Blackberry Memorial Day

First of all, I forgot to mention this morning that I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day and honored our fighting men, past and present.

I spent a little more time online after I posted on here. Lauren got up around quarter after 11, and we had tea and cereal for breakfast while watching military-oriented cartoons (the Donald Duck in the army series, two Looney Tunes, and one Pink Panther). We let the Pink Panther run while we cleaned up from breakfast and lunch.

We went for a walk around the neighborhood next. I wanted to show Lauren most of Oaklyn that we passed by yesterday on our way here. We stopped at WaWa and bought fountain sodas with those cool syrups. We headed down the White Horse Pike, past 7-11 and Taco Bell and around the corner past CVS.

We ended up at Dad's house. This seems to be pretty par for the course for Memorial Day on either side of the family. "We're not doing anything" turns into "we're inviting the entire neighborhood and their friends for a party." My cousin Amber and her boyfriend and his daughter Ella, Amber's younger sister, and Dolores' grandchildren Mercedes and Blake were all in the pool when we arrived. Their mothers and Jodie were watching them. Dad, Uncle Ken, Dolores, and some more of her grown children were inside, watching the Phillies game. (They eventually lost to the Braves, 9-3.)

I had a turkey sandwich for a late lunch. Lauren just had chips and fruit salad - she had a sandwich at my place. We didn't wear bathing suits and the pool was busy with kids anyway, so we just stuck our legs in the pool. That felt just as nice. The pool was a little chilly going in, but surprisingly warm once you got used to it. It's rarely warm this early.

We headed back to my place around 4. I wanted to show Lauren Veteran's Park next door before we called it a day. It was hot, humid, and hazy, and our walk down the tree-less White Horse Pike left us both sweating buckets. As we entered the park, Lauren pointed to a vine-y bush a few paces away. "Oh, those are blackberries!" she exclaimed. "And they're really ripe!"

And so they were. Lauren had found a bona-fide blackberry bush. We hurried back to my apartment for bowls and loaded them with as much as we could knock in. The berries were amazing. I'd never tasted such huge, sweet blackberries. I used to see blackberry bushes in Cape May growing wild...but even they never tasted as good as this. And I've never seen that bush until Lauren pointed it out! Between the two of us, we (and our very purple fingers) got enough blackberries to snack on, and maybe even make a cobbler or tart if it cools off enough to use the stove later in the week.

We spent the rest of the evening cooling off inside, watching the original Meatballs with Bill Murray and another Bowery Boys movie from their mid-50s Allied Artists days, Calling Las Vegas. (We figured the latter was appropriate for our trip to Atlantic City on Wednesday.)

Speaking of, tomorrow will be our first of two days exploring the neighborhood. We'll do the laundry, then ride over to Westmont (I have books due at the Haddon Township Library) and Collingswood and maybe even take the train into Haddonfield.