Your Guide to Family-Friendly Day Trips in New Jersey, New York…and Beyond
I can’t believe it took us this long to get to the Morgan Museum and Library. I can’t wait to go back. Have you gone to the Morgan Library with kids? The residence on the left is part of the complex, along with the Renzo Piano building in the middle and the annex on the right of it. The library is behind all this, in the far corner.
Continue reading “The Morgan Library With Kids”
The Balloon Museum arrived in New York City in late October 2023 and will be in Manhattan at least through mid-January 2024. We went to check out the Balloon Museum With Kids in NYC so you can decide if you want to go too.
While the name is Balloon Museum, it might be more appropriate to say “Inflatables Exhibit that is Instagram-friendly,” but that does not have the same ring to it. When I think of balloons, I think of fragile airy floating things that are ready to pop, and most of the balloons in the exhibit seem more sturdy. Granted, they should be since you can touch many of them. And some are just balloon-shaped or balloon-inspired.
Continue reading “Review: The Balloon Museum With Kids in NYC”
We finally had time to check out the new Moynihan Train Hall, which opened on January 1, 2021. It’s across from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden between 8th and 9th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets.
This post is sponsored by CAMP NYC. All opinions are my own.
Summer has been fantastic to get outside and play. But sometimes it’s great to go indoors and play too. We checked out Cosmic CAMP this weekend on 5th Avenue (at 16th Street). It’s in town through Halloween, and we recommend if you have kids 3+.
Your mission (if you choose to accept it) is to collect as many points and have as much fun as you can in this space-themed experience. It’s created by CAMP, the experts in all things family fun. The Cosmic CAMP experience includes adventures in outer space, with interactive games, physical challenges, and old-fashioned playtime.
Continue reading “Review: Blast off with CAMP and head to space!”
The idea of driving 30 minutes to ski instead of 90+ minutes is appealing. The idea of skiing indoors is novel enough to want to try it. So when Big Snow at American Dream invited my family for a visit as their guests, we said yes. But it’s indoors! It’s in a mall! What about COVID-19? I have an entire section on how they’re handling COVID-19 below. Because it’s a huge topic.
Big Snow at American Dream is an indoor ski area that’s finally opened in East Rutherford. Yes, the massive mall and former Xanadu eye sore that was sitting vacant forever! Big Snow at American Dream is one of several large experiences you can do indoors there, in addition to the Nickelodeon Universe theme park (currently open), DreamWorks Water Park (currently open), and the Sea Life Aquarium (opening spring 2021). Big Snow opened late 2019, closed in March 2020 because of the pandemic, and reopened in October.
How many of you are seeing Taylor Swift in concert? Based on the Facebook posts I’m seeing, that would be MANY of you! For Swifties fans, consider a trip to the Grammy Museum Experience at the Prudential Center, sadly not the same location as the concerts, or they’d be swamped before the show. They have a temporary Taylor Swift exhibit through the summer, though there’s more to see here than just Taylor. Here’s our review: Grammy Museum Experience at the Prudential Center.
Continue reading “Review: Grammy Museum Experience at the Prudential Center”
It’s okay. You can be a local and still take the Radio City Music Hall tour. In fact, you should. Your kids would like it too. There are details for those who care greatly about architecture, art and design. And it’s fun to wander around back stage and see Rockettes’ costumes up close (and meet a Rockette in person). And if you’re lucky like us, you’ll show up on one of the 40 or so days a year when there’s not a performance and they aren’t setting up for one. And you’ll be able to on STAGE. Yeah, we got lucky.
I have to admit, I’m not a home shopping on TV kind of gal, (or even home shopping on the internet person). Certainly I buy things online, but I rarely browse sites just to see what they’re selling, and if I’m going to watch TV, it’s not going to be a shopping show. While I’m not alone in that, I am in QVC’s demographic, of women 35-64, who are educated homeowners. BUT, I can’t resist a factory tour, and the QVC tour of the studio sounded like too much fun to pass up.
We’ve been to the Meow Parlour cat cafe a few times in New York City. But living in Jersey, we wanted to find a local NJ cat cafe to indulge in our need to pet and play with cats, since we don’t have any ourselves.
Luckily, Kitty Hall opened in April, 2017, Continue reading “Review: Kitty Hall in Rahway – NJ Cat Cafe”
We posted about visiting Gulliver’s Gate with kids during previews, when the features weren’t fully functional. My teen son saw my photos and really really wanted to go himself, so we made a visit in early November. Gulliver’s Gate holiday figures were on display, though they were just wrapping up its Halloween theme, where they put more than 40 Halloween characters in the regular scenes.
One of two Ghostbusters scenes at Gulliver’s Gate. Copyright Deborah Abrams KaplanJust a brief intro: Gulliver’s Gate is a miniature world in Times Square, with more than 50 scenes in around eight separate rooms or sections. Continue reading “Gulliver’s Gate: Holiday Figures”