Camping Trip

Our camping trip to Brendan Brye State Forest, NJ started with a sunny day. The camping grounds were totally booked. It was a good move to book ahead.A 2 night camping is the minimum requirement with no option of refund for those 2 nights (refund happens only if above the 2 night booking and various prices. please check their website). We reached around 1230 PM just in time for the check-in which is a few minute stop at the office at the entrance of the forest. It is nearly a 7 minute drive inside the forest from the office to the campgrounds! The facilities were good. The firering was splashed with mud (may be due to the rain).Setting up the tent was pretty quick. The restrooms were neat. 

There is the activity center which is at a stone throw to the campgrounds. There were interesting activities all through the weekend like Rock painting, critters from the pond, and knitting Lanape. This is adjacent to the play ground that has swings and slides for the kids.

The office sells firewood for $7. We did not have to buy as we gathered our own dry sticks lying around the campground. Some of the kids gathered some and sold as well which is the one time that we bought from them.

There are some "carry out your trash" bags a little bigger in size than the grocery store bags. It is a good idea to carry from home. The nearest store to the forest is Wawa which is a 12 minute drive. We pretty much carried everything needed hence, had to visit the store just for fresh milk once of which, they had plenty of stock.

The lake is a beautiful scenery with a wooden gazebo overlooking the lake. There is beach access too from what I learnt from other campers (as we did not visit the beach).

There are awesome trails around the forest with a big loop. There are maps available online to download on the phone or take printouts of before you head out on these trails. Printed maps can be picked up from the office during check-in. BEWARE there are no/very limited signs and there is a high chance of getting lost which happened to us. There are literally no signs/boards indicating mile markers/ road names. Cell phones can double up (though having mixed signals) as a great GPS assistant on such trails.

Atlantic city is a 45 minute drive from this camping place and will make a great day trip from this place.

Jurassic Quest

We were glad that we could not get the tickets at the entrance on saturday evening. Our friends who prebooked for the event online went on saturday afternoon by 130PM and 3 hours inside drained them out due to the overwhelming crowd. 1 hour to stand in the lines to enter,an hour to stand in the lines for the bounce, and an hour all in all to look around and bounce. Best time to visit in the order of preference - Evening of the last day of the Quest, Early mornings or late evenings for the rest of the days. We bought the ticket for sunday but decided to go late in the evening. It was an awesome decision! The crowds were very thin. The only place crowded was at the Dino babies where you can "pet" them and the walking Dinos. 

  

We went with the VIP ticket for the kids that will give access to a lot of stuff and worth those extra dollars. The scheduled tours are quite informative and enthusiatic.The guide pops Qs for the Adults and kids as well as taking Qs from the kids, giving off free mementos of Fossil Dinosaurs as prizes for the correct answers. As that happened to be the last tour of the day and for the Quest (the last day of the Quest in our area), he gave away  extra mementos for the 2 families who were in the group. Hey, that was as good as having your personal tour guide! He has a microphone so we can hear him well and takes us through all the exhibits. The best way to view those! 

The movie was kind of ok and after the Scheduled tour, if you plan to skip the movie, you are not missing anything. There is the huge pits where the kids can dig dinosaur fossils. Kids with VIP band can get a free fossil kit at the Excavation station in addition. There are the dinosaur rides which will have lines based on which dinosaur you go for. T-Rex seem to have the most lines.We could not find the dinosaur jeeps but similar to it, the kids can ride a walking dinosaur. They had 2 arenas one for the toddlers with mini dinos and one for the kids.This is a nice funny ride to see your kids riding on the dinosaur like they ride a pony.

We did not go for the face painting(additional charges), or the crafts table. The balloons were quite interesting and as we headed to the balloon table to buy one, it was closing time and they gave away the display balloons for free being the last day of the quest!

The kids enjoyed it thoroughly and we enjoyed the exibhits and the informative tour. A great way to spend an evening but and we were up and until 8 PM from 5 PM on the last day of Quest.