Mercer County

Today, for camp, I ran a little experiment in marketing. I read in a marketing blog somewhere a suggestion to have a camp information table in farm markets, under the idea that the same people who find the physical and community wellness of a farm market attractive, would find the spiritual wellness and community of a camp to be likewise. I emailed all of the farm markets in NJ last month, and Trenton was the first one to write back.

My drive to Trenton was not uninteresting. Last night, I mentioned to a few friends here at camp that I planned to take the now infamous Route 206 straight there. They made attempts to talk me out of it, suggesting that Route 31 was the better way. Route 31 has been exhausting me lately-- I don't know why it feels way longer than it is. It's all sorts of windy with intermittent traffic lights, just like 206. But I decided I'd give it a try, and took one route one way and one the other. Both were during rush hour. Result: I stand by my initial decision to take 206, and would again in the future.

As for the success of sitting in the farm market... not so much. At least, not as much as I'd hoped. I spoke with a few families, but it seems that between it leading up to a holiday weekend and the fact that this market is open year round, seven days a week, it just wasn't a particularly busy day. I enjoyed sitting amongst farm stands with fresh, ripe strawberries and beautiful flowers. I spoke with some older folks who had neat memories of the area. The farm market we were standing in used to be a brick yard. The roads used to be fewer and further between. Of course. But I always enjoy hearing stories.

The other delightful part was when my friends Kate and Pam showed up to say hello. I'd had my boss post on camp's facebook page that I was in the market and people should come by. They were bored in Princeton so they did! I kind of love love love the extended community of Johnsonburg-- there are really just wonderful people from that family all over the place. It was really nice to see them both, and after I was done at the market, we drove up 206 for a few minutes to stop at this lovely cafe in Lawrenceville, the Fedora Cafe. Oh my gosh go there sometime!

from http://fedoracafe.webs.com/cafepics.htm

I actually had a chai milkshake, which was pretty excellent, but I had a bite of Pam's amazing raspberry brownie, too. The place was really cozy, not in that it was super small, but in that there were these sweet couch/bench seats in a window that we sat in, with cushions everywhere. Apparently the place doesn't have wifi, so Kate said that it's her favorite place to go read/study when she needs to free herself from distraction but not feel like she's just sitting alone at home. The decorations were fun and the staff was good. Go there. Awesome. And I'm just so happy that I got to see those sweet ladies today and make such a nice pit stop before driving back to camp. Mercer County played a great host today.