‘New Jersey’ Articles at Sweetnicks, Page 2

Visit: The Habit Burger Grill

January 30, 2017 · Narrative

I’m always up for a burger … and a visit to the newest location of The Habit Burger Grill.

Although I love animals and would do almost anything to protect them, I could never become a vegetarian. Because I just love burgers too much (and I’m convinced that sometimes red meat is exactly what my body needs).

So when a new burger place opened up near us and we were invited to check them out, I was on it like white on rice. And now that we’ve visited them several times and had a chance to check out many of their menu items, it’s time to share.

What I love most about Habit Burger is their menu. It is simple, not overwhelming, and totally customizable. Which means you can order something delicious and perfect for YOU. And everyone is definitely climbing on THIS bandwagon as Habit Burger was voted on the top of the charts for the most delicious burger around from a survey that the folks at Consumer Reports did.

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Visit: Princeton University Art Museum {Princeton, New Jersey}

November 14, 2016 · Narrative

A gorgeous campus that is simply stunning in the Fall season, the Princeton University Art Museum is a must-visit.

On our Sundays, we like to do things together as a family. #OMalleySundayFunday when I remember to hashtag on Instagram. I try and let everyone take turns in deciding what we do, just like my parents did when my sister and I were kids, but sometimes I’m bossy and just take the lead.

Mostly because if I ask Maddie what she wants to do with our day, it vacillates between “let’s go shopping at Justice” and “let’s take a plane ride to Disney World.”

So, yeah.

But on this particular outing, I showed Nick three places we could visit and he chose the Princeton University Art Museum.

Alright!

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Visit: Nathan Cooper Gristmill {Chester, New Jersey}

August 24, 2016 · Narrative

Looking for a fun little afternoon adventure or a step back in time? Let’s drive to Chester and check out the Nathan Cooper Gristmill.

Most libraries have museum passes that you can borrow, which let you visit a local museum or attraction with your family for free. I’ve been good at taking advantage of that this summer, and lately, I’ve been going beyond just our local library, and using the passes at our county library as well. Each library has slightly different passes available, so your library card is really a passport to all sorts of fun adventures.

And last week, it brought us to the Nathan Cooper Gristmill in Chester, New Jersey. Built in 1826, it is one of the few, still-operating water-powered mills in the state of New Jersey, and it’s listed (and protected) on the State and National registers of historical places. The Morris County Park Commission bought the property in 1973, and opened it to the public in late 1978. Retired General Nathan Cooper originally bought the mill in 1878 for $750 (!) and built onto the mill to create the four-story structure you see here today.

Easy to find using the Waze app, we pulled into the mill parking lot. There was a large white house on one side of the parking lot, and the mill on the other. I wasn’t entirely sure where we were supposed to go, and it wasn’t really marked, but for everyone else…? Check in at the white house. Tours are given all day by a costumed master miller, with the last tour at 3:30 pm. They last roughly forty-five minutes.

Our guide started us at the Black River, which is, of course, the water source for the mill. We followed the water over the plume and then entered the gristmill, where all the action happens. Once you’re inside, the miller started up the water wheel and explained how it works. It’s amazing to think that the entire process is powered by water … zero electricity. The wheel (and its associated gears and shafts and whatnot) can pound out up to 800 pounds of flour per hour. Per hour! Crazy.

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Visit: Harsimus Cemetary {Jersey City, New Jersey}

August 5, 2016 · Narrative

When I was sitting in the orthodontist’s office a few weeks ago during one of Nick’s appointments, I was thumbing through an issue of New Jersey Monthly. The summer issues are a great source for finding new and fun things to do in New Jersey, and this issue was no exception.

I happened upon a piece that mentioned a cemetery that had goats on its property.

Yes, goats.

I thought it was a little odd, and certainly intriguing, but didn’t end up taking down the information. And then not two days later, I was catching up on Instagram, and a friend had a picture of a goat at a cemetery.

Yes, the same cemetery I had read about just two days earlier.

And that’s when I decided it was fate and we needed to go visit said goats.

We’re getting into doing a regular Sunday adventure day together as a family, and this sounded like a perfect little outing.

Harsimus Cemetery. Relatively close. Certainly unique. And free. Even better.

The cemetery is very easy to find, but I’m not going to lie… parking is a bit of a challenge. The property isn’t huge and there is one driveway for cars entering AND exiting AND that’s also where you park. So I’m not exactly sure how they handle it when there is more than one car there (we definitely got lucky), but I don’t want to find out either.

Before the cemetery was established in 1829, these grounds were actually where a Revolutionary War skirmish took place, and there is a bunker on the property from the War of 1812. “In October of 1780, General Marquis de Lafayette joined with the American forces, at the request of General George Washington, to challenge the English on these very grounds. Records indicate that General Lafayette led 4000 French troops to assist the American Continental Army against the British troops.”

