Best Places For Kids in NJ: Cape May Dolphin and Whale Watching

Wildwood, NJ – There are many options for whale and dolphin watching cruises at the southern tip of New Jersey, but the best choice for kids is the Atlantic Star, a 170 seat boat owned by JJC Boats in Cape May, New Jersey.   While the  Spirit of Cape May, the more popular of the whale watchers, offers the same dolphins, whales and dinner cruises as the Atlantic Star, the Atlantic Star is a smaller and more personal and close quarters experience that also includes a tour of Cape May’s backwater channels and bays.

The Atlantic Star offers several trips each day, starting with a morning educational trip that takes children and students out into the Atlantic Ocean for a first hand scientific glimpse at our local dolphin  population.   The morning tour is an educational experience that is suitable for schools and marine sciences groups.  The morning tour usually a two hour tour which focuses only on dolphins.  The tour also includes snacks and drinks for the children.

In the afternoon, get ready to sail on a three hour tour on the Atlantic Star’s lunch cruise which is a guided tour led by a Marine Biologist on a quest to show the kids dolphins, whales and birds that call New Jersey home each summer.  Snacks, beverages and hot dogs are available for purchase in the galley on the ‘lunch’ tour.

The best time to take a tour on the Atlantic Star is on their sunset buffet cruise which is a combination dinner cruise, whale and dolphin excursion and sightseeing tour of Cape May’s backwaters.   The cruise starts out with a slow trek out to the Atlantic Ocean through Wildwood’s Sunset Lake and Jarvis Sound and past the U.S. Coast Guard station and finally through the Cape May Inlet before reaching the open sea.

Once out on the open sea, the Atlantic Star uses state of the art technology to track dolphins and whales, but unfortunately cannot guarantee a sighting with our elusive whale population.   The sights on the tour are amazing as the trip continues south towards Cape May, the Cape May Lighthouse and past the mysterious hulk of the S.S. Altantus.  The S.S. Atlantus was a concrete ship built in 1918 for the United States Navy just after World War I.  While the Atlantus never saw wartime service, it made several cross Atlantic voyages to return U.S. troops home from Europe.  It was later decomissioned and sold to a private investor who had hoped to use the Atlantus as ferry dock to connect Cape May to neighboring Delware, but the ship ran aground off the coast of Cape May during a storm.   Unable to dislodge the ship, it was abandoned and is still visible from the shore and from ocean as the hull of the ship protrudes several feet out of the water.

Another great site along the way is St. Mary’s by The Sea,  a Catholic convent and restored Victorian era hotel that was once known as the Shoreham Hotel but served as a convent for most of its 119 year history.   The hotel was purchased in 1909 by the Sisters of St. Joseph as a summer retreat.   This beautiful building has been under constant attack by mother nature as the sisters have fought against an encroaching shoreline for over 50 years.   Luckily, their prayer power and faith has kept the raging Atlantic Ocean away from their New Jersey treasure.

One of the great perks about taking a trip on the Atlantic Star is the chance for youngsters to actually pilot the ship, depending on the weather and seas of course.   On our trip, all the children were able to steer the ship for a few minutes while the captain gave them quick on the job training on being a ship captain.    Amazingly, the children actually did steer the ship as it was not on auto pilot and they always do a magnificent job at the helm according to the captain.

After working its way around the southern tip of New Jersey and past the Cape May Lighthouse, the ship sets course  around to the quieter side of the Cape May peninsula and into the calmer waters of the Delaware bay.   With the Cape May Lighthouse always in view at some point, dinner is now served.   Don’t expect great things from your dinner as it’s usually catered buffet food from one of Wildwood’s great restaurants served on paper plates with plastic knives.   If you are expecting fine dining, perhaps this wouldn’t be the tour for you.    It’s a fun experience for the children to sit in the galley of a ship eating dinner as the waves move them back and forth.

