Your Guide to Family-Friendly Day Trips in New Jersey, New York…and Beyond
I’ve been to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty a handful of times since I’ve lived in New Jersey Each time I learn something new. But after taking the Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour with kids (have you even heard of it?) I now know even more. This is a great tour to take with kids – though the official age to go is 13+ (more on that later). You see a whole different side of Ellis Island – literally and figuratively.
I’d been wanting to check out the Robbinsville Mandir (technically the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir) in Robbinsville, since it opened in 2023. It’s been a year now, and my in-laws were coming in town. A perfect time to visit. Though it turns out they had already been on a previous trip with another family member. Oops!
So this post will be less about the actual history and more about what you’ll see there. Note that on weekends, national holidays and Hindu festivals, you need a (free) reservation. They do check those before you enter the complex. Of course going to the Robbinsville temple with kids is easier on a weekend or holiday!
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A musical about the suffragist movement? (Don’t say suffragette). Sounds about as exciting as a musical about the history of Alexander Hamilton.
We know Hamilton is amazing. But so is Suffs. My husband is a history buff and even he learned new things about this time in history.
As New Jersey’s tallest lighthouse, the Absecon Lighthouse is 171 feet tall. It is also the nation’s third tallest. Go to Abesecon Lighthouse with kids!
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If you’ve been in the Atlantic City area, you probably have heard about or seen Lucy the Elephant. Touted as the top roadside attraction in America, Lucy has been around in various forms since 1881, in Margate – just south of Atlantic City.
If you haven’t heard of Mercer Labs, you’re not alone. Formally Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology opened in March, a collaboration between Israeli artist Roy Nachum and real estate developer Michael Cayre. The idea is to be a “place where the traditional hierarchies between art, architecture, design, technology and culture are dissolved,” the New York Times quoted from a news release (I couldn’t find the news release).
In the Limitless exhibit in this 36,000 square foot space, you’ll visit 15 rooms with multimedia and sensory experiences, climbing up and down stairs between the floors (of course there’s an elevator if needed). In the initial space, which was one of the least interesting, you’ll put on shoe covers and look at a digital moving object that looks like of like a space rock.
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When visiting Vermont without kids, we spent a fantastic late afternoon and early evening at Barr Hill in Montpelier. We took a tour of the distillery and then settled into a table indoors to enjoy Bar Hill Distillery drinks and food service. In short, it was amazing. And with 4 of us, we got to try a lot of what they had (we need to go back to try some more, though).
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If you’re ever in or near Montpelier, Vermont, visit the Barr Hill Distillery for a tour/tasting and their award-winning bar. They’re open year-round and have outdoor spaces and indoor. The facility was opened two years ago, after being operated elsewhere.
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It’s a little intimidating (okay, a lot) to review a classic show that’s been on Broadway before, and was also a classic movie. I’m talking about Cabaret. I can’t really say if I had seen it before, yet I know so much of the music without having bought the album, CD or mp3s.
Is Cabaret on Broadway appropriate for kids? We’ll get to that later on. But let me start by saying I’ve seen a lot of Broadway shows in my life. And I have never received as many emails before the show as I did with Cabaret.
I read Water for Elephants many many years back and enjoyed it. I didn’t see the movie. I couldn’t even remember precisely what happened in the book, other than a guy joins the circus and there’s a love triangle. So if you ask me whether it follows the book, I think it did. But that’s only from memory. Is Water for Elephants appropriate for kids? We’ll get into that later.
