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We had to share this photo of the awesome taxidermy at the Pellston Airport baggage claim!
It’s Labor Day!
Why on earth are you reading our Tumblr today? Granted, we’re inside working on our databases and other fun programming stuff this weekend (it’s our mission to help you explore the world better, and we’ve got to have sophisticated software to make that happen), but what are you doing inside and / or staring at this on your phone? Go out and play! This is your last real long weekend before Thanksgiving, and by then, it’s cold, dark and miserable out. If you’re one of our international readers, sorry. We didn’t mean to gloat about our long weekend, and you probably get more holidays off than we do with our Puritanical roots and all.
Of course, if you came here looking for an activity, please search away or scroll down — today’s post marks our 180th (we think) since we started (go hopara!), so chances are that we’ve got something on the place you’re looking for. Have fun today, and enjoy the long weekend!
Our Favorite Ways to Enjoy Labor Day Parades
Tomorrow is Labor Day, which means that (if you live in the US), in pretty much every town, there’s a parade. Some of the parades are good, although we have to admit it — watching people march or sing or dance down the street doesn’t do all that much for us. Maybe it’s because we’re snobs who live in New York and we get spoiled by the Village Halloween Parade or Mardi Gras in New Orleans, both of which are more party than parade. Or maybe it’s because we rarely know the people marching in the parades, and so we’re just waving at strangers. Whatever the reason, we’ve come up with a number of defensive strategies for when we inevitably are invited to “parties” where we watch the parade from the street.
First, there’s always booze. Thankfully, we’ve never been invited to a parade event hosted by teetotalers. If we had… well, we don’t have many of those as friends.
Second, there’s the, “where’s the bathroom?” Since the bathroom is always a very long walk away (and it’s usually a port-a-potty), it gives us ample time to explore fields and streams that are unpopulated because everyone is watching the parade.
Third, we’ve got our fall back of shouting “HI! HI! OVER HERE!” at all people in the parade (when we were younger, we would also throw stuff, but that’s immature). Ever seen a five to ten-person pile up? You’ll see it if you shout this often enough, because someone in the parade will get confused and stop to say hi to you. Alright, this is a bit cruel, but it’s still fun (as long as no one gets hurt).
Finally, fourth, gorge on hot dogs. It’s the end of the summer, after all, and there are bound to be lots of dogs lying around. Because, when it’s all said and done, you may as well being outside on one of the last nice, long days of the year!
That’s it for today. Happy exploring!
Working in vacation country: Become a Skydiving Instructor (Jumpmaster)
Ah, yes. You’ve decided that you want to teach people to jump out of airplanes for a living. We’re not going to question your sanity (we know that there are a lot of reasons to jump, and we love the feeling of floating through the air), but we’ll start off with the very, very obvious point that is apparent to you if you’ve ever been up in one of these planes: they all feel like they’re barely put together because there’s no real money to be made in skydiving. You do this because you’re in a dz you love (that’s drop zone for our regular readers who don’t do this) and because you love the sport. People in busy locations who are doing 2-3 jumps per day make about $3,000 per month, which translates into $36,000 per year if you live in a place where you can actually jump year-round (which isn’t many places), and that generally doesn’t include things that you’d want when you freefall for a living, like health insurance. In other words, it would be good if you learned a trade on the side.
Now, as for certification, you need to log about 200 jumps to get your D License (you can teach with a C License, but you can’t go tandem). The requirements for the license can be found here; there are two practical ways to get to this number of jumps:
1) Join the military and sign up for a unit that does a lot of jumps (this is a bit extreme if your goal is just to jump, as you’ll also have to learn to shoot people and junk); or
2) Pay a lot of money. Each jump is going to cost you at least $80-$100 (after you get past tandem jumps), and the equipment can be as much as $5,000. Basically, it’ll take your first year of being an instructor before you’ve comfortably earned back the cost of being one; or
Of course, if you’ve gotten to this point, you’ve probably already spent a lot of the money that you’d need to get certification, and you can probably make the money back from the extra jumps you’ll need in a summer.
