Highland Park

I just love the little town that I live in for part of my life--Highland Park, NJ. Here is the new entrance to the town just after you cross over the Raritan River from New Brunswick.

Here I am going for an early evening walk to take pictures with my new camera of some of the places that I love in HP. There is the quaint Corner Confectionary where you can buy the best coconut icecream. A couple of weeks ago dear Celeste and Daniel came for a visit and Celeste let me have some of hers. That is definitely what I will order next time I go to the Corner Confectionary. There is my dear friend John, the Taiwanese baker, who makes such wonderful sweet red bean cakes. Wendy works in the bakery and made me a Taro bubble tea.

PJs coffee house where they have live jazz on Sunday afternoons and which somehow I always manage to miss by just a few minutes. One of these days when I am home on the weekend I will manage to make it there.

There is the colorful and cozy hair salon called "A Garden Party" where Gabriella from Rumania did my hair. I think I may have finally found my hairdresser. I have been hunting for several years. And there are the wonderful tulips that the town planted everywhere. I have never seen tulips like these.

And the sweet little old houses with spring gardens.

All of this and more that I pass on my ten minute walk from my apartment to the Stop and Shop to buy a carton of milk. Not to mention that some of the most precious people to ever have come into my life: Joa, Sham and Arian live also just five minutes walk away, on Saturday night I was invited by one of my students to have barbecued lamb kebabs just three houses away up the little hill an on the little winding road, and I sometimes go running by the river in the early mornings with a colleague who lives just a few streets away.

I am also in easy walking distance from the train station to catch a train into NYC or down to Philadelphia. I can even walk to work if I like. It is just 20 min walk away over the river, along the wide treelined walkway next to the headquarters of Johnson and Johnson, up past the train station, past the wonderful buildings of Old Queens, past the university art museum and I have arrived.

And so I do love Highland Park.