Historical significance aplenty.

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Visit: Toothpick World {Morristown, New Jersey}

July 30, 2016 · Narrative

Looking for a beat-the-heat afternoon activity this summer? How about a visit to the Toothpick World exhibit at the Morris Museum?

I try to pay attention to the emails from the Morris Museum, and what exhibits they have coming up, because they never fail to have something that catches my attention.

A few weeks ago, when Madeline had some friends over, we found ourselves with a free afternoon. The Toothpick World exhibit had just opened up at the Museum, and a visit there made for a fun afternoon.

The creations in this exhibit are all the brainchild of Stan Munro and were inspired by a project his art teacher brought in when he was in the fifth grade. Now some thirty years later, his exhibits tour the country, and is how he has supported himself for the past ten years. There are many familiar historical structures in the exhibit, and his Dubai piece has earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, and his work is also featured in the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in Baltimore.

Each piece uses only two things: toothpicks and glue – not to mention an incredible amount of patience and talent! As we wandered around to see the different structures, each one was more amazing than the previous one, but I think my favorite was the Yankee Stadium replica, just for the immense attention to detail alone.

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Visit: Strawberry Picking at Ort Farms {Long Valley, New Jersey}

June 14, 2016 · Narrative

June is the perfect time for strawberry picking, so we headed out in search of the perfect place this past weekend.

There are a few farms that are reasonably close to us that offer strawberry picking for customers. A few of them I avoid because they have turned into a three-ring-circus and have the penchant for charging for everything under the sun and shuttle buses for parking.

No thank you.

Ort Farms came up in my search, and while I have heard of them before, we haven’t visited them before, so we set our sights on checking it out this past weekend. Easy to find, especially with the Waze app, it’s a scenic, windy drive through the “country,” and plenty of parking awaited us.

The farm sits on 400 acres of land and has been there for 100 years, with six generations of family participating (their founding member has lived on the farm for 85 years!). Despite their long history, this is actually their first year to offer u-pick for strawberries.

We stopped into the little store in front to get instructions, and they gave us boxes to collect our strawberries, a small sheet of directions, and away we went.

The weather was perfect. Clear skies, a slight breeze, and nothing but patches after patches of strawberries waiting for us to pick. I instructed the kids on what we were looking for … uniformly red, nice size, not mushy. And the farther we walked, the more paydirt we hit. There were other families there picking strawberries as well, but it wasn’t super crowded, and we had plenty of space to ourselves.

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Visit: Jockey Hollow {Morristown, New Jersey}

January 11, 2016 · Narrative

On the same day that we visited Washington’s Headquarters, we also took a short drive to check out Jockey Hollow. Although we’ve lived within half an hour of Jockey Hollow forever, it was our first visit. In case you’re not familiar with Jockey Hollow, it’s the place where Washington’s army was encamped for about six months, from December 1779 through the following summer. After a quick stop into the Visitor’s Center for a map and information from the Ranger, we took off to visit the cabins. You can park at the Visitor’s Center and walk to the cabins, but it’s a little over a mile one way, and it was quite hot the day we visited and we were totally NOT feeling it.

So we drove down the trail and parked.

Once there, we walked up the large hill to where Ranger Thomas Winslow was holding court and checked out the cabins. They are, of course, recreations of the dwellings that the soldiers slept in while they were there. At its height, there were over 1000 huts and each slept 12. There were also a few separate cabins that slept four, and they were reserved for the men that were higher up in the Army’s rankings.

Over 100,000 men on the fields that we stood on.

Amazing. And so hard to visualize.

Ranger Winslow was a huge font of information; he was our favorite part of our whole visit.

He emptied out his bag and showed us some traditional items the soldiers had at encampment (some replicas, and a few original pieces), and then he gave us a lesson on how to load the rifle, which was awesome. I especially loved hearing about all the tidbits he shared about food … what they ate (or, unfortunately, didn’t eat as the case may be), cooked, and how their day-to-day was. The army rationed that each soldier was supposed to get a pound of beef and a pound of bread every day, but Ranger Winslow said that that literally never happened, and there were even a few instances where soldiers were moved to cook up their shoes and eat the leather just to survive.

Seeing the primitive living arrangements was a real eye-opener, both for me, and for my kids. Especially knowing how harsh New Jersey winters can be.

If you happen to be in the area, or even a slight drive away, it’s worth a visit (be sure to check their operating schedule – they will reopen for the season on President’s Day weekend). It’s a gorgeous area to visit and makes for a wonderful history lesson. In the warmer months, it makes a great destination for a good hike, a picnic lunch, and we even spotted people playing Frisbee on the fields when we were there. The entrance fee is just $7, but there are many times during the year when you can visit for free (listed here), as we did, including the upcoming President’s Day weekend.

