore, Oh yeah! After a long boring drive we arrive at Seaside Heights and instantly notice that it's a lot quieter than it looks on the show. Obviously in true Seale/Lambert style we arrive out of season so most places are closed and people are partying elsewhere. Oh well, lets make the best of what we've got...a little motel with a hole in the ground where the pool should be and some lovely builders playing sweet music with their drills and things, bliss!

Do the Jersey Turnpike ladies!

Obviously gnomes catching fish aren't good enough for American gardens.

At least someone is enjoying the "pool"

After checking the internet Christine leads the way to the famous "Shore House" which turns out to be an estate agents. Luckily the town is small and walking towards the seafront Christine lets out a 'woohoo!' She's recognised the house from the show just from the balcony at the side (Loooooserrr!!!). After taking a few pictures we decide to find the Shore Store which isn't too difficult as it's about 10 steps away from the house. The store is open so we buy some hoodies and spot Danny from the show in there. He looks a bit rough so Christine doesn't pester him for a photo. After paying for our goods and turning down the offer of a tour of the house ("2 for £10! 1 for £5! g'wannn") we walk along the extremely quiet boardwalk looking for something to do. Suddenly a fairground stallholder spots us "Hey guys, I'm bored so just throw this dart for free and see if you pop a balloon" James does and then gets offered another free go. After 2 more free goes we walk away $10 lighter but carrying a very sophisticated dinosaur keyring. We're still confused as to how it happened, shafted at the shore!! 

"There's the house! I recognise the balcony!"

Party's here!

Where's the queue?

Hello?....

...hellooooo?!!...Anybody there?

Totally worth it. If this was a medium prize a small prize must have been a bottle top!

We spot the Beachcomber bar from the show and decide to stop for a drink. The bartender instantly knows that we are there because we're fans of the show. "Why are you here this early? You should be here for the weekend, it's the big opening for the season so it'll be party central!". Guess what day we travel out of here? Thursday. Yep. Thursday. Great.We're missing out by 2 days, doh! 

"This is where Snooki got punched in the face?!!"

Just wait two more days and you won't be the only 2 people here.

After chatting to the locals for a while we continue the hunt for the rest of the (closed) locations of the show: Karma, Bamboo, Aztec etc, it's amazing how close everything is when a lot of the show is based around the cast getting taxi's everywhere "CABS ARE HERE!". We then continue to stick to the only available activity here - drinking! We find a small bar and make friends with a lovely man who buys us a beer and tells us all about the friendly folk of Seaside Heights. It's not been the party town we were expecting but the locals are so friendly and the town has a feel of a quiet Blackpool which is strangely comforting. We'd come back, even if it was just to win another free dinosaur keyring.

Tried but failed to do the Jersey Turnpike

“I know I'm not the smartest crayon in the box, but this isn't rocket scientist! We can make a party!" - Deena from Jersey Shore the show

That's why I don't eat freaking lobster or anything like that, because they’re alive when you kill it. That's disgusting.

– Snooki from Jersey Shore the show

Hurrah for Hudson!

We arrive at James' Uncle's house in the early afternoon and are greeted his cousin Katherine, who is very excited to see us. Just as well because we're very excited to see her too! Chris, Tricia and Katherine have a fantastic house with a lake at the bottom of the garden, very picturesque. There's a new addition since James' last visit... a bee hive! Tricia tells us that there were two but one of the hives decided to move a few weeks ago so the neighbours were treated to the site of a swarm disappearing off down the street. It's great to catch up with the family, but we're sorry for springing the news on Chris that Christine has decided to turn vegetarian and upsetting his dinner plans! Unfortunately Tricia has broken her foot but on the plus side she gets to play on a cool scooter/bike thingy, weeeeee!! We thought it was a bit mean not to let us have a go on it though heehee!

The next day we spend some time relaxing and planning a trip to New York. We're driving so it's tricky to find somewhere we can stay and be able to park the car but we manage to find a place near Jersey so we can get a bus over to Manhattan. It doesn't look like a great place but we're not going to be in much so what's the worst that can happen?! We spend a bit of time having a wander round the town of Hudson which is small but it's got everything we need apart from a beer garden...boooo! The only one is still being built, we keep forgetting it's still Spring which is forgivable considering that it's 90 degrees outside.

We do get the perfect chance to cool down later on when we join Tricia to pick Katherine up from school and we all go for ice cream. We take Tricia's advice and order a Kids Cone each, just as well because they're still huge. Katherine's huge ice cream shake puts us to shame!

After another night of good food and fabulous company we head to bed ready for the next adventure tomorrow - New Jersey!