Day 19 Madison New Jersey

We are done with our long days in the car! We drove through the rest of Ohio and Pennsylvania today, wondering the whole time how far it was to New York (there were NO mileage signs the WHOLE state of Pennsylvania!). Finally at about 4:30 we crossed the state line into New Jersey, and I realized that we only had 45 minutes to go. Oh happy day! We pulled up to our neighbor’s restaurant, La Alegria, and sat down to an AMAZING Italian meal—I had gnocchi and Matt had pasta with pesto. Kristin, our neighbor…okay explanation: they moved to New Jersey about a year ago to help run the restaurant, but they still keep their place in Arizona) gave us a tour of Madison, and then we went to her in-laws house where we are staying the night. Josephine, Kristin’s mother in law made us espresso (she is responsible for Matt’s love of espresso) and Matt played a Bach Cello Suite for her to thank her for her hospitality, and I told Matt afterwards that his playing was so sincere and lyrical that it really was quite moving. Tomorrow we are going to Mass with Kristin and Anthony and their two BEAUTIFUL children Corina and Milena (Dora and Corina have become good friends just in the 2 hours they spent together tonight), and we will spend part of the day with them before we head up to Olive to see Matt’s sister. Ciao!