Jockey Hollow Visitor Center
580 Tempe Wick Road, Morristown, NJ 07960
973-543-4030

Hungry for more to do in New Jersey?
I’ve got all my New Jersey activity posts in this dedicated Pinterest board.

Visit: Washington’s Headquarters Museum & Ford Mansion {Morristown, New Jersey}

October 7, 2015 · Narrative

A few weeks ago, it was National Public Lands Day, which means free admission to our nation’s national parks. I did a quick search to find out what was in the area. One is the Thomas Edison museum and estate. A beautiful property that we have visited before and definitely worth a stop if you haven’t been. Another national park in New Jersey is both Washington’s Headquarters & Ford Mansion, along with Jockey Hollow, in the Morristown area. Although I have lived in the area for a million years, I have never visited and was clearly long overdue.

It was a gorgeous day to be outside, so after Madeline finished cheering at a football game, we jumped in the car and headed on over to Washington’s Headquarters. It’s super simple to find and convenient from Route 287. There is a small (free) parking lot right near the main building, and that’s where we started our afternoon.

There are some exhibits set up in the main building (above photo), along with a small gift shop, and that’s also where you check in and sign up for the tour. There are many guided tours throughout the day (you can find a more specific schedule here), and we were lucky enough to walk in just before the next tour started.

Our guide, or “Ranger,” as they are called was Thomas, and he was quite awesome. He knew the history of the place backwards and forwards and was quick as a whip in answering our group’s questions. He even offered to pose for selfies at the end, which I thought was equal parts endearing and hysterical given he was likely in his late 60s and not part of the nonsensical selfie generation.

This property was important because it was the scene of the winter encampment of George Washington and his troops during 1779-1780. Mrs. Ford lived in the mansion on the property (photo below) with her children (her husband had already died in the war), when members of the army knocked on her door and asked if the General and his troops could stay there. She, of course, agreed, and with the General came all his high-ranking officials, their staff, their servants … even all their horses. It was quite an imposition, to say the least, although an honor as well, and they were camped out in her home for six months. Martha Washington even came for several months as well during the holidays!

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Visit: Insectropolis {Toms River, New Jersey}

October 13, 2014 · Narrative

Looking for a fun outing with your kids (or without kids)? Visit Insectropolis in Toms River and get one with the creepy crawlies.

The kids and I were down the shore in mid-August, and we had a few days to fill with some fun adventures. I took a quick glance at what was left on our Summer Bucket List and spied “zoo.” Although Insectropolis isn’t what would typically come to mind when you think of “zoo,” it was reasonably close to us and we had never been there before and … so it was.

The museum was pretty easy to find, and it has its own dedicated parking lot. They are open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10-3. No reservations or appointments are necessary – just walk in, pay your admission, and start poking around.

The tour is all self-guided, and you are free to go at your own pace. There are employees throughout the museum and they are available to answer any question you may have. There are many different exhibits throughout, including spiders, beetles, butterflies, bees, lizards, and much more. There are also many interactive features that the kids enjoyed – I think one of their favorite parts was seeing the ants burrow through the dirt to create pathways … and the bee exhibit where you could get up close and personal and see the bee colonies buzzing around.

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Visit: Alstede Farms, Chester, NJ {Summer Bucket List}

June 18, 2014 · Narrative

Big open fields, the freshest strawberries imaginable … let’s visit a farm in Chester for strawberry picking.

“Mom, those aren’t really strawberry picking shoes,” Nick said as he looked at my feet.

I looked down at my (now) very dusty shoes and, of course, he was right.

But we were in the middle of a hike out to the large strawberry patches to pick our own, and there was no turning back.

Of course choosing to go strawberry picking in the middle of big open fields (read: no shade) on a 93 degree afternoon probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I’d like to think it made our strawberry picking much more efficient.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Although we have gone apple picking many times over the years, we have, surprisingly, never gone strawberry picking, which is how it ended up one of the items on our Summer Bucket List.

We ended up going to Alstede Farms in Chester, easy to get to and only about half an hour from our house. Although it is a frequent destination for area school field trips, I had never been there prior to this year, and I’ve now gone twice in the last month (Madeline had a field trip there a few weeks ago).

We pulled into the dusty, gravel parking lot, parked our car, and headed over to the shack to pay for our admission. Five dollars per person to go picking. With your admission, you will each get a ticket good for two dollars off your strawberry purchases, which are weighed and paid for separately when you’re done, so that makes it a good deal. The strawberries are $3.39 a pound, and then less your discount, so a fun adventure, cheaper than your local grocery store, and access to fresher than fresh strawberries.