From the Delaware Bay, the ship heads back inland through the Cape May Canal past the Cape May – Lewes ferry terminal which connects New Jersey to Delaware via a fleet of always running ferries.   There is a chance to have an encounter with a ferry which the children always enjoys as the ship captains blow their horns at each other.

For the remainder of the trip, it’s a quiet venture through the quiet, scenic and  marshy waterways on the west side of Cape May and Wildwood.   This part of the trip provides families with many unique scenic and sunset photo opportunities as the ship meanders through lagoons and channels back to its home port in Wildwood.

Overall the dinner cruise is a combined experience that starts with natural encounters with dolphins and whales, then through the history of Cape May and ends with an eco tour through the backwaters, home to many species of shore birds.   For many children, the best part of the experience will probably be getting behind the wheel of the boat and blowing the horn, they also will enjoy the scenic beauties that surround them.   The staff does a great job to keep the children interested and it’s an all around great family excursion if you’re vacationing in the Wildwood and Cape May region.

Exersaucer Triple Fun Jungle is a developmental wonder for your baby

News For Parents -  As your baby grows and begins to progress through stages of development, one of the hardest tasks as a parent and perhaps source of costliest mistakes is deciding which activity centers and playsets to purchase for your child.

Sometimes you will find yourself buying two products that overlap, sometimes you’ll find yourself in a situation where you might need something extra as your baby enters in between periods of growth.

One item that is a must have for babies is an exersaucer, from Evenflo.  They’re great playsets that encourage lower muscle development, head and neck muscle development, motor skills and basically introduce your baby to a new world of using their bodies in ways they never knew before.

Evenflo makes many exersaucer models, but the one we chose was the Evenflo ExerSaucer Triple Fun – Jungle because it starts out as an activity mat, which then can be converted into a fully functional exersaucer and finally to a creative learning center once your child can walk on their own.

The activity mat setup was simple.  It’s basically a soft green leaf shape mat that attaches to the two activity bars from the exersaucer and a great secondary activity mat for a finished basement or upstairs play area for your baby.  The mat itself is very basic and you probably want a nice activity mat in the begining as your primary play area.

Once your baby can support their head, neck and back, they are ready for mom and dad to conver the matt into the exersaucer.   Setup was not a snap and does require a screwdriver, patience and close attention to the manual.    There are spring loaded legs were the most difficult part of the setup only because you have to match the springs exeactly in the right locations inorder to make sure the legs of the saucer can’t  buckle and move while your child is jumping around.   Other than the spring assembly, installation was  a snap.

Why is this exersaucer better than the rest?  It’ simply has more activities for your child with two overhead activity bars and removable and interchangeable components all around your baby.  Our baby started using his exersaucer this week and has been going absolutely bonkers with it, in fact when his time is up, and we take him out he has a fit because he wants to stay in.   Maybe when his muscles are a bit more developed, he can spend more time, but we can tell that his new favorite place to be is in his 3 in 1 jungle.

Once your baby outgrows the exersaucer, the unit turns into a stationery play center in which the child can move about and play at different areas in S shaped activity desk.  This product will last through the whole first year of your child’s life opposed to other systems that they will outgrow once they start walking.  It’s great for 1-12 month olds.

Our baby playing in the Evenflo Exersaucer Triple Fun Jungle.

New products for 2009 to convert your old VHS to DVD

Stilton Company – As we now enter a purely digital age in America, one of the problems which remains is what to do with those boxes of old 8mm and VHS family movies.  One option is to buy one of may television based VHS to DVD recorders which copy the tapes directly to DVD, but these options do not allow for digital modification such as adding titles, fancy menus or cleaning up the video images.

There are hundreds of VHS to DVD recorders available, each one with its own unique feature sets and options, but if you want to turn your old VHS and 8mm movies into modern digital masterpieces, you’re going to have to buy a software package for your PC or Mac computer and the necessary adapters cables for your computer.

One of the highest rated solutions to copy those old tapes to DVD and even for storage and playback on your computer is the Roxio Creator 2009 Special Edition with VHS to DVD Adapter.

Roxio Creator 2009 Special Edition with VHS to DVD Adapter
If you’re like me and want the absolute best quality transfers from your VHS tapes to DVD, here’s the steps I took to get the desired results. I’m not writing about how to setup your VCR to your computer; only the settings within the VHS to DVD capture video options.

1) When you launch the capture video option in RC09, always select DV as your quality option. Note that a full 2 hour VHS tape will create a 25 or so gigabyte AVI file, so make sure you have a large capacity hard drive with plenty of free space.
2) Unless the tape is too light or too dark, I would leave the custom video adjustments alone. Your call on these settings.
3) Once the VHS tape is captured, launch the application SYNC IT! within the Roxio Creator user interface. Locate the settings options, and make sure it is set to MPEG2 output (this is set by default, but still check). Now locate the AVI file created by RC09. Drag and drop the file into the Sync It!”eye”. The conversion usually lasts around two hours, so go take a break.
4) Once the conversion is complete, you will have a new MPEG2 file around 4.75 to 5 gigs in size. This file is now ready to be trimmed, polished up and made into a DVD.

Roxio has become somewhat of a standard for home pc disc writing because many OEM manufacturers now include Roxio with new PC’s.  Most Dell computers come with Roxio CD Creator installed, but you will still need to go buy a VHS to PC Converter.  These can range in price from around $15 to $50 depending on the brand you buy.

If you are a MacIntosh user, you might want to check out the Roxio Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac which sells for slightly less than the PC version and like most things on a Mac, is a bit easier to configure and use.

Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac includes everything you need to easily transfer video from VHS, Hi8, V8 or analog camcorders to DVD. Perfect for digitizing and protecting home videos on outdated media. Easy VHS to DVD for Mac supports most analog camcorders, VCRs and even DVD players. Capture video at full DVD-quality resolution.  You can add Hollywood style menus and chapters for impressive results. Edit your captured movies in iMovie to add titles, transitions and other edits. Great for transferring videos to iPod or PSP too! Post finished videos to YouTube or your favorite social networking sites.

If you are looking for a more affordable solution on your PC, another popular VHS to DVD transfer software to look at is VHS To DVD 4.0 Deluxe which sells in the $65 price range and includes all the necessary hardware and software components necessary for the DVD transformation.

VHS to DVD Deluxe  includes a USB 2.0 Video Capture Device, a USB cable and software to convert analog video to digital, or reformat digital video, for recording on DVDs. PC users can either use the capture device interface or connect their digital video cameras and players to their PC to store the video. The VHS to DVD Deluxe  software formats the video for DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players and recording devices. It also supports converting HDTV quality video formats including: HDV, VHS, C-VHS, Beta and other video and audio formats to DVD and Blu-ray DVD.

There are many ways around this problem, and while the conventional hardware recorders do the job, they do not allow for any high tech editing and custom menu creation found in the computer software packages.  When buying a VHS to DVD recorder of any kind be sure to go online and research the product before you buy.

NJ Day Trip: Popcorn Park Zoo and Rescue Sanctuary

If you’re looking for a place to bring toddlers and younger children and don’t feel like traveling to the Bronx, Cape May or Philadelphia?  Try the Popcorn Park Zoo and Sanctuary run by the Associated Humane Societies.  This small zoo in New Jersey’s Pinelands was started in 1977 as an animal sanctuary for abandoned and abused animals.   They eventually began taking in exploited farm animals and exotic wildlife and now house the largest collection of animals in Ocean County.

The zoo is home to over 200 rescued animals which range from roosters to bengal tigers.  As you enter the park, you can purchase a box of popcorn which you can feed to all of the animals.  Many of the domestic animals such as the pigs, goats, sheep and horses eagerly await handouts from parkgoers.   As you walk around the park, geese, ducks and squirrels have become so accustomed to human presence that they will usually eat out of your hands.

