east coast adventure part 1 / ?
08-22-2025
Don't remind me of the unstoppable marching of time!
Okay cool, so Summer is about to come to an end but unlike previous years I can confidently say I did do something. Back in late June and early July I took a trip over to the East Coast to visit family in New Jersey and New York.
Without doxxing myself too bad, here's some lore. I grew up for most of my life in the great Garden State of New Jersey, USA. Then around adolescence, I ended up moving down to [REDACTED SOUTHERN STATE]. For anyone familiar with my old website, you'll know that the transition was quite difficult and I've talked before about wanting to go back some day. Maybe it's part nostalgia, maybe it's part not liking country music but [REDACTED SOUTHERN STATE] never really felt like home to me. But finally, after graduating college, saving up some cash, and contacting extended family for help, I finally had the means to visit the East Coast again for 2 weeks.
As I packed for my trip, I managed to find and recharge my old handheld camera: Sony DCR-SR47. I used this camera for everything back when I was a kid, making short films and comedy skits and all that. I even had videos on there visiting NYC from over a decade ago; so it was nice to use this camera for recording my trip. All the pics and vids you see are from that 2009 camcorder. I think it came out great, feels very dreamlike.
The first thing of note of when I landed was.. damn I miss trees. I mean we got trees here but not like TREE TREES, you feel me? Like PINE TREES and huge OAK TREES everywhere! Where I live it's mostly flatlands, farmlands, and palm trees. But back there, you can find plants constantly spilling all over architecture, lining the roads, creeping up buildings. Despite it being an urban area, I felt like nature was an overpowering presence around me.
I spent most of my time in New Jersey just chilling out with my extended family, but had a day or two to just solo explore which is honestly not the kind of freedom I'm used to. You know, New Jersey isn't just New York City's commuter state. Did you know there are actually cities in New Jersey too? Like Hoboken and Jersey City, which I had a lot of fun in.
Quick Tangent about public transportation! Man, I don't want this blog to just be me comparing NJ and [REDACTED SOUTHERN STATE] but God did I miss having decent public transit! As a kid, I took for granted the perks of having a functional city bus system. Moving to a place where you need to drive to get anywhere really makes you appreciate that stuff. Cool thing is you end up running into some interesting folks too. While taking the bus to Jersey City, I sat next to an old lady who lectured me on the importance of cleaning my room the whole trip. And, on the train back I chatted up a dude about X-Men comics while a guy in front of us had a screaming meltdown. For better or worse, that's the kinda experiences you don't get in your car on the freeway. Okay back to Jersey City!
I found some cool places like this arcade called The Pixel Lab that had a bunch of real deal classic arcade cabinets, alongside all the usual consoles. It was so cool to play a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 machine that had all its buttons actually work. Their banging city pop playlist was also a plus! Right down the block was a sick game shop too called Dungeon Books. I don't know how many people reading this are making a big trip to Jersey City and are looking for arcade recommendations but it felt worth mentioning. New York City definitely gets a lot of the attention but there is also a lot to find across the Hudson, I feel. It's definitely a city I'd like to return to one day.
There's not much more to say about New Jersey at least that I'd share publicly, it was mostly just hanging with family but it was really nice. I will say that I was a little worried before I went on this trip. What if I was hyping myself up too much and I was blinded by nostalgia? I had been dealing with some, let's say, emotional ruts these past few years and it would really suck if I went across the country just to feel the exact same way I felt then.
But, sometimes the grass really is just greener. It wasn't just nostalgia, I genuinely enjoyed my time and the freedom of being an adult in a somewhat walkable city. The buildings, the trees, all of it really was like how I remember. Obviously no location is gonna fully solve every problem ever. But, I set reasonable expectations and it pretty much matched them which was nice. Makes me feel confident that moving back some day is something I actually want.
Anyway, most of the real exciting stuff of course happened in the second part of my trip in NYC, but before moving on I do wanna tell a quick story. Maybe it's corny but I do feel prideful for where I come from because it made me the person I am today. Part of that was the teachers I had growing up. I went to a kinda crappy public school that was held up by some great teachers. Teachers that went beyond the curriculum and taught me some real stuff that I hold onto to this day. Like I really don't think I'd be the person I am today if not for some of these people.
While I was staying with family, I found a family member that still worked with that school and my old teachers. Through them I was able to message them directly and let them know I appreciated everything they did. That's something I never thought I'd be able to do and it was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. At the end of the day, as cheesy as it sounds, it's people like that who make me proud of where I'm from and I'm really glad I was able to come back.
What else can I say about New Jersey... uh we got the Sopranos, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and a few decent Kevin Smith movies! Yeah! Alright, next up I'll archive my time in NYC and my surprise hangout with a fellow webmaster (do ppl still say webmaster idk)! Stay tuned! :O