New Jersey – Garden State

here we came to USA, New Jersey!

New Jersey was a beautiful, green state, with a lot of national parks, lakes, charming houses and numerous golf clubs. :)

I stayed there with my husband for 3 months, and I have to say it was an interesting experience for us. We accommodated in Morristown. So, what is interesting about “Motown”, how local people call it.

Morristown is the cute, quite and not very big town, nonetheless, we needed a car. We lived in the town centre, right behind Morristown Green, that was a small park in the middle of the town. There was a big department store called “Century 21” from one side of the park, Starbucks from another , church and post office from two other sides. The street with Starbuck was a main street, called Washington Street. I could find all kind of stores and restaurants on it.

Food quest!

There were 2 big food supermarkets: Shop Rite and Kings. Yet, both of them not a walking distance from the town centre. Finding the healthy food was an intriguing quest for me. Stores had numerous options for everything, but simple organic fruits and veggies, as well as good quality meat weren’t easy to find and were more expensive than half ready fast food or mac&cheese)) Also one shocking thing was that the volume of jars and packages was huge.

Kings was a gourmet style store, located on the Washington Street and a bit more expensive than others.  It took around 25 min to walk there from Morristown Green.

Shop Rite was a huge store with all kind of goods from food to home essentials and with a farmer’s market in front of it, located on Hanover Ave and it took even longer to reach without a car, around 45 min. The good news were that I could order food online, but basically I needed a car to go almost anywhere. I was surprised that the distances were huge, but almost no public transportation. Literally, everyone was using cars, even teenagers. It was neither good or bad… I think, it’s just a different life style!

For small snacks and medicine there was a small shop called Rite Aid right next to Century21 on Morristown Green, and for late emergency snacks and drinks there was a 7 Eleven store on Morris St., which worked at nights and located at a parking lot, 5 minutes walk from Morristown Green.

Shopping! Discount! Sales! Bags, shoes, dresses… never enough! 

What I really liked in New Jersey and in Morristown was shopping. NJ didn’t have any taxes for the clothes, moreover, Morristown had an amazing department store, called “Century 21”, with an unbelievable discount for the most popular American brands like DKNY, Michael Kors, Stella McCartney, Rebecca Minkoff, Cole Haan, Jessica Simpson, Nine West, Guess, Tommy Hilfiger, Tom Ford, Coach, Ralph Lauren and some European brands like Moschino, Prada, Gucci, Chloé, Hermès and others! From my point of view, it made sense to buy all kind of American brands in US, but European brands could be found cheaper in EU. In brief, low taxes and extra discounts made Morristown a shopping paradise! :)

There was another mall, which I liked a lot – The Mall at Short Hills. It was a great shopping centre located in the Short Hills area of Millburn, New Jersey. It didn’t have a big discounts or sales, however, had a great chose of stores like Abercrombie & Fitch, Brooks Brothers, Coach, GAP, Reiss, Victoria’s Secret, Michael Kors, Lacoste, Hollister Co. and much more! It was a very nice, spacious and not very crowded mall. I could easily spend a whole day there! :)

I also visited a popular mall called Jersey Gardens, located in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Attending was mostly out of curiosity. People said it’s the biggest outlet in New Jersey and I guess, indeed, it was! It was a huge place with hundreds or maybe even thousands people inside! All possible brands were there, but I didn’t enjoy shopping in such a chaotic atmosphere. It was also the closest department store from New York, maybe that fact also affected the number of people and the rush mood of everyone!:)

Natural surroundings and Entertainment

There two options to spend a weekend in Morristown. Either hang out in the town or go outside and enjoy nature. Let’s see each of them.

There was a very modern and lovely movie theatre, called AMC and located in the Hyatt Hotel Morristown at Headquarters Plaza. It had the most comfortable seats I have ever tried. Seats were very puffy in red leather with footrests which could be opened up to a laying position, almost as a sofa bed.

Night life wasn’t so crazy like in New York, but had some places for the good rest on weekends. For example, lounge bar in the Hyatt Hotel Morristown at Headquarters Plaza called Sm23, had a great, relaxing atmosphere and nice music. Plus, there were couple of bars on the Washington Str.

One more thing a must try in Morristown was sushi. There was a small restaurant called Asahi Sushi, located on the Morris Str., which had a delightful dishes! I hadn’t eaten so delicious sushi for a very long time! Restaurant was tiny and usually fully booked, but had an option to take away, that was perfect for us.

For the active rest in the nature environment there were a lot of parks, lakes and golf clubs. Of course, not a walking distance, but with a car the choice was great. Golf, in general, was very popular and I could find all kind of clubs, from mini golf for beginners to professional old clubs with a long traditions and generations of players in there.

Morristown was surrounded with parks and lakes! I wrote a list some of them:

• Burnham Park (has a lake)
• Pochahontas Lake
• Speedwell Park
• Speedwell Lake
• Washington Headquarters National Park
• Spring Brook Country Club
• Foote Park
• Lidgerwood Park

All of them were big, delightful and located close to the town. It’s a good escape for the fresh air, walking or cycling!

Travelling to New York!

The fact that Morristown was located not far from New York was a pleasant surprise for me, especially when I learned that I can go without a car. Trains went often and were very comfortable, however, I needed a sweater on the road even though it was summer, air conditioners were working too much! Trip took approximately an hour, and the cost for one person both ways was around 25$. Train arrived at Penn Station, which was in the middle of Manhattan. It was very convenient. The train station was a bit chaotic, but very good located! Another option to go to New York was with a car. It was very comfortable and cheap to go to a small town, called Secaucus, located almost on the border with New York state, parked the car at the train station (parking fee was around 10$ for 8 hours) and took the train only for 5$. Direct trains to Penn Station takes about 5 min.

Of course, I didn’t miss the chance to go to New York! New York was the biggest discovery for me in that trip to USA, and I’m so excited to tell you about it in my next article.

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BE HEALTHY AND WEALTHY! :)