Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for new jersey
Newark’s Jubilee
By Linda Tancs
Newark, New Jersey, the state’s largest city, is celebrating the big 3-5-0 this year. Founded in 1666 by Puritan colonists, the city promises a jubilee celebration worthy of its history and contemplative of its future. Part of a yearlong commemoration of Newark’s 350th anniversary is Founders Weekend Festival this weekend. Appropriately enough, the event will be held in Military Park. Originally laid out in 1667 when the city was planned, the park’s six acres first functioned as a training ground for soldiers, serving as a camp for George Washington’s troops during the Revolutionary War retreat of 1776. Thomas Paine also began writing the first lines of his essay “These are the Times that Try Men’s Souls” while encamped there. Headliners for the festival include Newark’s local hometown heroes and international recording artists Faith Evans, Naughty by Nature, Cissy Houston and India. Kids will be sure to love the new carousel in the park, comprising 16 beautifully painted horses representing actual steeds depicting aspects of the city’s history.
Share this:
A Taste of the Mediterranean in New Jersey
By Linda Tancs
Inspired by the beauty and warmth of a Mediterranean villa, Van Vleck House & Gardens is a peaceful oasis in Montclair, New Jersey. It originated as a 12-acre private estate more than 140 years ago when successful businessman Joseph Van Vleck and his family moved to Montclair from Brooklyn in 1868. Of all the dwellings that once graced the property, the current home (built in 1916) remains and is surrounded by magnificent gardens open free of charge from dawn to dusk year round. The grounds are prized for a strong representation of ericaceous plants, particularly rhododendrons and azaleas. Other gems include the Chinese wisteria planted by Howard Van Vleck in 1939 and the stately Dawn redwood and Blue Atlas cedar in the rear garden.
Share this:
A Goliath in New Jersey
By Linda Tancs
In New Jersey, a Sussex County zoo held the Guinness World Record from 1967 to 1991 for the world’s largest bear in captivity. That was Goliath, a Kodiak weighing 2,000 pounds and standing 12 feet tall. He still greets visitors to Space Farms—stuffed, of course. But nowadays it’s the live action that keeps visitors coming back. Boasting more than 500 wild animals (including more than 100 species), the countryside zoo in Beemerville hosts bobcats, tigers, lions, buffalo, hyena, wild ponies, timber wolves, foxes, bears, deer, leopards, monkeys, jaguars, coyotes, llamas, yaks, snakes and hundreds more. Internationally famous for their bear and lion cub breeding programs, Space Farms has the largest private collection of North American animals in their natural surroundings in the United States.
Share this:
New Jersey’s Wild Spring
By Linda Tancs
Part of the Delaware River floodplain, Bulls Island Recreation Area in Stockton, New Jersey, is a wild place each spring. Specifically, it’s a hotspot for migration. Watch out for 32 species of warbler, along with vireos, swallows, flycatchers and gulls. Another thing blooming this time of year is the ostrich fern. Its unfurled frond appears now as fiddlehead. Although protected in this area, cooked fiddleheads are a wild spring delicacy.
Share this:
New Jersey’s Official Tall Ship
By Linda Tancs
New Jersey’s official tall ship is the A.J. Meerwald, a restored oyster dredging schooner used for onboard educational programs. It should come as no surprise that her home port is Bivalve, a word that just happens to refer to any number of species of mollusks, like oysters. Located in Cumberland County, the town was once the center of a thriving oyster industry. The ship was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1995.
Share this:
An Architectural Gem in Newark
By Linda Tancs
One of the few remaining early gambrel-roofed stone houses in New Jersey, Plume House is one of two 18th century dwellings still standing in Newark, the state’s largest city. Formerly a colonial farmhouse surrounded by an apple orchard with sweeping river views, it now stands sentinel at Broad and State streets adjoining a thunderous interstate highway and rail station. Built by John Plume in the 1700s, this old house bore witness to many events of the Revolutionary War, including George Washington’s retreat from the Battle of Long Island. Later it became the site of invention of flexible photographic film by Rev. Hannibal Goodwin, founder of Goodwin Film and Camera Company. Nowadays the house serves as the rectory for the House of Prayer Episcopal Church.
Share this:
On the Ridge of First Mountain
By Linda Tancs
Originally known as “Kypsburg,” Kip’s Castle and its grounds span the ridge of First Mountain, on the border between Montclair and Verona townships in New Jersey. Constructed in the early 1900s for textile inventor and industrialist Frederick Ellsworth Kip and his wife, the estate’s glorious 9,000-square-foot mansion replicates a medieval Norman castle. The first floor is open for self-guided tours, a particular treat this time of year with holiday décor in full swing.
Share this:
An Oasis Out of Waste
By Linda Tancs
Rising like a phoenix from defunct rail yards and industrial wasteland, New Jersey’s Liberty State Park is an oasis out of waste. Located in Jersey City, it’s the only location in the state with ferry service to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, offering sweeping views of America’s gateway icons. Enjoy the views with a two-mile walk along the promenade.
Share this:
Great American Stations
By Linda Tancs
One of America’s great rail stations marks its 80th birthday this year. The honoree is Newark Penn Station, an Art Deco landmark in Newark, New Jersey. Dedicated in 1935, the station is a linchpin of the northeast corridor, a nexus of travel between New York and New Jersey and, thanks to connecting service via NJ Transit to Newark Liberty International Airport, the rest of the world.
Share this:
First Flight in America
By Linda Tancs
In 1793, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard set off from Philadelphia in a hot air balloon, landing less than an hour later in a field in Deptford, New Jersey. Witnessed by George Washington and other dignitaries, Blanchard entered the annals of history as America’s first aeronaut. So proud is the Gloucester County community of their connection to this event that they’ve emblazoned a hot air balloon logo on their municipal signs and stationery, together with the phrase “1st Flight in America” on the township’s water tower.
Travelrific® Travel Journal 