Last week was a short adventure, a day trip to enjoy the lovely fall weather. I picked up passes from our local library for free entrance to Tuckerton Seaport. I probably didn’t need to have bothered, it’s $5 to get in and even that is on the honor system. At least I didn’t feel guilty then about telling them we were members (since that library is) when we booked the creek tour, which was really our main reason for going. We’ve passed the Seaport many times in our journeys and have read about the tour for a while but never had the chance to go before.
We headed down. Doing research on the way, we discovered the Union Market and Gallery restaurant on the premises (you don’t have to pay entry for that part) has many gluten free, vegan and other allergy free options. So we planned to eat there before the boat tour of the creek we had reserved for later in the afternoon.
First, we walked around and viewed the open buildings. There were some displays about local life in the area in days past, about both the fisherman and those that came to the area to process the catches. They also have two shops there that make decoys and though neither was being used that day you could learn about decoys and how they were used in hunting waterfowl. Nothing was super fascinating but it always good to imagine what times used to be like. There was what was later described as “the biggest surfing museum in New Jersey, well, as the only surfing museum in New Jersey”. Don’t waste time on the nature trail, which was basically a path through the woods. It seems they have a number of special events throughout the year and a lot of educational and fun kids activities.
The restaurant was very good. We both enjoyed our brunch. We had already seen some lovely views and several interesting birds, but sitting on the porch at the restaurant we got to watch a lovely egret as we ate. There were also some musicians playing, but not our style of music. I would definitely go back just to have brunch again.
Then came the much anticipated boat ride. It is a covered pontoon boat and the route is much more a channel out to the bay then a creek. Most of the channel is lined with shore homes. The first small part was marshland, which was more of what we expected when we heard about the creek tour. It was still a nice ride and we saw some more interesting birds including my favorite, a blue heron, and a smaller green heron.
The narration was interesting about some of the area’s history, including Tucker’s Island, a whole offshore island with a lighthouse, school, hotel, and more that slowly sank into the sea, taking Tucker village’s remains with it. First several of the buildings collapsed into the sea, including the lighthouse. Supposedly there is a display somewhere in the seaport showing that, we didn’t see it but I found some cool pictures online.
Once back on shore, we moved on to do some more adventuring. I had heard that the Kohr’s custard shop on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant offered gluten-free, almond milk soft serve. We trekked to check it out. I was a little disappointed they didn’t have gluten free cones, but a bowl of the chocolate and vanilla was pretty good. We checked out the boardwalk which only had a few blocks of attractions, so few that we went end to end twice. Not finding any great dinner choices, we decided to work our way home and stop along the way.
Many years ago, when first going dairy-free, we had gluten & dairy-free pizza in a restaurant in Tom’s River. I looked for the place in my apps. I did not realize it had closed. Instead it was another place Attilio’s Pizza, where we still were able to get pizza we could eat. We got a salad and a veggie pizza to share. They were good; not enough to make a special trip but we wouldn’t skip it either if we found ourselves back in Tom’s River.
All in all, not all outstanding visits in the day but the highlights were the brunch, the perfect fall weather and being on the open road. See you there again soon!