In other words, a good time.

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Visit: Valley Shepherd Creamery {Things to Do in New Jersey}

June 10, 2014 · Narrative

Looking for a fun afternoon with the kids in New Jersey? We’ve got just the thing … cuddly animals, a farm tour, and delicious cheese. Pretty much perfect.

This past weekend brought us the most gorgeous weather we’ve seen in a long time. Beautiful blue skies, fluffy white clouds, hot but not too hot. You know, weather that summers are made of. Even though it’s not officially summer yet. And weather that was too gorgeous to not spend the entire day outside.

Which we did.

From 11 am until 11 pm.

Perfection.

Our afternoon brought us to the Valley Shepherd Creamery. Although I’ve heard of the creamery before, and it’s been on our “things to do” list for well over a year, it kept getting passed by.

Until this weekend.

Situated on 120 acres of preserved farmland, it has over 750 animals living on the premises, and is super simple to find. They do “lambing tours” twice a day, which was the main reason for our visit.

I mean, really. A chance to hang out with animals? No arm twisting needed.

The tour started with our guide, Amanda, explaining how the farm was started, what they have, and what they produce, and then we watched a short movie that showed how they make cheese, yogurt, and more. The creamery originally started with this location ten years ago. After the husband and wife team traveled all over Europe, learning how to make artisanal sheep milk cheeses, they came back and started the creamery, beginning first by using dynamite to blast out a section of their property so they could have authentic cave aged cheese in their own 52 degree cave. As their model proved successful, they have branched out a bit in different arenas. They can be found selling their items at 23 different farmers’ markets, including the one that we frequent in Summit on Sundays, and they have opened up a retail location in the Parks Slope area of Brooklyn. Capitalizing on their delicious cheese, they also have a popular stall at the Reading Market Terminal, Melt Craft, which features a wide variety of grilled cheese sandwiches, including one that has mac and cheese stuffed in it. Um yum.

Then we got a tour of the facility, including a look at their rotary milking parlor, which is where they milk their sheep, and the only machine of its kind. Later, we were able to see the machine in action as the sheep filed into the room, stepped on the carousel, got strapped in, ate their grain, and were milked while slowly rotating, all within minutes. It was quite something to see, and makes for a very efficient production (all the sheep are milked in two hours!).

Next up, cheese taste testing! So many cheeses, so little time. I was very proud of the kids, who tasted every cheese and only spit out half. ;) Our favorite was the Oldwick Shepherd, so creamy, followed by the Califon, both of which are worth seeking out.

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Visit: Sterling Hill Mining Museum {Things to Do in New Jersey}

April 28, 2014 · Narrative

When my sister and I were kids, we used to do family day trips on Sunday, with each of the four of us taking a turn choosing our destination. I routinely chose Chinatown or somewhere else in NYC, as my sister did sometimes as well, and my Dad was always good for something steeped in history (bonus points if it was Civil War or involved trains), and my Mom usually chose something with antiques.

Good times, and certainly good memories.

And so when the kids and I found ourselves with a completely free Sunday this past weekend, we set off on our own little adventure. I have a running list of activities saved on my phone, which is a great reference point when we’re looking for something to do. And also so I don’t forget any places I want to visit. A great jumping off point, it’s a mix of local and not-so-local destinations, and has a variety of things to appeal to all of us. It includes everything from activities and destinations to food we want to hunt down.

As we were getting a slow and lazy start to our Sunday, I had narrowed down our destination to four locations. One was two hours away, one an hour, and two under an hour. I decided I didn’t feel like driving four hours over the day, in an attempt to retain the chill vibe we had going on, so crossed that location off the list. The destination that was an hour away would have been good to tack a picnic onto to as well, but it was a bit too windy for that, so I crossed that one off our options list. The place that was 45 minutes away had two tours during the day. One in the beginning, and one at the end. Neither of which worked for our plans.

So with the process of elimination in full effect, we ended up at the Sterling Hill Mining Museum.

With two extra kids in tow.

A mere thirty minutes from our house, one of my continuing goals for this year is to discover more of what is already in our own backyard, so this was perfect for that as well. Nick has been on a field trip to this place before, but the girls and I hadn’t visited before. He has a keen interest in rocks, so I knew that even though he had been before, he wouldn’t mind going again, and it turns out that parts of our tour he hadn’t done with his class, so win/win.

An easy drive off the highway, the Sterling Hill Mine has been around since 1761. It officially ceased mining operations in 1986 for a variety of reasons, and after being sold in a tax sale in 1989, it reopened as a museum. It was later classified as a state historic site, and a national historic site, and is also a non-profit. The mine is perhaps most known for its zinc ore with a high concentration of minerals that glow underneath an ultraviolet light.