So, let’s talk about the benefits of being a jumpmaster. We’d love to tell you that you’ll be more attractive to the opposite sex, but that’s not true (dudes - girls tend to stop thinking its sexy that you risk your life for a living the second they start caring about you). And, obvi, it’s not the money. So what are the benefits? Duh! You get to go 120 mph every day, and you get to be paid to do it! And you can do this everywhere in the world — it’s a great way to travel around!
That’s it for today. Happy exploring!
The Great Desk Escape: Wilmington, Delaware
If you live in or around Wilmington, you know that you live there because it’s got a crazy good quality of life with a very short commute to a major metropolis in Philadelphia and an equally short drive to get onto a boat and wander around Delaware Bay. Unfortunately, because Wilmington has all this cool stuff around it, it’s not really set up to be exciting inside the city — when we visit, it seems like people are always taking us to the suburbs for cool experiences. So we thought that for today’s great desk escape (where we give you a few activities that will get you away from your desk for about an hour), we’d delve a bit deeper into Wilmington and see what we could find. Here goes!
Wilmington, Delaware Great Desk Escape Activity #1: Visit the Hagley
We were pretty conflicted about this one - we thought quite a bit about sending you to the DCCA (the local contemporary museum) instead, which has an excellent collection and impressive curation of shows. But, in the end, we decided that, sometimes, the best way to help you break out of your slump at work is to look to the great innovators of the past, which is what the Hadley is there for - as a leading museum of American business, you may well find the solution you need to your problem by looking a bit to the past! Plus, they have all sorts of cool events on the grounds, including an upcoming car show. Because all work and no play… you get the idea.
Wilmington, Delaware Great Desk Escape Activity #2: Go Rock Climbing in Alapocas State Park
In Wilmington, you’re really, really lucky if you’re a climber (or have thought about trying it) - you’ve got an incredible rock wall right in the middle of our favorite park in the city (heck, most people in the Rockies aren’t this close to good climbing!). Yes, you need a permit, and you shouldn’t go up here raw (e.g., learn to climb in a gym or at one of their camps), but it’s a rush, a work-out and a great view all rolled into one! If this sounds like more work than you want to do to get your mind off the office for an hour, then go for a quick, easy hike along the Northern Delaware Greenway, which is about 2 miles long in the park (or 10 if you take the entire path and give yourself a challenge).
Wilmington, Delaware Great Desk Escape Activity #3: Geocatching the Entire State of Delaware
So, we kind of thought that this was a dumb way to spend time until we tried it. Basically, what you do while Geocatching is you get some clues to where you can find coins, and then you use a handheld GPS unit to go find these coins. Delaware has embraced this like none other, and has set up caches all over the state in pretty much every public location imaginable. Why do we like this? Simple. When we’re at work and we feel like we’re going in circles for no reason, it’s nice to have an activity where all the running around in circles provides instant gratification. In addition, it’s a fun way to meet other people. Ok, they’re geocatchers, which you might think is one or two steps above a LARPer, but aren’t you a geocatcher now, too?
That’s it for today. Happy exploring!
The Great Desk Escape: Allentown, Pennsylvania
For our third (and final) installment of our great desk escape series in Pennsylvania, we’re heading over to Allentown. Why? Well, it is the third largest city in the state (narrowly beating out Erie). Plus, Billy Joel sang about it (really, watch that video. It’ll take you back… pretty much back to since before anyone here at hopara got their adult teeth, but it’s a good type of back). And it’s just a fun little enclave in the middle of Pennslyvania - and we do mean fun! We think Allentown packs more adrenaline in than a lot of other, larger cities!
Allentown, Pennsylvania Great Desk Escape Activity #1: Grand Prix Racing!
