Historic Cold Spring Village

In Cape May, not too far from the beach area, is Historic Cold Spring Village.  Featuring actors dressed from the 19th century, this quaint village gives visitors the opportunity to see what life was like back in this time period.

We traveled here with a 5 year old, and were surprised with how well things went.  The staff were very engaging and friendly with her.  They let her play with various props such as a shield, a chalkboard and a dunce cap.  We spent about 90 minutes here and she had a great time.

For adults, there's the opportunity to learn about the time period as there were various buildings representing different occupations from then such as being a blacksmith, teacher and soldier.

This is a great place to stop if you're in the area, especially with kids around 5 years of age.

Cape May County Zoo

Cape May County Zoo is a big, beautiful zoo, not to mention free. We traveled down to Cape May when the zoo announced two baby snow leopards had joined the exhibit with their mother.

For a free zoo, it was much bigger than we expected, and had a lot of animals. Not only did we get to see the baby snow leopards, but also monkeys of all sorts, bald eagles, turtles, red pandas, bears and more.

There is a $1 per person suggested donation. As we pulled in, there was a zoo employee taking donations, as well as mailboxes around the zoo for making donations.

We traveled here with our 5-year-old niece, and one thing we loved was there were not food stands or gift shops inside the zoo. In fact, food and drinks are prohibited in the zoo except in designated areas. There is one small gift shop that you must pass to get in and out of the zoo, as well as a carousel.

Uncle Bill's Pancake House

With locations all around the New Jersey shore, Uncle Bill's Pancake House is a great place to enjoy more than just at breakfast time. We stopped for lunch with our 5-year-old niece in tow and it was a perfect place for a picky eater.

We were thrilled to be sat in a booth near the bar, because in the corner a TV played cartoons (although halfway through our meal, someone changed it to Fox News). She was perfectly distracted so we could decide on what to order. Our waitress also brought over a coloring book and crayons to keep her occupied while our meals were brought out.

We ordered a short stack of pancakes and a plate of the sand dollar pancakes. Our niece loved the small pancakes that were just her size, and, because we could order them in multiples (like, 10), she and I could share (which we loved). They also had a number of different juices and a great kids cup.

We could tell we had picked a winner as we walked in because the parking lot was full (seriously full, people were parking on the street!), people were hanging out outside and in the foyer, and inside it was boisterous with laughter and families enjoying each others company. And boy were we right.

Cape May Dolphin Watching Video

A video collage of our Dolphin Watching trip off the coast of Cape May, NJ