Some of the more exotic animals in the park include Bengali, a bengal tiger and his three bengal tiger friends, a black bear, african lions, wallabies and monkeys.  You can get close enough to all of the animals for some great picture taking and some great memories without the travel.

Farm animals at Popcorn Park Zoo include horses, cows, sheep, goats and rabbits.  The steer at the park is huge!  If you’ve never been up close and personal with a cow that is nearly eight feet tall, you’re in for a surprise. 

The best thing about Popcorn Park is that these are not show animals purchased for display like at most zoos, they are animals that have been rescued from many different situations in which they were abused, neglected or exploited.  The folks at the Associated Humane Society are offering these animals a second chance at life and the money you spend goes directly towards benefiting and caring for these animals as well as the rescue and placement of future animals at the sanctuary.

Older children might be bored with the lack of “high end” exotics, but if your child has never been to a zoo, Popcorn Park Zoo and Wildlife Sanctuary is a great place to break them in and makes for a great Jersey Shore day trip.

For more information visit: http://www.ahscares.org/default.asp

St. Aloysius Summer Carnival this weekend in Jackson NJ

The 2009 St. Al’s Summer Carnival is just a few weeks away and this year looks to follow the lead of previous years as being the best carnival event in Jackson.    The carnival will run from Wednesday, May 27 and run through Saturday May 30.   Hours of operation will be 6:00-10:00 PM Wednesday through Friday and noon to 10pm on Saturday.

As in previous years there will be assorted amusement rides, games of chance, dj’s, live bands and fair style crafts and food available .    This year’s music lineup includes  The Backbeat, The Roustabouts, The Fuzzpops, The Red Beret and The Strictly 60’s Band.    From noon to 3pm on Saturday DJ Davy will be spinning the tunes.

On Wednesday and Thursday, you can purchase a $25 pay one price wristband for unlimited rides.

The St. Al’s Carnival is one of the many things we look forward to each year.  It’s a well planned production for a very good cause and has become a Jackson tradition.   If you have kids, this is the place to be between May 27 through May 30.

Youth Sports Not Just Girls Fun

Jackson NJ Online – Early on as the parent of  girl who was very interested in sports, I realized there were mild differences in people’s opinions on girls sports vs. boys sports.    In general, boy sports were always given more social importance, baseball, football and hockey while the traditional girl sports were back seat novelties to the general community, softball, gymnastics, cheer.  Even when you look at youth and scholastic soccer, the boys teams are given prominence, usually.  

I sometimes remember back in high school, when the Toms River North Girls field hockey team won the state championship, the headline in the Ocean County Observer for the day highlighted the Toms River South vs. Toms River North regular season football game and the girls championship was given a sidebar mention.  For me, it was alright at the time.   I was a boy.  I played football.  Football was more important than field hockey at any cost.

Today, I received a study and excerpt from a book at GoKidsNJ that discussed this phenomena and social misunderstanding in a study presented by sports sociologist Michael Messner, a professor of sociology and gender studies at USC.

In his book he writes:

As a shared belief system, soft essentialism embraces participation by girls in team sports, Messner said, but it also justifies pushing girls toward softball even though they are legally entitled to play baseball – and often creates an inhospitable environment for female coaches in both baseball and soccer.

source: http://www.gokidsnj.com/youth-sports-gender-lines-still-clearly-drawn-what-to-do-in-nj/2009/05/

Early this spring, my daughter, a Yankees baseball fan asked about playing baseball.  So naturally, I investigated the girls softball options within Jackson, thinking it would be better for her to play with the girls than to be one of a couple, if not, the only girl on a little league baseball team.

I was ready to sign her up for the municipal softball program until I found out that low registrations will probably turn it into an instructional league when I thought to check the Jackson Little League.   I remember a couple girls playing when I played in the Toms River Little League and wanted to see if it was still allowed.   Again, I’m told my mindset was normal and it is clearly dissected in Mr. Messner’s new  book.