So, you were probably thinking that we’d send you over to Dorney Park. And we love Dorney Park. But let’s be realistic — it’s closed except on weekends (so it’s not a real good place to go for an hour to get away from your desk). Plus, you don’t get to put people into the wall on a roller coaster. On a 45 mph go-kart? Well, that’s a different story. Yes, it’s a little bit dangerous, but isn’t that exactly what you want when you’re just rushing to get away from your desk? It’s a hell of a thrill! If you’re not so much into the racing around but like the idea of getting the better of people on your desk escape, then head on over to Lehigh Valley Laser Tag instead.
Allentown, Pennsylvania Great Desk Escape Activity #2: Fish Jordan Creek
There is also a small hiking trail around here if you’re not into fishing, but we think that there’s not much in the world that’s better than looking at the clock, realizing that you should be working for another five or six hours, and then saying, “I’m a five minute drive from a great fishing hole. I can go, sit on the bank for an hour, catch (and release) a few brook fish and be back here before anyone notices I’m gone.” Come on, admit it — you’re thinking about doing this right now, aren’t you? Park by the baseball field and walk in.
Allentown, Pennsylvania Great Desk Escape Activity #3: Visit the America on Wheels Museum
We are car buffs at hopara (ok, one of us is), and so when we sat around, talking about things to do in Allentown, we were quickly inundated with requests to put in the America on Wheels museum. It’s way more than cars — as the museum’s name implies, it’s got an impressive collection of anything that’s on wheels. Right now, there’s an exhibit of famous cars from movies, and you can see the car from the Muppet Movie (Muppets not included). It’s really cool! And it helps remind you why you’re working in the first place — it would be nice to see one of these in your driveway one day, eh?
That’s it for today. Happy exploring!
The Great Desk Escape: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Edition
Today, we’re back into our great desk escape series, and we’re heading due west from Philly to Pittsburgh (don’t worry, middle PA cities — we’re coming back around to you!). Pittsburgh is a pretty fun city, and we think it gets a bad rap as being a city built around a struggling steel industry. Yes, it’s got some economic problems (really, give us a place that doesn’t), but it’s got fantastic universities and a really well-built trail system. So, in case you needed some help finding things to do here, we’ve got a few activities that you can do in about an hour to get away from your desk for a while.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Great Desk Escape Activity #1: Kayak Underneath the Skyscrapers
This one shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of our regular readers — we love the water, and when you can rent a kayak and put it into the water downtown… well, that’s a no-brainer for us. It’s quiet on the water, too — it’s just you and a bunch of big, hulking buildings that quickly give way to grass and trees. Unfortunately, this is only open during the week until September 30th, so after that, we recommend hiking or snowshoeing. We’d tell you our favorite hikes, but, to be honest, the team at Walls Are Bad are better at picking in this part of the world than we are - there are tons of hikes in and around the three rivers that are easily accessible from downtown so you can spend more time escaping your desk, and way less getting there!
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Great Desk Escape Activity #2: Visit the Phipps Conservatory
We know that, when things are going a bit pear-shaped at work, you don’t always want to work out, but you do need to be outside. That’s why we love the Phipps Conservatory - it’s a botanical paradise with pretty much every type of plant that you’d ever want to see on the grounds, and it’s only a 10 minute drive from downtown. Plus, some of the best parts are inside, so on those long, cold western Pennsylvania days, it’s a shot of warm and green! Our favorite? Duh! The tropical forest that’s inside!
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Great Desk Escape Activity #3: Take in a show at the Carnegie Science Center
Today, we decided to use this slot (which we usually use for cultural activities) for being a kid again instead. Why? Well, our favorite museum in the area, the Frick, is too far outside of the city to be hit up in a lunch break (it takes 20 minutes to drive each way, and spending only 20 minutes in a museum is like going to a great restaurant and leaving after they’ve filled your water glass). Second - you know it - Laser Light Shows. And when there’s no laser light show, there’s other movies at the Omnimax (like Tornado Alley) that play pretty much every hour for around 45 minutes. In other words, if you’re looking to just be enveloped in edu-tainment, this is a great place to go to get blasted with sound, images, and forget everything else about the day for a little while!
