My son and I have been to aerial treetop adventure rope/obstacle courses in Arizona and New York, and I had no idea that one existed in New Jersey. Fortunately TreEscape Aerial Adventure Park in Vernon Township reached out and invited us to be their guests, and we went last weekend. They opened in 2017.
This is Mark Kaplan, Debbie’s husband, guest blogger for this
post. When Debbie daytripped to Philadelphia for a sorority reunion, it was
left unsaid that there was no way the kids or I would be tagging along….for
everyone’s sake. “So guys, what do you want to do this Saturday?” I inquired.
“Paintball!” said the boy.
Paintball: guys’ weekend. Copyright Daniel M. Hendricks, creative commons, Flickr.
It was one of those parenting moments – I’m sure you’ve had
them too – when your child blows you away with a completely unexpected answer. Fortunately
– unlike New Year’s Day 2015 when I was in California with the kids, Debbie was
in Asia, I was hung over, and I asked the kids what they wanted for breakfast
(bacon!) – this was a pleasant, unexpected answer. Yes, paintball! Why indeed
not? None of us had ever done it before, and we were all interested in trying.
I love Korean spas, and have visited and reviewed traditional Korean spas King Spa and Island Spa in Edison. A new upscale and less traditional Korean spa opened up last year, Sojo Spa in Edgewater. I brought a friend and our teen daughters. Given all the nakedness in the hot tub rooms/locker rooms in traditional Korean spas and for scrubs, we were a bit nervous – naked spa-ing with our kids was no one’s idea of fun. But that worry was for naught. Here’s our review Sojo Spa in Edgewater!
Sojo Spa in Edgewater. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan
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.
The Grammy Museum Experience opened in Newark in October 2017. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan
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.
Kitty Hall in Rahway, a NJ cat cafe. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan
A few months ago, someone at the gym mentioned a Vine Ripe mozzarella class in Westfield. Ooh – I love classes like this, but when I looked it up, the class was $99 and lasted an hour. Ouch! I put it in the back of my mind, but when it popped up on Groupon for $49, I bought it and sent out an announcement to friends to join me. And if you use Ebates when buying something on Groupon, you get money back – it’s awesome and very easy (yes, I get credit if you sign up with my link, but I recommend it because it’s awesome).
You may recall we reviewed 10 Below, a new rolled ice cream store in New York City a few years back. The trend continues, evidenced by the recent opening of A La Mode in Cranford. This is Union County’s first rolled ice cream store. We stopped by earlier this week and indulged, as well as chatted with the owners, Dan and Kevin, friends from childhood in Kenilworth. They both worked at Galloping Hill Golf Course before this, and Kevin may go culinary school in the future – he’s the ice cream base maker.
A Halloween concoction with a ghost Peep. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan
This post offers an iD Tech discount code for summer 2017 at the bottom. Read why you should consider iD Tech this summer.
Minecraft is only one of the coding classes they teach – get an iD Tech discount code at the bottom!
Last year we signed my son up for a computer game programming day camp at a community college. It’s an understatement to say that he was bored and frustrated by the inferior level of education and experience in general. A friend of mine told me about her son’s positive experience at iD Tech camp, one of the few camps her son really liked and was excited to return to. He’s a really smart kid and doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Her recommendation counted for a lot, so when my son was looking into week-long summer camp options, iD Tech came to mind. Continue reading “iD Tech Discount Code for Summer 2017: Why Should Your Child Attend iD Tech?”
If you grew up in the New Jersey area, you may have taken an Manischewitz factory tour through religious school, in Jersey City. That factory closed, and the new global headquarters and manufacturing plant is now in Newark. It opened in the fall 2016, and you can book group tours there. I love factory tours, and even more so when it’s the actual factory, and not a fake one (I’m talking to you, Hershey’s).