Destination: Oddsville. Here are five kid-friendly summer destinations you never thought of

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19 hours ago

The beach, the pool, the theme park, the water park, the campground.
You can count the classic summer family activities on one hand.
But what about the other hand?
Where can you take the kids that they haven't been a million times? What activities don't involve swim trunks, wristbands, tick inspection, and the Garden State Parkway at 5 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon?
Here are five less ordinary places to visit in New Jersey. Odd places. Interesting places. Places that, in some cases, are even a tiny bit sinister. A word that derives from the Latin term for left-handed.
These are the places you can count on the other hand.
Take them haunting
Ghosts are like any other kind of tenant. There are good ones and bad ones.
"Everything we have here is good," said Rebecca Gruber, tour manager of the Paranormal Museum in Asbury Park. "At most, there is mischievous energy. Nothing evil."
So there's nothing for your children to be scared of. Nothing at all.
True, Jerry Mahoney, the ventriloquist's dummy that occupies a niche in the upstairs rooms, has a habit of moving on his own. "We've found him on the floor," Gruber said. "The building is old, and it is kind of slanted. We're skeptics. Could he have just fallen off? Of course. But he gives people the creeps."
And then there's the sofa, created in the 19th century by Thomas Day — a free man of color from North Carolina, who taught enslaved people the furniture trade, and then sent them out into the world as free, skilled craftsmen.
It sings.
"He would hear it singing when he laid down in it, and he took it as a sign of God telling him to keep doing what he was doing," Gruber said. "To this day, people hear singing."
This, like most of the other 130 artifacts in the upstairs rooms (the downstairs houses the affiliated Paranomral Books & Curiosities bookstore), was donated. People, for some reason, seem more than willing to part with their haunted artifacts.
You'll see demonic dolls, creepy-looking skulls, and death masks of Abraham Lincoln — along with a genuine lock of the 16th president's hair.
"We talk about Lincoln's relationship to the paranormal, and how he and his wife practiced spritualism," Gruber said. "She would transate his dreams. They don't teach you that part in school."
There is no individual admission to the museum: guided tours for up to 6 people are $120. But for a family of six, that comes out to $20 apiece — a whole lot cheaper than Six Flags. "I would say he museum itself is an ongoing investigation," Gruber said. "And everybody who comes upstairs becomes part of that investigation."
A range of guided tours, geared to different interests, can be arranged through the museum: "Ghosts of the Boardwalk," "Spirits of Asbury Park," and so on. Advanced booking is recommended. 621 Cookman Ave, Asbury Park. paranormalbooksnj.
Drive them buggy
A city infested with insects? That might not be your idea of a tourist destination.
But as your kids will discover — to their delight — Insectropolis, a Toms River attraction, has all the trappings of a real metropolis.
It has high rises: terrariums, stacked up four high, each with its own tarantula. "Hello, my name is William" reads the label on one friendly resident.
It has fine dining. "Larvets" BBQ worm larvae snacks and "Hotlix" scorpion suckers are just some of the taste treats available at the gift shop.
It even has a crime problem. "Mass murderers" reads the sign above the enormous models of mosquitos, houseflies and other disease-carrying pests, each behind bars in its own prison cell. Luckily, there is also police. Beneficial, pest-eating insects are labeled "TOP C.O.P.S." ("Carnivores Of Pest Species").
Here, in this 7,200 feet of exhibit area, kids will also find a tank full of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, a working beehive, and exhibits on the evolution of termite control. Not to mention giant models of insect mandibles, and many cheerful facts about crustaceans. ("Think you've never eaten a bug? THINK AGAIN!")
In short, there are more bugs here than in the Russian embassy.
"There's a ridiculous number of insects here," said program coordinator Diane Redzinak. Her family runs Ozane Pest Control; 20 years ago, owner Chris Koerner opened this attraction as a way to give back to the insect community. Or at least, improve their public relations.
"There are so many cool things about bugs, and nobody talks about them," Redzinak said. Some of them, like the tarantulas, even make good pets. Though she admits they might not be the best snugglers. "I'm a cat person," she said.
$14 per visitor; kids 2 and under are free. 1761 Route 9, Toms River. insectropolis.com
Go off the beaten track
A trip to Northlandz, in Flemington, is not just a visit to the Guinness world record holder for world's largest model train layout. It's a journey into one man's unique mind.
The model trains that zigzag through the fantastic 52,000 square foot panorama, stretching over 16 rooms at multiple levels, are just one of the things that will intrigue your kids.
There are also model planes. Battleships. Antique autos. Military uniforms. Several gigantic pipe organs. Several miniature toy pianos. Dolls and dollhouses galore. Spaceships from "Star Wars," and action figures from "The Wizard of Oz."
But most of all, there is mystery.
What do all those things have in common? Who built this extravaganza, and what were they thinking?
That enigma is at the heart of the place — though one learns, via the signage, that Northlandz was the creation of Bruce Williams Zaccagnino in 1996, that his model train set had outgrown his house, that he was an organist as well as a model railroad enthusiast, and that the dolls weren't his.
