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Monday, September 3, 2018

Adventures Down the Shore: Hiking and Operation Baby Squirrel Save

Last weekend was a fun one for us.  It was my brother-in-law's birthday so Baros and I took him on an adventure weekend down the shore.  We planned so much to do that we definitely exhausted him and ourselves in the process.

Friday morning, we met in NYC and with minutes to spare hopped onto a train to Bradley Beach.

How I make myself comfy on the train!










The first thing we did was get some amazing breakfast at a restaurant about a minute from the train station.  It's called The Buttered Biscuit and it has some of the best breakfast and brunch food that I've ever had. Baros and I have been there a couple of times now  and we had to share the experience with his brother, Burak.  And it did not disappoint!
I don't remember the name of this omelette... but it was phenomenal!!

Afterwards, we took a little time to rest before heading to our first adventure.  In the afternoon, we headed over to Shark River Park for some hiking. I don't remember the last time we'd been hiking so to say we were excited is an understatement.


Shark River was great.  It has different leveled trails (not always clearly marked but for us not a big deal) and plenty of beautiful views.  We started with the black diamond trail, not having realized that it had been flooded earlier this month.  It wasn't the hardest trail I've been on but it had some great views of the river and some ups and downs.  From there we passed onto the blue trail.  We got minorly turned around doing so but we made it.
Baros being silly






























Trekking away












happy happy



We found the gorgeous open field and then trekked through the grounds. 
























Following the signs
And then we found the baby squirrel.  It was so cute and little and my first instinct was to try to help
Look how adorable he is.  
it as it struggled on the path.  It was probably only a few weeks old. Its eyes weren't even open yet.  Now, before you get any further reading this: DON'T DO WHAT I DID.  Leave the little squirrel wherever you find it so it's mom can find it.
My first instinct was to help and in reality I shouldn't have.  I picked up the baby squirrel in my sweatshirt with the goal of bringing it to the ranger so the ranger could get it some help.
The squirrel was so small that it fit into the palm of my hand (in the sweatshirt).  He/she cozied up and instantly fell asleep as I walked with it in my sweatshirt covered hands.
We walked with it all the way to the ranger's station for about an hour through all of the trails, only for the ranger to tell us that it needed to go back into the woods.  Apparently, you can get a fine for removing wildlife from the parks and there's nothing the rangers can do to help the squirrels when they're so little, which made me sad.
Luckily, Baros had pinned where we found the squirrel so we went all the way back through the woods and put the squirrel back under the tree where we found him/her.  Fortunately, we were able to use the gps and find the shortest route to his home tree.
Hopefully, the mamma squirrel was able to come back down the tree and bring the baby back up the into the nest.
I'm so sad that there was nothing else we could do.
But lesson learned, DON'T TOUCH THE WILDLIFE. 
I definitely learned my lesson.
But we had a good day hiking and then trying to help the little fellow.
All cleaned up after Hiking 

Later that night, we went walking along the boardwalk and then to Patrick's Pub for dinner, live music and drinks to celebrate the birthday boy.
We even gave my brother his belated birthday present since we hadn't been able to see him for his actual birthday!

It was a fun night but we went home relatively early since we had more adventures planned for the next day.

Paddleboarding and Kayaking
Beach Fun

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