Things to do in Princeton, NJ

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hello Princeton and nearby area dopers!

I’m going to be a visiting research student in Princeton as of Monday. I seek your excellent advice on what fun things there are to do in and around Princeton. In particular, my boyfriend will be visiting for a few weeks and I’d like to have some interesting stuff to do when he’s here – possibly some stuff he can do on his own whilst I am trapped in the library.

A couple things: I don’t have a car, and seeing as I am a lowly research student, I don’t have a ton of money to throw around. I am of course planning on going to New York a good number of times which will probably eat up much of the money I do have…

I am willing to spend a little more for a really great restaurant or the like, so let me know any hidden secrets of that sort, but what I’m really looking for are somewhat quirkier, more outdoorsy things, if they even exist. More than happy to take public transportation a little ways if necessary and possible.

Thanks in advance!

2

Just for the record, you’re as close, if not closer, to Philadelphia.

ETA: In Princeton, depending on your cultural proclivities, you may well find shows of interest at the McCarter Theater.

3

You could take the Gargoyle tour.
http://tigernet.princeton.edu/~ptoniana/Gargoyles.pdf

I work at the University. I have gargoyles outside my windows.

Eating out here is pretty pricey. Everything here is pretty pricey. With that in mind, the best seafood is to be had is at the Blue Point Grill on Nassau Street.

4

Thomas Sweet’s for a blend-in:

http://www.thomassweet.com/

Hoagie Haven for a cheese steak:

Yum.

5

The Bent Spoon for ice cream.
Go on a tour of historic homes.
Rowing.
Quaker Bridge Mall.
Visit the University’s facilities (not the bathroom…well, maybe if you have to pee)

6

That theatre looks interesting indeed!

Any suggestions for a trip to Philly? I’ve done the Liberty Bell and all that when I was about six.

7

If you like music, that’s your shopping Mecca.

As for the McCarter Theater, the Star-Ledger just raved about their production of George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession. Tix run as low as $15.

8

Definitely agree about the Record Exchange

You walk past Einstein’s House on Mercer Street, or the much larger place Woodrow Wilson lived in on Library Place, well worth a walk.

If you can get a car, visit the Cranbury Bookworm, one of the best used book stores I know of - filling a house in downtown Cranbury, which is a nice town in itself. On the way you’ll pass Grovers Mill, where the Martians landed.

Palmer Square used to be nicer before it got taken over by chain stores. Nassau Hall is across the street, and the Nassau Inn is right there. I haven’t eaten there in a while, but I used to go to breakfast there nearly every week when we were interviewing candidates for jobs. The Princeton Library is also near, just around the corner from the Record Exchange, and is as good as you could expect. They used to have a case full of the works of Our Princeton Authors.

I suspect there are still groceries in the Princeton Shopping Center, but if you can get transportation and need groceries, go to Pennington Market on Delaware Avenue in Pennington, maybe 20 minutes away. When we lived in Princeton we used to go there to shop, which is how we wound up moving to Pennington. My daughter now lives in Rahway, and she’s even gone to Pennington Market. While there, visit Pennington Presbyterian Church, corner of Delaware and Main. The walls date from the Revolution. It has burned down a couple of times, but the Hessians fled there after the Battle of Trenton.

Other nice trips, requiring cars - New Hope and Lambertville, on the Delaware. Chambersburg in Trenton is full of excellent Italian restaurants - ask around, since my info is out of date.

Great place to live and very walkable. When our daughter was a baby, we put her in a stroller and walked to Thomas Sweet’s original place on Nassau Street. I think it is the first place she ever recognized - when we drove past she’d point and go “mmm mmmm”.

9

And about getting to NY or Philadelphia.

The dinky will take you to the Princeton Junction station. It’s stop is right by McCarter (which is a good place to go). NJ Transit is usually a bit cheaper than AmTrak (if slower) in either direction. If you look at houses near the end of the road on the Princeton side of the tracks you’ll see the house where Alicia and John Nash lived (and might still for all I know) before Nash recovered. Alicia didn’t drive and worked for NJ Transit, so it was a very convenient place for them.

10

Plenty to do in Philly – at the very least, I hope you’ll come down so we can organize a Doper dinner for you. (OlivesMarchForth did a couple of months ago and had a lovely time.)

Depending on your interests, there’s plenty to do here – lots of museum (art, science, medical oddities, archaeology), lots of history – theater, music, dance, etc. I’d be happy to give you a tour – I love Philly and love showing people around.

11

That sounds great! I’d certainly enjoy a guided tour plus Doper(s).

