There is a dog park (a large caged in area) for little dogs and one for big dogs. There were a lot more big dogs. They romp around and play games with each other. My daughter was following the interactions carefully.

I enjoyed the oranges, reds, yellows of the sunset. The steeple you see is across the Raritan River in New Brunswick.

Good night!

For more photos Straight Out Of the Camera:

Photo by Mason Resnick: Smashed window of Park Place in Highland Park, New Jersey

I will be visiting the Judaica Gallery today because I need to make a purchase for my daughter – at least those of us that are local can support the businesses that were targeted. Rutgers Hillel and Chabad in New Brunswick also were targeted with smashed glass, as well as the restaurant Maoz. The Highland Park businesses were Jerusalem Pizza, Park Place, Judaica Gallery, Trio Gifts and Jack’s Hardware. Maybe I should go buy some light bulbs at Jack’s.

A big thank you to the Highland Park police for their quick and decisive action regarding this crime.

Update: A Letter from Mayor Steve Nolan (it ends with: “As a community, we are much stronger than a pane of glass could ever be.” – bravo)

Update: An excerpt from a letter from Rutgers Hillel director Andrew Getrauer:

Wednesday morning at 2 AM a Jewish Rutgers student, very
involved in Hillel, was at the kosher Dunkin’ Donuts in Highland Park,
when a man approached him and started a conversation about Jewish
issues. He identified himself as Jewish. This deteriorated into a rant
where the man also declared himself a neo-Nazi and told the student he
should be in a camp and killed like his ancestors, and that he would
start a ‘second Kristalnacht.’ At this point the Dunkin Donuts staff
threw the man out of the store.

Wednesday morning Highland Park woke up to find 5 Jewish-owned
stores with windows broken; 2 Judaica stores, 2 kosher restaurants, and
a hardware store owned by an Orthodox man. A Jewish-owned falafel
restaurant in New Brunswick was also targeted. Hillel staff contacted
the student who had encountered the man at Dunkin Donuts and made sure
he was in touch with police. Hillel staff contacted the ADL and New
Brunswick police to help connect the dots between the various incidents.
There was wide spread anxiety throughout the local community, expressed
thru constant phone calls, emails, Facebook and twitter messages. To
give you a sense of the feeling at the time, people were calling it
“Kristalnacht in New Jersey.”

More details were reported in the Star Ledger, New Jersey Jewish News and other press.

Princeton University - East Pyne Building, detail of turret

We went on a visit to Princeton University yesterday because my son is applying to colleges, and as he had the day off due to parent-teacher conferences, he decided he would like to visit Princeton. We arranged to meet my niece for lunch at the Center for Jewish Life. Having had a late-for-the-conference experience due to parking issues a few weeks ago, I now consider myself a Princeton parking expert, and we drove straight to Palmer Square Garage on Chambers Street. In the dripping wet we figured out where Clio Hall is, the place where the tour begins. The photos on top and bottom were taken in the sunny summer month of August – it did not look that bright in New Jersey yesterday, lots of rain. We did the tour (one other mother-son team joined us), and then we had the pleasure of my niece’s company at a kosher lunch at CJL. She seems to be enjoying Princeton, and I was pleased to hear she is taking French as one of her courses. She is the sister of the blogger in Norway.

So, now that I’ve left you with some of the details of my day, here’s some questions for you:

• If you’ve had a child leave home, how did it feel to have the first one leave?
• If you could apply to college now (all expenses paid), where would you go and what would you study?
• Have you been to Princeton?

Princeton University Chapel tower

We decided in advance to follow the red trail – it wasn’t always easy to see these markings for the trail on the trees.

I saw a variety of plants growing – no idea what this striped little plant is called.

I recognized these red oval berries from my childhood – I looked up the bush (red berries with thorns is what I looked for in Google Images), and I learned this is called a barberry bush.

I rather liked this plant inside moss that I found on the trail.

There were various streams on our hike that led into the reservoir. The girls (my daughter and friend) had fun hopping over the rocks.

When we got to the top of the hill on the trail, we were rewarded with views of hawks flying overhead.

You could see quite a distance from the top – the fall colors have faded, but they are still varied, though muted.

For more Nature Notes:

Our first stop was Von Thun Farm in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey; however, they did not feature apple picking until the next Sunday. So we proceeded unto Lee Turkey Farm, which also has a corn maze and pick your own corn. My daughter and her friends enjoyed watching the chickens for a while.

No real reds in this photo, but I loved the rushed look of my daughter running through the corn maze at Lee Turkey Farm.

For more Ruby Tuesday posts:

This droopy pale orange flower added a wispy look to the scene.

These green, round leaves were growing in the stream, but I didn’t see any lilies.

This white flower seems to be a kind of honeysuckle.

Would this little daisy-like flower be a fairy aster?

For more Nature Notes:

The section with the American paintings was more appealing to them.

The life-size portrait of Elizabeth Allen Marquand, 1887 by John Singer Sargent is more captivating in real life. I would probably sit for hours and draw her, if I had the chance.

After a few minutes of doing the scavenger hunt, my daughter and her friend decided to use the backs of the hunt papers to draw a distinguished family from the 18th century, The Hartley Family with lovely silk dresses.

There’s sculpture and architecture to be seen outside the museum, on the Princeton campus, but I’ll save the architecture for another post. The statue is of John Witherspoon, 6th president of Princeton and a signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

For more Summer Stock Sunday, visit:

Batya will be hosting a JPiX carnival this coming August 4 – if you have any posts with photos relevant to a Jewish Photo Bloggers’ Carnival, please submit them to http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_987.html.

My daughter is playing a market girl. She did well in the tryouts, so she may get a bigger role in an upcoming play. As her mom, I try not get my hopes or her hopes up too high.

My favorite character was the giant. My daughter said one of the teen counselors played the giant, who is tall in real life, too.

If you are in central New Jersey, you can see the play The Little Mermaid next Friday, July 29. On Friday August 5 the camp will put on Willy Wonka. Tickets are $3/person and showtimes are 9:30 am and 11:00 am.

For more Summer Stock Sunday: