Kathy and I decided to head to Red Bank, NJ this 4th of July weekend to enjoy their best in New Jersey firework display for the Independence Day weekend. We parked and launched the kayaks from Chris’s River Plaza Marina, 483 West Front Street, Red Bank, NJ. This is located 5 minutes off of Exit 109 of the Garden State Parkway, so just 1 hour nd 5 minutes from home without traffic.
This marina was a great place that had plenty of parking, help, porto-Johns. It’s cost $10 per kayak to launch from there and it was well worth the money. Easy in and easy out and I would do this trip in a heartbeat once again from this location. In addition, we arrived at 4:30 and we could have arrived at 6:00. Just a great way to beat the crowds and get a front row seat to the fireworks show, all by kayak.
To view the photos I took from this trip in my Picasa onine album go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lgindoff/20100703FireworksOnTheNavesinkRiverAtRedBank?feat=directlink
While we heard about this kayak trip from the HRCKC and we baled on it last year at the last minute due to a bad decision based on foul weather perditions that never came true, we did this trip without participating in the official HRCKC trip. This meant we just went right to the marina, tailgated their by our lonesome selves and we paddled joined kayaks and hung out just the two of us and it was wonderful.
Kathy wrenched her back two days ago and wasn’t up to full strength. Nevertheless, this was just like a 1 mile paddle so there was no stress. Just a perfect peaceful night under some pretty impressive fireworks. The weather was just picture perfect, no wind, no humidity, not hot or cold. Just right. Then watching the fireworks with an unobstructed view on a reflecting Navesink River makes for a picturesque and powerful sounding event.
This is a salt water river, which is new to us, and the first thing you notice when you get into it was the abundance of jelly fish. All over the place, so you don’t want to go into the water. We also saw ducks, egrets and other birds. Kathy and I paddled up river a bit, a half mile each way up and back, before heading to the fireworks zone where all the partying was going on. In total the trip was 3 miles, including one mile exploring upstream before the show. the All the mansions on the water had huge parties going on, replete with band all laying Springsteen, Bon Jovi and other Jersey jingles. It is truly quite the event Red Bank puts on.
Larry and Kathy's Kayak Adventures 