As birthdays go, my experience this year was absolutely amazing. It began in early August with a climb of two of the High Peak mountains in Adirondack State Park. With my actual birthday falling on a midweek work day, however, my wife got creative with her plans for the actual big day. Instead of one celebration, she came up with the “Bookend Birthday.” We would begin our merriment with a trip to lower Manhattan for brunch and a museum on the Sunday before my birthday, and then visit a newly opened music museum at the New Jersey shore on the following Saturday.
So come along, then, as we swing by my favorite pub in New York, eat lunch at the same restaurant where George Washington dined with his officers at the end of the Revolution, walk through a rock superstar’s museum of American music, and dine by the sea.
Let’s begin:
Part I: The Dead Rabbit and the Fraunces Tavern
Despite living only an hour from New York City, we do not get there as often as we would like. Our destination for this trip: lower Manhattan.Rather than pay the pricey tolls and parking fees by driving into the city, we opted for a much more relaxed mode of transport: the Staten Island Ferry. Best of all, parking at the ferry terminal is free on Sundays.Clean and safe, the Staten Island Ferry runs between the St. George and Whitehall ferry terminals, with each trip taking a little under 30 minutes.The best part of the ferry ride is the spectacular views of New York Harbor, including the Statue of Liberty.Why pay money for a tour of New York Harbor when you can get awesome views like this for free? And did I mention it was free?Our first stop? The Dead Rabbit, my favorite bar anywhere. First opened in 2011, it is an Irish pub located on Water Street in lower Manhattan.The Dead Rabbit’s claim to fame is that it houses the largest collection of Irish whiskey in New York.The reason for our visit was coffee with a twist. We ordered Irish Coffee (coffee, Irish whiskey, Demerara syrup, and heavy cream). I have tried it elsewhere, but the best Irish coffee, by far, is found at The Dead Rabbit.After a fun pre-lunch cocktail, we headed a few doors down to Fraunces Tavern, a restaurant with a rather fascinating history.Established in 1762, Fraunces Tavern is the oldest building in Manhattan. While it continues to operate as a restaurant and bar, it also houses a fairly large museum dedicated to telling the story of this historically important building.Fraunces Tavern has been owned by the Sons of the American Revolution for over a century. In the early 1900s they embarked on a significant renovation of the building, turning it into a major dining and tourist destination. It now features four bars and an elegant dining room.Spoiler alert: the food at Fraunces Tavern is quite lovely. We had reservations for the Independence Bar, which features live jazz during brunch. While my wife had a sensible Blackened Salmon sandwich, I had the less sensible but rather tasty Tavern Burger. The meal hit the spot!Fueled up from lunch, we headed upstairs to explore the Fraunces Tavern Museum.The centerpiece of the museum is the Long Room, where George Washington said goodbye to his officers at the end of the American Revolution.At a time when dining at a tavern meant you ate whatever was being served to everyone, the Fraunces Tavern was one of the first establishments to offer a la carte ordering from a menu. Several private dining rooms made the tavern even more attractive to well-heeled guests.For a period of time, this nation’s leaders ran our country from the Fraunces Tavern. After the Revolution ended, but before the US Constitution was signed, the federal government operated out of this building from 1785-1788.The Sons of the American Revolution is an organization whose members can trace their ancestry to individuals who served in the American Revolution. It was established in the Fraunces Tavern in 1889, and the museum tells the story of both the tavern and the organization.After the Revolution ended, former slaves who had fought with the British were allowed to petition a joint British and American committee for their freedom. Known as the Birch Trials, the committee met in the tavern and allowed over 3,000 former slaves to evacuate with British forces. It was the largest emancipation of enslaved peoples in America until the Civil War (via Fraunces Tavern Museum).Not exactly luxurious by modern standards, but rooms at the Fraunces Tavern in the 18th century were clean, well-kept, and nicely furnished. After a fun afternoon at the museum, we headed back to the ferry terminal to return to New Jersey.We enjoyed a smooth and pleasant ride back to Staten Island. On a side note, if you’ve seen Lord of the Rings… the Brooklyn Tower bears more than a passing resemblance to Barad-Dur, the dark fortress of villain Sauron.A little over an hour later we were back home. The Jeep did an admirable job navigating some of the pothole strewn streets of Staten Island. It’s also inching closer and closer to 140,000 miles. Onward!
Part II: The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music
The birthday week kicked off in Manhattan, and it would draw to a close at the Jersey shore.Leaving home mid-morning on a Saturday, we arrived at the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music a little before the doors opened at 10:00 am.The Center for American Music, located in the town of Long Branch, opened in June of 2026.We began our tour by ambling through the lobby. One of the exhibits I enjoyed was the evolution of the electric guitar, which featured Bruce Springsteens’ Gibson Les Paul. He played it in the early days of his career.The exhibit had a lot of cool guitars, but what I found fascinating was the diddley bow – an instrument that traces its origins to West Africa, but became popular in the rural South before WW II, played by musicians who could not afford a full guitar. The cylindrical body is designed to amplify sound.Before beginning our tour, we were welcomed into the Powell Soundstage, where we watched a short film from Bruce Springsteen explaining the museum’s mission. We learned from one of the museum guides that Bruce had come to tour the museum the day before – his first visit since attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier in the summer. His was not a private visit – he ambled through the museum with everyone else who had purchased a ticket. I missed meeting The Boss by less than 24 hours!While the second floor of the museum is dedicated to the life and career of Bruce Springsteen, the first floor is an amazing compilation of artifacts of American music in the 20th and 21st centuries.The sheer number of pieces in the collection was staggering. One of Lady Gaga’s stage outfits drew the attention of a number of visitors.A display of Native American music spanned everything from ceremonial costumes used in traditional dances to instruments played by Native American rock bands.I turned a corner and stopped in my tracks. Yes, former Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s electric guitar, Prince’s stage outfit and guitar, and Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder’s acoustic guitar were all amazing. But one instrument had my attention above all others.In the early 1980s Eddie Van Halen began working with Kramer Guitars, located in nearby Neptune, New Jersey. In 1982 he flew out to the Kramer factory and hand assembled a new version of his iconic red-white-black guitar. He used this instrument in concerts in the early 1980s. Eddie is the reason why I play guitar, so you better believe I spent a long time examining every inch of this beauty.After retiring the guitar from duty, he gave it to his longtime guitar technician. The guitar then was sold several times before coming up to auction at Sotheby’s last year, where it sold for a cool 2.7 million dollars. The current owner placed in on display at the Springsteen Center anonymously.The number of world-famous instruments on display was jaw dropping. This Gibson Flying V was owned by Jimi Hendrix.This acoustic guitar belonged to The Man in Black – Johnny Cash. He also owned the black shirt, which he wore to an American bicentennial concert in 1976.One of the coolest items I saw? This letter from Johnny Cash to Bob Dylan. They would go on to collaborate several times, including singing the duet “Girl From the North Country” (which is one of my favorite songs).The role that music played in transportation and travel in the 20th century received its own display. From a map of US Route 66, to a copy of the Green Book, to a sign for US Highway 61, you cannot tell the story of 20th century American music without talking about its impact on travel and car culture.Across the hall I stumbled into one of Ray Charles’ suits, along with the stage outfit of funk pioneer (and Plainfield, New Jersey native) George Clinton.I spent quite a bit of time examining the display on the blues. From Mississippi John Hurt’s guitar, to the case for B.B. King’s electric guitar Lucille, to a replica of the Parlor guitar played by blues legend Robert Johnson, the blues were well represented.“Chimes of Freedom,” is a special exhibit that tells the story of the intersection between music, patriotism, and protest.Numerous instruments were on display in this exhibition, including one of folk singer Joan Baez’s acoustic guitars from American guitar manufacturer C.F. Martin & Company. Among her noteworthy performances, Baez played at the March on Washington in 1963, and also at Woodstock in 1968.The second floor of the museum is dedicated to the life and works of Bruce Springsteen, who grew up in nearby Freehold, New Jersey.While Eddie Van Halen is forever associated with his red-white-black electric guitar, Bruce Springsteen will always be linked to the Fender Telecaster. He purchased this instrument for $185 at a point when he had little money. He got it cheaply because its previous owner had heavily modified it, cutting out a lot of wood to make room for additional electronic components. Bruce removed the extra electronics and was left with a guitar that was incredibly light, a major bonus when you are playing a three-hour concert. He played with the guitar live from 1975 until 2005. It now has pride of place in the museum. Fun fact: Bruce sweats so heavily during a concert that all of the guitar’s electronics have been waterproofed.Born in the USA was the album that launched Springsteen to global superstardom in the 1980s, and that decade forms a significant part of the collection.The E Street Band is Bruce Springsteen’s longtime backing group, and each member, past and present, has their own