Eventually, the choice was clear, she was to play baseball, the game she enjoys watching and getting excited over on television and not softball, a baseball substitute crafted for girls only.   She deserved it.  She cheers for Jackson Pop Warner, is enrolled in a U.S. figure skating program, plays all-girl soccer and gymanastics, clearly fulfilling her young female sports obligations.   Why not deviate from social expectations just a little?

Messner writes: However, individuals’ often unexamined beliefs about gender function to create a very skewed gender division in youth sports. And these continued divisions in youth sports reinforce an “unfinished feminist revolution” in families and workplaces, Messner argued.

The Jackson Little League so far has been great for her as she learns to play with the boys and be one of the boys, if only for just a few weeks out of the year.   There are about 10 or so girls playing t-ball in the Jackson Little League and it’s always exciting for her when she plays “the other girls” and as a parent, you can see that special unspoken bond these girls have on the field.

At games, some parents don’t even realize girls are allowed in little league.  At one game, I remember some guy at the game exclaiming  “wow, they let girls play too? I didn’t know that”, obviously shocked to see the long hair from under the helmet.   After she hit the ball pretty hard, his opinion was changed as he yelled “We got our new cleanup hitter!”. 

So the reason I bring this article and study to Jackson is that if you are the parent of a young girl who enjoys watching the Yankees, Mets or Phillies with you, why not give her the chance to play the game and consider little league baseball before you throw her into a softball recreation league?

If this topic is of interest to you, you can also read more of Mr. Messner’s expanded findings at  http://www.momsteam.com/team-parents/the-secrets-of-successful-women-coaches or check out his new book on the subject: It’s All for the Kids: Gender, Families, and Youth Sports.

For more stories like this and news from Ocean County, visit Jackson NJ Online

NJ Day Trip Destination: Sesame Place

Living in Ocean County my whole life, like my children, I have been spoiled by Amusement Parks.  Within a stone’s throw, we have Great Adventure, Seaside, Point Pleasant and Blackbeard’s Cave.    Venturing just a bit further, there’s Storybook Land,  Wildwood, Keansburg, The Steel Pier, Ocean City and Clementon Amusement Park.

One thing I have always overlooked and I find most parents overlooking is Sesame Place.   For Jackson residents, Sesame place is very convenient, located right off of Route 195 and just across the Delaware River. 

Sesame Place may not be for everyone.   It does have a funky layout that mixes water rides with regular rides and can drive a parent crazy because the kids are in the water, out of the water all day, but for the young kids aged 2 through around 8 or 9, there’s no better park in the world for them.

We usually go to Sesame Place once or twice per summer just to do something different and for the kids, it’s always the most memorable park because it’s the only commercially themed park that the kids really identify with.   Of course Great Adventure has Bunny, but you have to actually tell the kids who Bugs Bunny is these days because those cartoons just aren’t on TV anymore.    But Sesame Place is something young kids can identify with.

The park is always clean.  There are no roving bands of teenagers because they wouldn’t want to be caught dead there.   In all it’s a great day trip and 40 minutes from the eastern most part of Jackson.

The #1 reason for dads to take their kids to Sesame Place?  Fireworks.  Just off the bridge in PA at the first exit on the way to Sesame Place, there’s about a 1/2 dozen fireworks outlets.  Just remember, it’s illegal to bring fireworks back with you to New Jersey.   When I get asked to go to Seaside or Point Pleasant, but when asked to go to Sesame Place, the car is already loaded before the question is over!

Kids Pop Star Yosi headlines Lakewood BlueClaws kids expo

Tonight, the Lakewood BlueClaws minor league affiliate of the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies hosted their annual Kids Expo which as usual was a huge hit with the children in attendance.   Local childrens performer Yosi cranked out the pregame tunes on the field while fans made their way around the concourse examining the wares of the dozen or so family oriented business vendors in attendance.   While Yosi was performing on the field, troops of local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts paraded around the field for one of the many Scout Nights held at First Energy Ballpark.  Many local kids organizations and businesses were present with a wide variety of activities for the kids ranging from face painting, to balloon hats.

