Local festivities seem to be the place to be this summer, as many of us put the big family trips on hold due to the economy - aside from a family wedding in DC, we don't have much of anything planned. Of course, this thought sends me into convulsions - "how do I keep my kid from going insane this summer with boredom? Besides sending them to camp and mini-camp and soccer camp and music class and art class and swim class and joining the town pool and going to gym class (need I go on????), we take advantage of the playgrounds and schedule as many play dates as we can bear to handle (because if you go on them, you have to HOST them, too, right?). Well, I have some suggestions that I think may offer families some one-off activities and fun day-trips that will keep the summer feeling fun and exciting. This is the first posting for a blog series this summer all about family fun within a day's drive.
About an hour west of the county on I-78 and I-287 is the town of Flemington, NJ, which has some of the best summer programming events I have ever seen. Their business association sponsors fun activities from May to August, including a recurring Classic Car Show, which my son is totally nuts for. Hundreds of classic cars are on display, entered by their owners, many of whom seem to travel around from car show to car show the entire summer - a tight-knit group who seem to know each other well, and who mostly seem pleased to have my toddler gawking at their cars with admiration and wonder. Last summer, my son and I relaxed with a lovely dinner at a sidewalk café and watched the cars go by.
The town also hosts a continuing "Music on Main Street" series, as well as a Family Film Night, both of which seem to be very well-attended all summer long. Oh, and don't forget, they do a have a rather anemic, but fuctional outlet mall (which includes a Mikasa, a Le Creuset, and the [in]famous Flemington Furs, of course), in case you grow weary of the kid focused events and want to get a little somethin' somethin' for yourself. Ooo, don't miss this really fun store in the Flemington town centre called RED VANILLA - it's a factory direct store with some really cool housewares at really reasonable prices.
Last but not least, the model train and doll museum are located on Rt. 202 - behold the wonder of NORTHLANDZ! Well, basically a really well-to-do gentleman by the name of Bruce Williams with a huge passion for model trains overfilled his basement with fantastically intricate scenes and train structures, and eventually, they got a space and display over 8 miles of model train track, thereby creating the model train gallery that is Northlandz. It is amazing - when my son was 18 months, he spent 2 hours walking through the gallery, which included a doll museum, a dollhouse, as well as a huge pipe organ display. Of course, afterwards, we also took a short ride on their steam engine replica through their little wooded area off to the side of the property. It's a day trip that we are planning to definitely do again this summer, as his fascination with trains has only compounded. http://www.northlandz.com/
For information about the calendar of events in Flemington, check out their website: http://www.frbanj.com/calendar.html - lots of great events.