biography in the museum. Several band members have their own successful careers, such as guitarist (and actor!) Steve Van Zandt. You might recognize him as Silvio Dante from the HBO series The Sopranos and Frank Tagliano in the Netflix series Lilyhammer.There is a concert hall that plays videos of Bruce’s shows. It’s really well done – I felt like I was seeing him live.Want to try your hand at being a rock star? A studio is set up to allow you to play instruments. Rather than strings, however, the guitars use buttons, similar to the video game Guitar Hero, making “playing” a heck of a lot easier. Simply press the correct button displayed on the screen in front of you to play along.Whether it’s Taylor Swift, Mick Jagger, Eminem, David Bowie, or Janelle Monae, great lyricists are often avid readers. Bruce Springsteen is no exception – the works of Flannery O’Connor, John Steinbeck, and Ron Kovic were all significant influences on Springsteen’s writing. In this “living room,” Bruce talked about the writings that were most important to him.In 1982, Bruce Springsteen retreated to a rented home in Colts Neck, New Jersey, locked himself in his bedroom, and with the small four-track recording machine pictured, created Nebraska. It has no stadium-rocking anthems and no toe-tapping beats. It’s ten songs of Bruce singing about characters on the margins of society who struggle (and often fail) at life. Although he attempted to record the songs in a professional studio, none of the recordings captured the grittiness and melancholy as the recording he made on his own. Listen to “Atlantic City,” “Mansion on the Hill,” or “Open All Night,” and you hear the songs as they were recorded in that bedroom 44 years ago.As I have gotten older, Nebraska has slowly grown in my appreciation until it now rests as my favorite Springsteen album, and one of my favorite records from any artist. It was awesome to see the notebook where he jotted down the lyrics to songs such as “Mansion on the Hill.” Reading through the exhibit on this album was worth the price of admission alone.The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music is 100% worth a visit if you are in New Jersey. It’s one of the coolest music museums I have ever seen. After a fun morning, we were off to lunch!We headed a few minutes away to nearby Monmouth Beach, where we would enjoy lunch at the Beach Tavern.With temperatures in the mid 70s and sunny skies, we opted for a seat outside near the marina.We started with an order of gluten-free calamari – it was quite delicious!While my wife had an order of halibut and seafood fried rice (delicious), I thoroughly enjoyed a fresh lobster roll, served with tasty fries.I tried my hand at recreating a photo Acura used in an ad campaign in the 90s showing an RL sedan parked at a yacht club. I’ve got the luxury car… now about owning a yacht…On our way home, we made one last stop: Main Street Donuts in Matawan.Main Street Donuts offers homemade donuts with over 100 possible toppings! The owner, Joe, is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and puts his skills to use in selling some amazing creations!My wife ordered the Peanut Butter Cup Explosion (which is gluten-free) while I selected a Cookies and Cream donut (which is vegan but not gluten free). Upon learning it was my birthday celebration, the owner even stuck a little sign into my donut. We saved them for when we got home, and can now both report back that these donuts were amazing!About an hour later, we pulled into our garage, marking the end of an amazing week of birthday celebrations! The TLX transported us, as always, in comfort and style.
Garage Updates
As you probably noticed in the odometer shot, my 2020 Acura TLX keeps piling up the miles with ease. 80,000 miles is now in the books, and the car is still looking (and driving) great!I recently took the TLX for some scheduled maintenance. The dealer asked to keep my car for a few days and put me into this snazzy, blue 2026 Acura Integra as a loaner. Cool, fun to drive, and sporty? Absolutely. As much fun as I had driving the Integra around, however, I was glad to get my car back when it was done.While the oil change went off without a hitch, a vibration I had been feeling was traced to a badly-bent wheel. It was damaged past the point of being repairable, so it was replaced with a new wheel. Ah, gotta love crumbling and pothole-strewn East Coast roads! Interestingly, the wheel was many hundreds of dollars cheaper than when I had to replace a wheel on my old Honda Accord about a decade ago.Meanwhile, when my Mom came to visit a few weeks ago I treated her 2021 Honda HR-V to a wash, wax, and detail. After five years of ownership, Mom’s little SUV is approaching (drum roll please) 10,000 miles. Onward!!Finally, Betty and Mikko, our two cats, are doing quite well. Yes, Mikko, I suppose you really are a big deal.
Wrapping Up
This year’s birthday celebration was, in a word, spectacular. From climbing two Adirondack High Peaks, to eating in a historic restaurant with ties to the earliest days of this country, to touring a museum dedicated to American music, I had an absolutely fantastic August. If you love music, I cannot recommend The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music strongly enough. The Center is open from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm every Friday through Wednesday, and 10:00 am – 8:00 pm on Thursdays. Given that the museum uses timed admissions to keep it from becoming overcrowded, purchasing tickets in advance is highly recommended.
Thanks, as always, for coming along on another journey down the open road ahead.
