Tony’s Freehold Grill (Freehold)

May 11, 2019 By Hollie in Diners Tags: breakfast, Diner, food, freehold, lunch, new jersey, review, wraps

Recently I went to Tony’s Freehold Grill in Freehold, NJ. My good friend, Alexis and I wanted a diner stop before heading to Manasquan Reservoir. Tony’s Freehold Grill has been on my “to do” list for quite some time, and this worked out.

Atmosphere: A
The atmosphere of Tony’s Freehold Grill is as diner as you can get. It’s a small, shiny, metallic building in downtown Freehold. The inside has a small bar as well as plenty of booths. It’s a picturesque old school diner.

Coffee: A
The coffee was brewed hot and fresh. It didn’t taste of old burned diner coffee. Bonus, Tony’s Freehold Grill has personalized coffee mugs. I always appreciate a personalized mug.

Food: B
Tony’s Freehold Grill has everything an old school; the picturesc diner would have. There are dozens of breakfast options including an entire page dedicated to omelets. There are just as many lunch options. After quite some deliberation, we both opted for wraps. I don’t know the last time I had a wrap at a diner. The Mediterranean wrap sounded good, and it was stuffed with grilled chicken, feta, lettuce, tomato, and onion.

I chose a side salad instead of fries. The salad was good, but there was nothing too unique about it.

Service: B
The waitress was friendly, but we could have used more refills on drinks. She didn’t come around too much. Other than that, the experience was excellent.

Overall Thoughts/Would I Come Back?
I liked Tony’s Freehold Grill, and it was a nice stop in Freehold. I would go back. There are plenty of options, and it’s a great diner in central Jersey.

You can see all 241 Diner Reviews here.

Questions for you:
What is the last old school restaurant you’ve been too?
What is the best wrap you’ve had?

Hiking Shark River Park

August 24, 2018 By Hollie in hiking Tags: cross country, freehold, hiking, new jersey, new jersey shore, summer 2 Comments

Shark River Park (Neptune, NJ)

Last week I decided to stop at Shark River Park in Neptune, NJ. Shark River Park was established in 1960 and Shark River Park opened in 1961. It’s actually the oldest Monmouth County Park. Shark River Park is just under 1000 acres and located between Neptune and Wall. There is plenty to do at Shark River Park including, fishing, hiking, and even hosts cross country races. There are also several picnic areas in Shark River Park.

Shark River Park has about 9 miles of trails. I had planned to just check it out and walk about a mile or 20 minutes. Even though I brought both a hard copy of a map and a trail app, I ended up getting lost and walking around 5 miles. Since it was my day off and I had nowhere to be, it wasn’t a big deal, but I was glad I brought water out of my car as well.

Here are a few of the trails I covered. I didn’t use a Garmin, so I can’t tell you how much of each trail I covered. I do know I know I covered the entire Pine Hill trail since it was a loop.

Ceder Loop Starts at the center of the loop.

There is a “Fitness trail” at Shark River Park which is flat and would be great for running. It has 20 stations with strength workouts. You know…workouts I always say I’ll do with running and don’t.

The Hidden Creek trail at Shark River Park is about 2 miles long and connects to the Pine Hills Trail. I only now I was on this one because I did cover Pine Hills!

Finally, the Pine Hills Trail at Shark River Park close to the Garden State Parkway and goes up a few small inclines. It’s nothing unmanageable.

In all, despite getting lost, I enjoyed the hike at Shark River Park. I will say it was “comforting” to hear a few sounds of the Garden State Parkway because I knew I wasn’t “lost forever” in Shark River Park.

The take away is…don’t follow your gut…follow the trail map. Maybe not eat mushrooms on the Shark River Park trail either…

I am definitely going to come back and run at Shark River Park, and I bet it’s such a fun cross country course.

Here are other hikes I’ve done this Spring and Summer:

Hiking Turkey Swamp in Freehold
Exploring Cattus Island in Toms River
Exploring Hartshorne Park in the Highlands
Hiking to the Cape May Lighthouse
Hiking Bear Mountain in a Downpour
Hiking through Belleplain State Forest
Hiking High Mountain with a View of NYC

You can see all hikes here.

Questions for you:

When was the last time you got lost?

Are there any good hikes near you?

Exploring Turkey Swamp Park (Freehold, NJ)

April 27, 2018 By Hollie in hiking Tags: fitness, freehold, hiking, new jersey, park, trails, turkeys 7 Comments

Earlier in the week, I decided to take a trip to Turkey Swamp Park in Freehold, NJ. I’ve heard it’s a cute park surrounded by a small lake. Most Monmouth County Parks have a campground office, park ranger, picnic areas and picnic tables, paddle boats, water and electric hookups, travel trailers, picnic areas, fire rings, water spigots, and drinking water.

Turkey Swamp Park is just over 2,200 acres in the pine barrens. The major attraction at Turkey Swamp Park is the 17-acre lake. In the summer it’s used for fishing and boating. Turkey Swamp Park also features miles of trails and even an archery range. While walking through Turkey Swamp Park, I wondered what kind of range it was but after googling found out archery (obviously, no one was practicing).

While I didn’t run through Turkey Swamp Park, you can. Turkey Swamp Park actually hosts a trail series and even a looped marathon. The trails are accessible and even if you don’t consider yourself a “trail runner”, you can run through.

In all, it was a fun few hours in Turkey Swamp Park and I enjoyed the warmer weather. This spring and summer, I want to get out to more parks in NJ and enjoy them. I haven’t been to many down the shore so that’s where you’ll find me.

At Turkey Swamp Park, two main trails join together and create about 5 miles of hiking. There are plenty of sections of the parks on boardwalk but most of the surface is flat and dirt.

The shorter, Alder, is 1.6 miles and an easy loop around the lake.

What am I staring at…the world will never know.

The Longer, Manasquan Loop is about 3.8 miles from the Nomoco parking lot. Both are easy to follow.

walking along the stream

In all, it was a great morning at Turkey Swamp Park of relaxing before a busy day. There weren’t any turkeys out, but I can’t complain about that. At Turkey Swamp Park, there were plenty of geese and their babies (which I had no interest to go near territorial geese…or any geese).

You can see other hikes I’ve done here.

Questions for you:

What are some things you want to do this summer? Have you been to Turkey Swamp Park?

Do you have a favorite park near you?

FueledByLOLZ

Running and Laughing through the Garden State

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