I (Paul) recently took a trip to ride roller coasters in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, with a little time to check out other attractions in the area. I flew up to Philadelphia and spent the week of memorial day driving around. I did miss a few credits but for the most part I rode what I wanted, getting 22 new coasters. Rain threatened parts of the trip, but on the one completely rainy day I took a break from coasters and visited some museums. This won't be a full blog post, just some highlights. On to the pictures!
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| Landing in Philly at sunset. |
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| First coaster of the trip, at FunPlex. |
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| Second stop - Dutch Wonderland, where I picked up one new credit. |
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| And Dorney Park to close out the coasters for the day. |
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| Iron Menace was new for me. |
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| I went into downtown Allentown for dinner. |
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| Beer sampler time! |
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| The next morning started at Sesame Place, where unfortunately Oscar's Wacky Taxi was closed. |
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| I stopped by the New Jersey state museum in Trenton. |
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| The museum, next to the capitol building. |
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| Next stop - Six Flags Great Adventure. There were three new credits for me here. |
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| The Flash is a great coaster, but too low capacity for this park. |
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| Jersey Devil was great! |
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| Next up was a couple of seaside parks, starting with Jenkinson's boardwalk. |
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| And then Casino Pier. |
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| 360 degree panoramic from the beach next to Casino Pier. |
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| Dinner in downtown Tom's River. |
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| The next day was rainy all day, so I found some indoor things to do. Here's a cool Russian church I drove by. |
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| "Otherworld" in Philadelphia was a really neat huge indoor interactive art exhibit. |
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| The pictures don't do it justice, it was really fun to explore. |
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| One of my favorite rooms. |
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| Some kind of shag carpet monsters. |
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| Lunch in Bryn Athyn. |
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| I took a tour of the Bryn Athyn catherdral. |
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| The exterior of the cathedral. |
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| I also toured the Glencairn estate. |
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| This was their *living room* |
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| A cool mosaic. |
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| Rainy view of Philadelphia from the tower of Glencairn. |
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| Interesting wheeled eyeball angels. |
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| A mosaic I really liked. |
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| They also had a number of history exhibits in the estate, including an Egyptian room. |
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| You didn't think it would be a coasterless day, did you? I found an indoor one at iPlay America. |
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| Brooklyn pizza for dinner! |
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| The next day was another rainy day, and many parks were closed due to it being a weekday, so I did some more exploring - starting with Princeton. |
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| Princeton University entrance gates. |
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| Some monks at Princeton. |
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| Princeton cathedral. |
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| Next stop - the Philadelphia museum of art, one of my favorite museums. |
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| They had an exhibit of 1940s art. |
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| One of the courtyard/cloisters - the museum has multiple of these. |
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| A Japanese room. |
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| The center of the museum. |
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| People lining up to see the Rocky statue. |
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| Next stop - Medford, a cute little town. |
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| There are several breweries. |
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| I tried King's Road. |
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| Started the next day with a quick visit to the water in Island Heights. |
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| First coaster of what would be a coaster-filled day, Cinderoller Coaster. |
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| Ramen for lunch! |
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| The Barnegat Lighthouse. |
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| Almost there! :) |
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| View from the top. |
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| The New Jersey maritime museum. |
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| OK, time for more coasters - I had to wait for Fantasy Island to open at 5pm. |
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| Playland's Castaway Cove opened at 6pm and I got all 4 coasters in short order. |
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| Three of the four coasters are visible here. |
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| Boardwalk parks are charming. |
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| Final credits at Morey's Piers. |
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| Runaway Tram was a new one for me. |
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| The park is spread across three piers. |
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| Another credit! |
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| Unfortunately Great White has not reopened yet. |
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| Ending the day with frozen custard, just as a rainstorm started. |
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| I started my final day with a delicious cold brew from Yellow Dog roasters. |
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| The Atlantic City lighthouse. |
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| Time to climb! |
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| View from the top. |
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| Atlantic city has some great old architecture but unfortunately is quite rundown. |
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| White House subs for lunch. |
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| Steel Pier was my objective for the day. Although they were testing the new coaster, I waited around for a couple hours and they told me it would be 2-3 more hours before it opened. So I missed the credit. :( |
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| Last stop - a Swedish American museum near the airport. |
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| The main hall of the museum. |
That wrapped up my trip - pretty successful despite several rainy days!