That’s it for today. Happy exploring!
A quick ode to sailing
We got back from our long weekend to Charlevoix, Michigan late Sunday night (on a plane that really did look like the fashion set from the Hamptons had discovered northern Michigan, which disappointed us a bit - we like our favorite places to remain as undiscovered for as long as possible!). We thought about a few different ways that we could talk about how much fun we had up there; to be honest, what makes Charlevoix so much fun isn’t really how beautiful it is, or how much time we spent on the porch sipping wine — it’s the people we get to spend time with up there.
One of our favorite ways to hang out with friends and family is to jump on a boat and sail around. There’s nothing quite like being on a big boat that’s all the way up on its rails and dangling our feet in the water rushing by (ok, it’s only going eight or nine knots, which is like going 10 miles per hour, which isn’t that fast in the big scheme of things) while talking to people we don’t get to see all that often. Oh, we know — there are a few competitive sailors among our readership — but come on — even you guys love the camaraderie of being on a boat! So, sailing, here’s to you!
Casino Escape: Atlantic City, NJ
Before we started moving through the rest of Pennsylvania and then further south on our desk escape series, we thought that we’d stop in one of the east coast’s favorite playgrounds and ask a simple question — what the heck do you do here if you’re not a gambler, are tired of shopping, the show starts later and you already ate? Thankfully, there is more to Atlantic City than just games and reenactments of Boardwalk Empire. So let’s go on a little tour of AC and see what else we can do!
First, there’s the beach, which means that there’s lots of water activities. The surfing here isn’t that great - the jetties always feel a bit close and, quite frankly, we like it better a little further south, in Ocean City or Cape May. However, waves are waves, and there are three surf shops in the area (although none in town) - Heritage in Margate, Primal in Brigantine, and Barrell Surf and Kayak, also in Brigantine. We’d skip surfing here in favor of windsurfing, though — there’s great places inside the barrier to windsurf, and you can also do quite a bit out on the open ocean. Extreme Windsurfing is the place to go to learn here.
Next, you can head over to the Central Pier Arcade & Speedway for go-karting. Granted, this place is a bit dirty and the go-karts don’t go all that fast. But, really, isn’t the point of karting to put your friends into the wall? That seems to be all we do when we jump on these machines… until we get kicked out for being a bit rowdy, and then we go over to Mini Golf for a game of limited skill. It’s a cool looking course — kinda kitschy, yes, but still fun to play. We love the fountains here!
Of course, like any casino area, there’s a number of fantastic golf courses in the area too, from the Links at Brigantine on the coast to the Atlantic City Country Club and seven others that will fill your afternoon with swinging, swearing, putting, swearing, and, finally, drinks.
Finally, for those of you who like taking in the scenery, there’s the Absecon Lighthouse where, if you don’t mind the 228 steps to get to the top, you’ll get fantastic panoramic views of the ocean as well as of all those casinos that you’re skipping. And then, when you’re done with your sightseeing, support the town a bit - take in a show, eat a great meal (there are some fantastic restaurants here), and may pull one or two slot levers!
Hopara Shorts: Two Activities in Petoskey, Michigan
Given that it’s our last day of vacation up in Northern Michigan, we thought that we’d take a little time and give you a couple of fun things to do up in the northern reaches of Michigan’s northern peninsula. So, here goes today’s hopara short:
Petoskey, Michigan Activity #1: Bike the Little Traverse Wheelway
Ok, so this is a really cool trip - you start at Charlevoix and bike 26 miles north to Harbor Springs, which is across the bay from Petoskey. En route, you get amazing views of Lake Michigan as you go through Susan Creek Nature Preserve (it’s a little detour to go through the trails there) and you get to see our two favorite towns in this area (at least, our favorites during the summer — winter, we like to go inland a bit to ski). It’s beautiful, and it’s about as far from anything as you can get (there aren’t that many people up here to begin with).