Any other suggestions or advice (anyone?)

Is there anything approaching a Nature Preserve, a nice place to go walking, interesting public gardens, anything like that? I haven’t found anything in my admittedly not extensive searching.

12

There’s this really really weird sculpture garden/building thing that freaked the hell outta my brother and I when we came upon it while intentionally getting lost one day. There’s this building, see, with a bunch of sculptures inside. All looking like people going about their business only with the not moving on account of being sculptures. I can’t express how eerie it was, this building in the middle of nowhere, with all these…bodies…in it. It was like that scene in *Serenity *when they find the office building on Miranda with all the corpseiness.

Then we turned around, walked a little ways away, and, I swear to Og, there was Toad’s carriage from The Wind in the Willows. And more statues, only this time looking like they belonged in a children’s book. Around the corner was a restaurant, looking like an English taverney thing, but - again - in the middle of freaking nowhere. Being short of funds and a little creeped out by the whole place, we ran away.

Down the street is another sculpture park along the road and a bunch of yards with really cool looking bits and pieces of big boats, giant concrete shapes and stuff. Some sort of warehouses or art studios or boatyards, we really couldn’t tell which.

It was a very surreal afternoon.

I’m sure the local Dopers can tell you where we were. If you were to go looking for it, it’d be a nice woodsey walk.

13

Moving to New Jersey without a car is about as logical to me as someone saying they are going skydiving without a parachute. I guess its possible but I wouldn’t want to try it.

14

Ah ah ah! Here we go:Rat’s Restaurant at the Grounds for Sculpture. Near Trenton, actually. You’ll need a car to get there from Princeton.

We were there, I forgot to mention, in the dead of winter on a Sunday afternoon, with nobody else around (except for a few people working in the restaurant, I guess). We saw very little, and seeing these pictures really makes me want to go back and explore lots more!

15

Heh, Rats Restaurant! Huge fan. Great, great food, and the decor is a blast: it’s inspired by the character Ratty from The Wind in the Willows. Fair warning: it’s a pretty high end restaurant. I guess there are some comparatively low-cost options, particularly at lunch, but they do a seven-course tasting menu that changes every night, and for two people on a non-holiday the tasting menu with wine to match each course can be in the neighborhood of $200-$250. Can’t recommend it enough as a special treat once in a while, though.

Its location is very odd; getting to it by car involves driving through some industrial areas in Trenton, and it feels like you’re getting lost. The surrounding area, as WhyNot discovered, is the Hamilton, NJ, Grounds for Sculpture, which is absolutely as weird - and sometimes creepy - as she reports.

(Actually, the creepy sculptures creep into the town of Hamilton in creepy ways. About two miles from Rats there’s a hardware store with two of those dead-eyed people sculptures out front - a dad and a kid on a bike, looking like the dad has just given the kid a push and the kid is wobbling. Come around the corner in the dark and have your headlights flash on that fake little boy, looking like he’s about to swing out in front of you, and the experience is less than pleasant).

16

Is that stuff part of where the Big Giant Heads are? The ones you can see from 295? I annoy my wife everytime we drive by when I point and shout"Big Giant Heads!". She hates those ugly things.

ETA: all this stuff is not within walking distance of Princeton and has typical NJ access to public transportation, little or none.

17

That’s the ones – the big 'ol blue and red heads, with nothing to identify just what in the hell they’re doing there. Always good for confusing anyone who doesn’t already know.

Personally, the name always brings to mind the phrase “grounds for mistrial”, but used in a very, very bizarre manner.

18

I love Grounds for Sculpture. The gardens are wonderful, as is at least some of the art.

19

Agree with Voyager about the Cranbury Book Worm, a;lthough there are also plenty of bookstores in Princeton proper (although not used ones).

Also agree that you should see Grover’s Mill, if you have a car. See the War of the Worlds monument and the “tripod” water tower behind the Grover’s Mill Company that was mistaken for a Martian:

There’s also Elsie the Cow’s Grave:

You can go to Princeton Cemetary on Witherspoon Street and see the grave of Grover Cleveland (and maybe Aaron Burr?). Pepper Mill also tells me that Tulane (as in Tlane University) is there, and the statue on his grave is noted pointed away from Princeton University.
and if you go to Thomas Sweet, get the Sweet Cream ice cream.

20

Just down the road from downtown Princeton is Drumthwacket, the governors residence. They give tours on certain days and I think it is well worth it. Beautiful old house with fantastic furniture. The governor lives upstairs (off limits) , the first floor is like a museum. I never took the tour but I was there for an event.