Day two of our stay in New Jersey was spent having an incredible time visiting with family. Starting out the day, we visited a small diner Cecily found, called Hot Spot Diner. It’s a small diner off Avenue A, in Newark, that serves traditional diner cooking.
For breakfast I decided to try their breakfast sandwich with Taylor han, egg, and cheese on a roll. The bread was light and flakey with the salty cured ham and savory eggs and cheese, it was a great sandwich to accompany the coffee.
Cecily tried their steak and eggs with a hash and toast on the side. The steak was a good sized portion to make for a well sized breakfast to start our day out with.
I also decided to try a piece of their flan, which was creamy, sweet, and delicious.
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When we left we had to go between two active warehouses, and between a lot of trucks that were clearly loading and unloading. The route back to the hotel had us going down Miller street and taking a left on Avenue B, where I found the SICKEST Legend of Zelda mural I have EVER seen! It’s on the side of a building at 232 Miller St. I have to give props to the artist, because I instantly fell in love with it!

After breakfast we headed back to the hotel for a bit of rest until it was time to head into Queens to visit Jessica, Tomi, and their family. On the way there, we stopped off at a small store and I picked up a couple of craft brews. I didn’t find a lot of selection that fit my liking, but I did find an Imperial Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout called ‘All Hallows Treat’. The flavor was on freaking point, and I have to say beats ‘Ejecto Seato, Cuz!’ in flavor and richness! I was glad to have picked up two, one for dinner with the family and another for back at the hotel.

At Jessica’s, we had a blast! We hung out for hours catching up about all sorts of things, and visiting about whatever came to mind. I loved their house, too! It was very cozy, and on a great weather day, with the windows open it gets amazing breezes.
For dinner we had home cooked Cuban food with Maduros and the most incredible pork I’ve EVER tasted! It was so rich and tender and full of delicious juices! I wanted so much more than I knew my stomach was going to be able to handle.
We all sat around chatting for a bit longer, while digesting dinner. At one point in the night, we were all mid-conversation with one another when somebody killed the lights, and I heard Tomi mention something about not wanting people to see in their house, with the sun going down. (To be honest, I can both agree and understand that sentiment.) At that point, everybody got quiet, and Jessica brings out a cake with candles on it! (Okay, so it’s about at this point that we should pause the explanation to add a brief unknown fact. I’ve never had a surprise birthday ANYTHING! This is NOT a bitch session, either, guys. It never bothered me, for real, but it just never occurred in my life. At least, not that I have any real memory of at the time of writing this. Back to the details, though.) When they brought it out and everybody started singing to me, it was seriously unexpected. But it was so welcomed, at the same time. I felt myself getting more emotional than I had ever been, in a while. Really did feel awesome and made me feel incredibly loved and lucky to have such a freaking awesome family.
Back to the cake, though! It was a little Carvel Creamers Ice Cream cake that was HOLY FUCKING SHIT good! The chocolate on it was so damned rich, that I KNOW I made a pig of myself, and do not care. LMFAO! Of course, I asked if anybody else wanted a piece before I helped myself to a second slice. That’s just how I always do. But yeeeeeaaaaahhh, that cake did not stand a chance with me.

When it was time to bring the evening to a close, we wrapped up our conversations and bid goodbye as we got back in the car to head back to Newark, to bed.
Definitely looking forward to spending more time with them, next visit!
Back at Tryp, Cecily got ready for bed while I headed downstairs to smoke another pre-roll and wrap up my day by getting on the laptop and hopping onto a few games.