Petoskey, Michigan Activity #2: Visit the Odawa Casino
Let’s be clear — we’re not sending you here for the food, the service, or even the gambling. None of that is all that impressive. What we’re sending you here for is that je ne sais quoi that makes this place feel a little like a safer version of a dusty, frontier-town casino (it helps that a lot of it is new, even if it doesn’t really feel that way). It’s the kind of place you go into and you just feel like, well, I could own this place if I got one really good hot streak. And while we’ve never had that kind of hot streak (nor do we think it’s going to happen for us), just that feeling alone is worth putting a few bucks down on black and seeing what happens. Then you can leave and bike or drive back to Charlevoix for dinner!
That’s it for today. Happy exploring!
Working in vacation country: Become a cheesemaker!
We write a lot of posts about things that you can do in vacation country, and a few of your have pointed out (correctly) that we tend to focus on athletic pursuits. Well, even though that’s our leaning, we understand it’s not necessarily yours, and so we’re continuing our series on working in vacation country with a few careers that are focused more on brains than brawn. Today, we’ll go through what it takes to open a cheesemaking operation!
For starters, how do you feel about waking up in the middle of the night to be knee deep in animal poo while you take care of one of your herd? You should probably come to peace with this — many cheesemakers operate their own farms to guarantee the quality and supply of their milk, and it’s also one of the main ways that you’ll manage the flavor of your cheese. So, for those of you in readerland who have had young children, it’s like that - permanently.
Second, making cheese is an art and a science. As such, you should attend (at the very least) several cheesemaking workshops, and you’ll be far more competent (and confident) if you also take some of the master classes in Wisconsin. These are available in other parts of the world, but make sure you’re going to a reputable school.
Third, and this is probably something you should consider before you really jump into this, the equipment will run you between $150,000 and $250,000 to make cheese in any salable quantity. That’s a lot of scratch, especially in a field where no one makes that much money (at least, the artisinal makers tend not to do that well) - you sell your cheese for $25 - $45 / pound retail, which means that you probably make half of that. If you back into what you need to just recover your up-front investment, you’re probably in the neighborhood of 12,000 pounds of cheese. While that’s not an impossible number, you should expect that it will take you a couple of years to get your production up to the right quality for you to be able to sell this much. And, of course, you’ve still got all of your animal feed costs to deal with, too.
So, with that said, it’s a tough way to make a living. But is that really a bad thing? You still get to spend your time outside, you get to make a product you love (well, we hope you love it — you’ll be eating a lot of it). Plus, a lot of these farms are in beautiful areas where no one else can even think about making a living, so you’ll be able to sit back and relax without the stresses of the modern world… until your animals need you again.
We’re on vacation today!
Well, it’s time for us to take our own great desk escape for a few days! Today, a few of us are heading off to Charlevoix, Michigan for some much needed R&R. Don’t worry, we’ll still be posting the entire time we’re away (we are workaholics, after all). Interested in what we’re going to be doing while we’re there? Well, we’re partial to playing on the lake, and we’re definitely going to jump into one of our friend’s sailboats for a while (and probably borrow a few stand-up paddleboards as well). We also love Esperance and expect to have many, many bottles of wine there. If you want to learn more, please check out our previous post on Charlevoix! And if you’ve got any suggestions for us that we’ve missed, please let us know by messaging us (there’s a link at the bottom of this screen — no need to scroll down).