"The dolls are actually his wife's," said Jerry Jewels, who services all the engines, boxcars, and tenders that run along Northlandz's eight miles of track.
"The detail and the sheer size of the place is what really gets people," Jewels said. "At first you're like, OK, it's just one room, and then there's another room, and another," he said. "And then you walk out into the canyons and it just blows your mind. It's almost like you become part of it."
What he's talking about is the vast spaces, three stories high, where bridges criss-cross over ravines, and model trains at various scales (mostly H-O and G gauge) trundle past miniature villages, amusement parks, cities, strip mines, and "the world's largest toothpick farm."
That's the kind of detail that makes you wonder what the founder was thinking.
Also, the mysterious "grandma" who seems to be a recurring character in the Northlandz display. "The story goes that they were doing a strip mine and grandma didn't want to sell her house, so they built the strip mine around grandma's house," Jewels said.
Along with the indoor displays, Northlandz also has a narrow-gauge railroad on the ground that kids can ride.
Kids are, of course, who electric trains were originally intended for — though model railroading, these days, is usually thought of as a senior-citizen hobby. That may be changing — not least because of attractions like Northlandz. Perhaps, Jewels said, electric trains simply skipped a generation.
"I have a bunch of friends who are into it, who are my age and younger," said Jewels, who is 30. "It's thrilling to see younger people who are into it. The hobby isn't dying."
Northlandz is at 495 Route 202, Flemington. $32.50 for kids, $40 for adults, group packages and senior discounts available. northlandz.com
Take them to the wizard's tower
Wizards have towers. This was clearly established in "The Lord of the Rings" — though even J.R.R. Tolkien himself could never say whether the two towers in "The Two Towers" were Orthanc, Barad-dûr, or Minas Morgul.
What's true of Middle Earth is also true of Middle Jersey.
Our Wizard — the Wizard of Menlo Park — also has a tower. It can be found at the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park, located in — where else? — Edison. It's 131 feet high, and surmounted by a light bulb. Anyway, a representation of one.
"Part of the tour is going to the base of the tower to see the eternal light," said Kathleen Carlucci, director of the center. "We try to keep it always lit. As long as we don't lose power."
But the tower, dedicated in 1938, is not really the main attraction of the site (you can't climb it in any case). Though it is impressive. And it does commemorate the amazing work done on this spot from 1876 to 1887, when Thomas Alva Edison perfected the incandescent electric light, the phonograph, and dozens of other inventions that made his name.
The real interest of this site is a small museum, only 800 square feet, that houses some of Edison's most marvelous gizmos.
It's much smaller than the Thomas Edison National Historic Park in West Orange — the site of his latter-day house and factory. But the Menlo Park site (a non-profit) packs a lot into a little space.
There are electric batteries, telegraph equipment, electric pens, generators, and of course, some of the earliest lightbulbs.
There are five working phonographs — from the first tinfoil-cylinder models, to more sophisticated disc players that Carlucci or others will be happy to demonstrate for you. "Everyone's Home Except My Wife," Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer," and "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream" are some top discs on the Edison hit parade.
If you're very well-behaved, they might even show you the little toy "limberjack" man who dances a little jig when you attach him to the phonograph spindle. "Of course he does the same dance no matter what's playing," Carlucci said.
When you tire of all this, you and the family can take a stroll around the grounds — there are 36 acres of nature trails — and contemplate Edison's genius.
"People come away with a better understanding of the incredible work and brilliance of Thomas Edison," Carlucci said. "His brilliance is that he doesn't just create one thing at a time. He has many irons on the fire. This is the birthplace of research and development."
Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park, 37 Christie Street, Edison. Public hours Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. $5 for kids, $7 for adults. menlopark museum.org.
Have a picnic in the poles
New Jersey — the Garden State — is famous for its crops. Tomatoes, blueberries, cranberries are to be found at any farmer's market. But have you seen where they grow telephone poles?
Some 700 can be viewed, high as an elephant's eye, at Chester's Highland Ridge Park. They've been growing there since 1928, when AT&T set up the land as a testing ground.
You might think there's nothing to being a telephone pole. Standing up straight is the full job description. But it is, as The Big Lebowski would say, an activity with a lot of ins and outs.
The weather in the northeast is highly variable — freezing at times, broiling at others. Some kinds of wood, some kinds of chemical treatments, are more effective against the elements. AT&T was going to discover just which ones.
By the 1980s, they'd had enough. They abandoned the site, which in 2004 it was incorporated into the town. You can visit them in their parkland setting and wonder. You can have a picnic in the poles.
And when you're done, you can visit nearby Chester, a quaint old town full of stores with names like Comfortably Chic, Perfect Treasure, Better With Tyme, and Main Street Misfits Toys & Collectables.
What better way to end a polar expedition?
Highland Ridge Park, County Road 510, Chester.chestertownship.org/index.php/parks/township-parks/highlands-ridge-park
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Have the summer doldrums? Here are five offbeat day trips.
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