This weekend the weather was classic summer style. We had extreme, sunny hot temperatures. We had plenty of heavy rain and thunderstorms. All along the way, it felt like I was having fun either trying to beat the heat or dodge the storms. It was a fun mix of everything. Friday night I had a pretty quiet night in since most tiki bars were closed due to the hard rain storm we had. All good. I was able to still have a nice time to unwind. Saturday morning I was able to clean my place up really well. It's easier when you do normal maintenance and don't have to do the deep cleans. I just swiffed my floors for a few minutes and just scrubbed down counters like normal. Not too bad at all. I even made my bed! Look at my Saturday morning! LOL.
Saturday afternoon I was ready to go to Crystal Springs Vista 180 Pool, which I often refer to as my Heaven On Earth happy place! I received a call from my work bestie Shawn saying Hi. I was happy to catch up with her and some of our friends, but sad when she told me they had to be kicked out of the pool due to thunderstorms. Then the rain started to fall, pretty heavy. I waited it out probably a half hour or so, before you knew it the sun came back out and was scorching! I didn't know if they would have the pool reopened or not, but was willing to go there and take a chance either way. Fortunately for me, they reopened the pool and I was psyched. It was so hot out even I jumped in the pool. It definitely felt amazing! Relaxing in the pool, enjoying amazing views of Crystal Springs Wild Turkey Golf Course and the valley behind it never gets old! When there, it feels like I'm so many miles away from home, despite my drive only being under ten minutes. It was a wonderful afternoon at the pool! I was zoning out and relaxing so much, that I didn't even hear the lifeguard whistle. All of the sudden, I turn around and realize that there's only one person left in the whole entire pool - me. Whoops. They asked me to evacuate the pool due to impending thunderstorms. They sky was definitely turning darker and more gray, but it didn't look too bad at first. Then I took out my NBC 4 doppler radar on my iPhone, and saw a ton of red and orange right near Vernon. Okay, do I wait it out? I came up with the solution to exit stage right immediately. I was happy with this decision, I got into my car right when it started raining. Within minutes it started raining hard.
I had a nice, hearty breakfast at Granny's on 23 in the morning and was ready to treat myself for dinner. Time to drive over to Sparta and hit up Industry Kitchen & Bar (shocking, I know LOL.) I was feeling like trying something new. We've been talking about their dry aged salmon so much, I had to finally try it. This is their "House Dry Aged Salmon, with purple potatoes, asparagus and mustard. This was one of the best salmons I have ever had in my life. Seriously. It was delicious and melted in your mouth. The funny thing is, I don't like mustard. I can do a spicy mustard once in awhile depending on the situation. If you put a hot dog right beside me with mustard on it, I probably wouldn't even touch it. In this case, I didn't mind the mustard at all. It was on the bottom as a base, so you could have as much or as little of it as preferred. I had a little bit of it and enjoyed. Potatoes great, asparagus, great. Success. I can now say that I highly recommend the house dry aged salmon at Industry. My friend Chef Carmine and his team really do a great job with it. They should start giving me commission for that salmon after this weekend, right?
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Great Saturday night dinner at Industry. Success! Sunday I was able to beat the heat again by going guess where? Yep, Crystal Springs Vista 180 Pool. It was so gorgeous outside how could I not? I enjoyed a couple hours out there in the pool working on getting some color.
I then got a text from bestie Sally. We agreed last weekend that we would try to catch up together this weekend. At first they were going to go to Dubco Brewery, which I have enjoyed a couple of times. They then realized there was going to be a cover charge due to their live music. They decided to pivot. They texted me with "D'Boathaus Restaurant in Hewitt, New Jersey on Greenwood Lake. This ended up being an excellent pivot! We were able to get a table right on the water, with an umbrella that came in handy when it was raining heavily, lol. Then once the rain cleared out though, it was beautiful. We had a wonderful time at Greenwood Lake with friends.
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Overall I had a wonderful weekend. I hope you had a great weekend too. Time to start planning next weekend, which I'm betting will possibly include a little bit of Rock Ribs & Ridges!