Hopara Shorts: Two Activities in San Antonio
Today’s we’re taking a break from our desk escapes (after all, we’ve just covered all of New York and New England — we need a break!) to go back to some of our other normal posts. Today, we’re covering San Antonio, Texas, and trying to take you away from the traditional activities you’re normally sent to, like visiting the Alamo or one of the many missions around town (ok, we’re kinda going to do this, but not in the normal way), because we want you to see San Antonio in a different way. So, for today, we’re going to give you one old Texas activity, and one new Texas one:
Old Texas Activity in San Antonio: Bike the Mission Trail in San Antonio
It’s no secret that the missions are the thing to see in San Antonio. However, once you’ve gotten one tour of one mission, the rest are all the same in a lot of ways. The Spanish built them, they’re all architecturally significant and interesting, and there are throngs of tourists visiting them. So rather than going on another tour, we think you should rent a bike (a few easy bets are Abel’s, Bike World, or Alamo Bike Shop, although there are no shortages of good places to rent bikes in this city). Once you’ve rented, take the trek along the river, sticking to the trail. You can stop and see the missions whenever it strikes your fancy - our only caution is that there’s no where to stop along the trail (aside from the odd person here and there selling water out of their backpack), so make sure you bring some supplies with you — this is about a 14-mile round trip, so you’re probably going to get thirsty! Want to extend your ride a bit? Keep heading north to El Mercado, our favorite flea market in the area and about 5 miles from the top of the trail, or for something a little more upscale, go to the Tower of the Americas for the great view of the city instead, which is also about five miles from the trail.
New Texas Activity in San Antonio: Visit the Buckhorn / Texas Ranger Museum
So the ideas of “museum” and “new” don’t really go together, but this isn’t your typical museum. It’s more like a taxidermist’s wet dream, and we can’t think of anything more like Texas than an entire museum dedicated to people shooting things (this also has the Texas Ranger museum, where you can learn the difference between real rangers and Walker). It’s also attached to a reasonably good bar (although for bbq, we recommend Rudy’s outside of town). And yes, we know that there are some very good actual museums in San Antonio (the McNay is definitely worth a trip), but we felt that we should send you somewhere that’s pretty unique to this part of the world instead.
There you have it - two activities in San Antonio! Happy exploring!
The Great Desk Escape: Downtown Brooklyn, New York Edition
We’re finishing our tour of great desk escapes in the New York Metro area with one of our favorites, in Downtown Brooklyn. We love our Brooklynite friends, who seem to believe with all of their being that living and being from Brooklyn means that you’ve passed both an intelligence and coolness test that the rest of us (including all of us at hopara, which is based near the East Village in Manhattan) clearly lack. So we’ve saved some of the best activities for you guys in Brooklyn who can’t stare at your computer monitors anymore. As always, we’ll give you a few activities that take about an hour and give you a break from your day. Here goes:
Downtown Brooklyn Great Desk Escape Activity #1: Tour the Kings County Distillery
Alright, this is really a bonus activity, since these tours are only offered informally from 2:30p to 5:30p on Saturdays, and you can’t call to find out if there’s actually anyone there to offer the tour (there usually is). But if you’re a banker or consultant or some other mucky-muck that works 24/7, this would definitely count as a good break from the day or, at the very least, quiet revenge on your friends who could meet for brunch hours earlier. Besides, the whiskey is pretty good, and it’s the only time you’ll see a still within city limits that’s there legally.
Downtown Brooklyn Great Desk Escape Activity #2: Gallery Tour!
Our friends in Brooklyn — admittedly, many of them are artists — hate the Brooklyn gallery scene. We think that this is because they all dream of being paid $100,000 per painting and having a massive solo show in Chelsea… and while it’s true that the most recognizable stuff is in Manhattan, there are a lot of great artists who get their start or get a lot more freedom in Brooklyn. We think that the best way to do this is to bike down to Brooklyn Bridge Park (come on, you have a bike, right?) and follow Water Street under the Williamsburg to Gay Street and then circle back around, visiting the many, many small galleries in Vinegar Hill along the way. We’d give you a recommendation as to our favorites here, but that’s not really fair — some of these galleries put on a great show sometimes, and a lot of them put on bad shows other times. You just have to visit them all to figure out which one is actually good!
