South Jersey Pines

[Wife of Fozzy Bear]

Hi, my Daughter has been chosen to visit New Jersey in July on a Guide trip. She will be at the South Jersey Pines Camp Site for one week at the Celebration 2004 camp and another week in home hospitality. Hopefully she will get to visit Philadelphia, Baltimore and the Six Flags Amusement Park (details still not final).

We are busy fund-raising as Guides insist that the girls raise the money to go themselves (so no-one is discriminated against ie. parental income etc) so lots of sponsored walks, car boot sales etc.

Does anyone have any information about the area or similar camps, any hints and tips about where to go etc?

Pleased but slightly anxious Mum of a 13 year old!

 

[mf1973]

Not too far away is Princeton University. Its a great experience to walk around the town and the campus and envinsion all of the brilliant minds that have studied, worked, and learned there.

A couple of hours from South Jersey is Washington DC.

Philadelphia is a bit of a bore, so if you have to choose I would go to (1) Baltimore - must see the inner harbor, and catch an Oriole's baseball game at Camden Yards or (2) Washington DC, lots of sites you can do in less than one day.

New York City is also not far away.

Six Flags is nothing like WDW. It has many good/fast rides, but is dirty and a bit scanky.

If she wants a ture "New Jersey" local experience she can go to the "Jersey Shore" or as the locals say...."going down the shore." Get a local map, and any beach from Point Pleasant and south is good. Just stay away from Asbury Park and Seaside.

Little bit of Disney trivia, the land that Six Flags is built on was once owned by The Disney Co!

 

[Wife of Fozzy Bear]

Thanks for the great reply. I will pass the info on to the Guide Leaders too!

She is hoping that a trip to NYC is possible, some outings will be part of the camp (Baltimore/Philadelphia/Six Flags) but for the second week it depends rather on the family you get to stay with as to whether they take you out and about or not? Once she gets matched up with a Guide/family, hopefully by April, she can pen-pal and get to find out more.

Off on our long-planned-for family holiday to Disney at the end of the week, lucky Daughter gets two trips to U.S. this year! She was only offered the place with Guides a couple of weeks ago so that has come as an unexpected surprise.

Thanks again!

 

[TZMOM]

There is a hop on/hop off bus tour throughout the Center City/Historic Philadelphia area - it's a very historical area for us over here. The Liberty Bell has just been moved to its own area, Betsy Ross House, Ben Franklin, Constitution of US, etc. There are many volunteers that get dressed up in costume, etc. and talk about what life was like when our constitution was being written Depending upon your daughter's liking, it could be interesting. I liked walking through the old houses.

Penn's Landing (by the Delaware River) is a nice area to walk around in and there's usually always something going on over the weekends - though may not be to a 13 y.o. liking.

You can walk over to South Street from Penn's Landing (must walk over bridge that's over very busy Route 95 road, but SAFE.) South Street has a lot of "cool" shops & gets very busy on the weekends. My 14 y.o. & I like to walk up & down the street just looking at some of the people. They look weird, but from my experience, everyone has been extremely polite & nice, just, well weird looking.

I agree about the beach!! Her guide family will fill her in about which one they're closest to. She will need a beach tag (every beach requires one, except for Wildwood - I think), but tags can be bought on a daily basis and are sold by teenagers walking around on the sand. The water may still be a bit cool in July, but it all depends on what you're used to - rent a boogie board!! Great fun!! My son's favorite thing to get at the beach is a "Fudgie Wudgie" which is just a frozen chocolate pop. These guys carry ice chests around (can you imagine?) and you can get a frozen treat in the high heat of the summer.

Just warn your daughter about the seagulls - they'll steal your food right out of your hands if you're not careful! They've just gotten horrible.

I second the opinion on Six Flags; however, there is a water park there - Wild Water & a drive through "safari" which just doesn't compare to AK. I've never been to the water park since I've been spoiled by WDW, but it would be something different for your daughter since it's here, I guess.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor has a fantastic and very popular aquarium. It's beautiful there. It's about a 2 or 2.5 hour trip south, depending where you are in NJ.

NYC isn't too far - again, depending where she will be in NJ, I'd say about a 2 or 2.5 hour trip north. I've only gone into NYC about 3 times and always near Broadway. Can't tell you too much about that City except there are wonderful places to shop!!

That's all I can think of right now - pls. feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

Your daughter will have a blast!!

Jane

 

[Wife of Fozzy Bear]

Thanks for your wonderful reply. All the positive feedback will help motivate us for the fundraising. We have been given a guide of £1500 to aim at, so roughly $2700, so all our friends, relatives and work colleagues have been sponsoring and I have lots of companies to send begging letters to! My DD is a bit young to be offered a place but another girl dropped out and so she was pulled into the trip only a couple of weeks ago, so we are 4 months behind on fundraising!

The rest of the family will be worrying about her, but also disappointed to be missing out on such an amazing adventure. At least I know that all the extra clothes I bought her for Florida will come in useful for the trip, only question is whether it will fit in a rucksack!

Many thanks for all the help.