Depends, most of the sights are similar in the end.
**Here is my list of thing to do: **
Batso Village
Double Trouble Village
Ong’s Hat just to check it off, but it is nothing really
Albert Music Hall in Waretown for the Bluegrass. I think that is only Saturday nights.
Pick one of the parks/wildlife refuges. There are many
You can go to Smithville for the Jersey Devil.
Take in a cranberry bog, look into a cranberry festival in fact. I know Brown’s Mill has one.
*Not really Pine Barrens anymore: *
Lakehurst is in the Pine Barrens, see about visiting the Navy Base and seeing what they have on the Hindenburg disaster.
When I graduated from college, we went to visit my now-husband in NJ. My godmother said, “They actually have trees in New Jersey.”. Yes, they do. Especially west of 287.
No one ever talks about the Great Swamp or Mt. Tammany. Which is probably good as it keeps the riffraff out.
It’s a combination of people only being exposed to the ugliest parts of NJ and people hating on it to feel superior and look cool. Most haters have never spent a significant amount of time in NJ, but they know it has a bad reputation. It’s fun to bash an entire state.
I’ve never been to New Jersey. The movies and TV shows consistently portray an unsophisticated image, which probably has limited basis in reality.
But recently there was an Internet newspaper article asking each state to describe the state they disliked most.
Many States disliked their biggest neighbour. Several western states disliked California; several northeastern states disliked New York; several southern states disliked a neighbour, or Texas if they bordered it. This is not too surprising. These states suck up money and attention. They are not humble places.
Two things were surprising. Floridians said they most disliked people from Florida. I guess it’s a pretty diverse state. And New Jersey folks said they disliked everybody. And several New Jersey folks in the discussion below said that was true. I’m sure it isn’t, not usually. But they seem to like enforcing the media stereotypes.
More years ago than I like to admit, Mrs. SMV surprised me on my 40th birthday with “Pack your bags. We’re leaving tomorrow to go to New York for four days.” (She knew I love big cities, and that I’d never been to NYC. Best birthday ever.)
Unfortunately, that weekend a massive snowstorm socked in the entire East Coast, from Washington to Boston. Arriving at the airport, we discovered our flight into Newark was cancelled; the only flight available was to Washington National. So we rented a car in D.C. and drove through Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. Which didn’t disappoint me too much, as Delaware and New Jersey were the only two states east of the Mississippi I had never seen.
No state looks its best from the interstate, especially in the wake of a huge storm, but New Jersey looked to my Southern eyes like a perfectly pleasant, rolling landscape with a few beautiful mountains. We returned the car at the Newark airport, but darkness hid much of the city, so I never got a sense of it.
So my image of New Jersey (and Delaware, for that matter) is “pretty if undramatic; probably no worse a place to live than Ohio or North Carolina or Indiana.”
That’s just the opposite of San Francisco, where entering costs but leaving is free.
I did basic and AIT at Ft Dixiecup. I hitched across the state at times. I’ve holidayed with relatives in pricey districts. I was saved by NJ paramedics. I’ve seen large swathes of the state over many decades. I’d still rather be in California.
I had the opposite experience. I was all over California. Stationed in Coronado (San Diego) on the USS Ranger, visited as far up as Mt. Shasta. I much prefer NJ.
I get annoyed with Jersey jokes mainly because they’re just so tired. They’re trite. They’re the lamest form of state-based humor.
So I don’t get offended, but I do tend to conclude that the person making the remark is boring. Criticism is fair game. Saying “what exit herp derp” is just sad. (Especially since we really do use exit numbers to indicate the approximate locations of many things. It’s just practical given our shape and our roadways)
The reality is actually quite the opposite. I’m not sure what makes one “sophisticated,” but this is a state full of highly educated, worldly, and affluent people. We are right next to New York City, which I’d say is one of the most sophisticated places on earth. Philadelphia is right next to us too, and we’re within a few hours of Washington D.C. and other major cities. We are home to many major corporations, and are ground zero for big pharma (sorry). We have Rutgers and Princeton and many other universities. Etc. etc. etc.
None of that is to say you should like us or want to live here. It’s just to show that “unsophisticated” we are not.
That’s not to say there aren’t pockets of it. I used to work with a young woman who had never been out of the state! Not even for a school trip to the city. Considering how small we are, that’s quite remarkable. Also, one of the most realistic elements of The Sopranos was how insular they were. People are people, but on the whole we’re more Johnson & Johnson than Jersey Shore.
I think he was probably referring to an actual barrel, but I like your version a LOT better. And with ol’ Ben, you never did know. It couldn’t have been a fat joke, though, as we have a slim and trim little waist.
I live in that refinery three days a week. Trust me, my co-workers and I don’t leave the trailer unless we have to because of the stench. It’s not constant, but it’s palpable.
I actually like the opening scene from Sopranos, as it looks very much like parts of Michigan near the Detroit area. I know that it’s not representative as a whole of some place called “the Garden State.”
Other than that, I laugh at the culture and attitudes of New Jersey people as depicted on TV, but I don’t hold this against everyone from New Jersey; I assume they’re on TV because they’re atypical.
I have mafia perceptions, especially given the many, many firsthand accounts I have had from coworkers back when we had a plant in Edison, NJ.
Other than that, I save my ire for Ohio, because F.U., Ohio.
Andrew Larchman’s (Zak Braff) friends gave off a bit of a “disaffected 20-somethings who can’t/won’t get their life together” vibe that I associate with films about New Jersey. I suppose the characters could have been from anywhere, but the suburban setting felt very “New Jersey” to me.
Except for the “query in Newark”. Newark is a dense city surrounded by more dense city. I wouldn’t expect there to be a giant query surrounded by woods where you couldn’t see the skyline of Newark or NYC. Maybe if they said out by Bridewater or Summit or some other random place.