Downtown Brooklyn Great Desk Escape Activity #3: See if you’re a real badass skater punk at McCarren Skatepark
Yup, that same McCarren where people keep getting stabbed by the pool. Don’t worry, the skate park is a little more chill, as long as you’re not a dick to everyone (like, don’t drop in on someone when they’re in a ramp). This is about a 20-minute ride on the G, but we still think that this qualifies under our hour or so time limit because, well, you’ve probably forgotten how much doing tricks on a skateboard hurts and how tiring it is to move your entire body with one leg. But, on the bright side, this is way more fun than you remember it being, and is probably our favorite way to blow off steam for a bit when we’re tired of working!
Downtown Brooklyn Great Desk Escape Activity #4: Visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
We had to give you this one, as it’s one of our favorite places in all of New York. Yes, it’s best with the cherry blossoms in the spring, but if you’re only going there then, you’re missing out! It’s 15 minutes away from downtown Brooklyn on the 2, and it’s even worth visiting on a rainy day (we can easily kill an hour marveling at the plants in the aquatic house in the rain or watching the pitter-patter on the glass roof of the arboretum). It’s also about as far as you can get from feeling surrounded by giant buildings and people who care more about the next presentation than the air we breathe and… oh, wait. We’re starting to sound a bit like hippies. So, instead of us prattling on about how this place is an awesome break, try it out next time you need to escape your desk and tell us - did it relax you?
The Great Desk Escape: Newark, New Jersey
While there are a lot of places around New York City that people work in, we’ve always been a bit fascinated by those among us who commute into Newark. To be fair, there are offices up and down the Hudson shoreline, from Fort Lee down to Secaucus, but Newark just captures our imagination a bit more (by the way, our pick for those of you in Fort Lee is a hike along the Palisades). So here we go — a few activities that can get you away from your desk for about an hour around Newark, New Jersey. And although it’s not an activity and so it can’t make our list, we think that if you spend significant time in Newark, you owe it to yourself to buy a box of hot dogs from Bests.
Newark, New Jersey Great Desk Escape Activity #1: Visit the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart
So Newark isn’t the safest place in the world - we know that, and if you work here, you certainly know that. And this architectural marvel is smack in the middle of one of the worst parts of town, right near Branch Brook Park (which we wish we could recommend, but we can’t due to the general feeling of unease we get whenever we’re there). But missing this cathedral would be a shame — it’s got fantastic architecture and it’s filled with people who really want to make a difference in the community, which makes it inspiring to us in several different ways. We’re good just sitting here contemplating or taking a stroll on the grounds and admiring the fantastic features of the building or, sometimes, trying to help them as they help out Newark.
Newark, New Jersey Great Desk Escape Activity #2: Mini Golf at the Turtle Back Zoo
We thought about sending you roller skating in town instead of this, but we couldn’t resist sending you off to what we think is the best mini golf course in the entire Northeast. It’s about a twenty minute drive from downtown, and it’s 19 holes of awesomeness. The reason we and so many other people love this course so much is that every hole centers around an animal, whether you’re putting around a life-size gorilla or afraid of the hippo. It’s a nice break with some fresh air not all that far from the city. On top of that, you might even learn something about animal habitat!
Newark, New Jersey Great Desk Escape Activity #3: Jog the old racetrack or go to the driving range at Weequahic Park
Our favorite thing about this park isn’t actually the old racetrack, which is a nice surface for running and taking a break from the day (and is only 10 minutes from downtown). It’s the golf course that they built right next to the track, which is one of many in the area (it’s a county course, but the staff is friendly and there’s not much to complain about here), and, more specifically, the driving range, where you can hit balls into the stratosphere as you try and hit the planes landing at Newark Liberty International. Just think — if your boss tells you that you’ve got to fly to Chicago in the morning, and you have to go home and pack, this is a pretty good way to work out some of the aggression you probably feel towards him or her!
That’s it for today! Happy exploring!