The Ocean County Parks and Recreation Department made a strong showing with their booth highlighting all that the County Park system has to offer residents.  The department has a summer packed with events and kids programs. This year the department will also host several events suitable for the whole family.  A complete listing can be found online at: http://www.ocean.nj.us/Parks/Default.htm.   One of the more interesting programs this summer is the Lakeside Children’s Theater, hosting weekly children;s theater events at Ocean County Park in Lakewood each Thursday at 1pm all summer long.  A complete schedule can be found here: http://www.ocean.nj.us/Parks/Lakeside.htm.  On July 24th, the county will be hosting Funtasia, a kids carnival also at Ocean County Park.

Jenkinson’s Aquarium was on hand with fun BlueClaws arts and crafts.   This year Jenkinsons Aquarium has a complete lineup of special programs for kids. Visit http://jenkinsons.com/aquarium/school.cfm for the entire schedule.  Other notable vendors on hand included Playdrome Bowling of Toms River who raffled off a free bowling ball, free balloon hats by Glitsy the clown (www.friendlyclowns.com) and Interactive Productions gave free demonstrations of iDance, a group Dance Dance Revolution style party system where 12 dancers can compete against each other at parties, schools or other events (www.idancers.net).

The game started for the BlueClaws with this bottom of the first inning 2 run home run by First Baseman James Murphy, who hit this monster shot over the outfield walls giving the kids their money’s worth.   This home run tied the game at 2 after sloppy infield play by the BlueClaws allowed 2 runs to score in the top of the first.   The game ended in the bottom of the ninth inning with a game winning 2 run home run by the Blue Claws, breaking a tie and avoiding extra innings.

At BlueClaws games, kids are always part of the show.  Kids squared off in a uniform relay race in which they ran from point to point to see who could don the BlueClaws uniform the fastest.

BlueClaws’ mascot Buster dances on the home team dugout with Dora the Explorer, Elmo and their little local friends.  The dugout wasn’t the only place to dance at tonight’s game as Interactive Productions of Toms River was showing off their iDance production.

The iDance Production included 16 (up to 32)  Wireless Dance Platforms.  The pads are similar to arcade style Dance Dance Revolution pads but all 16 participants got their own pad. All 16 dancers were looking at the same jumbo video screen and are watching the dance arrows in a friendly competition for the kids.  For me, the Interactive Productions booth was the hands down favorite because it is a product and service that is different, cutting edge and uses technology to entertain and excercise children.  What more can you ask for?  Visit their website at www.idanceusa.net to see this and other great party products they offer.

Yosi invited his Jackson Township friends up to the BlueClaws press box to help him sing “Take me out to the Ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch.   In all the Lakewood BlueClaws were great hosts for the children and once again showed the community that they are a top notch family friendly organization that caters to kids.

While today was a special day that was over the top for the kids, any trip to First Energy Ballpark to see the BlueClaws will be memorable for them because they are always treated as first class citizens when they walk through those gates.   So go online and get your BlueClaws tickets online at www.lakewoodblueclaws.com and remember kids always eat free.  Each children’s $9 ticket comes with a free hotdog, chips and drink, nearly a $9 value in itself.

Erin has a pregame chat with her friend and local kids music star Yosi Levin.  Yosi has been performing for kids in the area long before the current generation was around.  His music career started back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s New Jersey underground punk music scene.  He played for underground favorites The Exposed and The New Gods, who recently had a reunion after nearly 20 years apart.    Yosi also performs in an all dad quartet called Yosi and The Superdads.    These days Yosi can be found performing at local birthday parties, parks, libraries and now apparently does the stadium tour.    You can listen to Yosi Music on Amazon or visit his website at www.yosimusic.com.     Yosi is truly a friend to the local kids who absolutely adore him.

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