From Beaches to mountains and everything in between. If you want to go skiing, go to North Jersey's Mountain Creek. If you want to go to the shore, you have numerous beaches to choose from. You name it - we have it.

Only the greatest breakfast/lunch sandwich to ever been born. Rarely can you find it in Pennsylvania. But along the coastline of New Jersey you will not find a better sandwich.

We have more diners in a square mile than you can count on your hands AND toes. Why is this awesome? The answer is choice. Don't feel like going to Queen Diner tonight? Go to Princess Maria's. And no matter what they all have the best french fries.

What exit are you? No where else can you drive for 15 mph for a solid three hours and go only 45 miles from your starting point. Awesome? I believe so.

The Garden State. You may laugh but the truth is… you all wish you lived here. Why else would the parkway be crowded year-round? Why else would there be a diner every other mile? Why else would pork-roll be attempted to be re-created in other states? Why else would people relentlessly crowd our spaces with their outside ways? The answer. Tourists love Jersey.

Appetizer and Lunch

A waiter swiftly comes with a mouth-watering salad; you pick up a fork and dig in. The lettuce crunches in your mouth as you bite down on them. You look around and see other people eating many different things. The enriching smell over takes you as you look at your plate. You see an enchilada overflowing with seasoned meat. You take a bite and the taste almost makes you drool. The chefs must have taken forever preparing this for you. Then you realize the main course came to you in about fifteen minutes. You just shrug it off and continue your meal. Only half way done with your main course and you are stuffed like never before. After you finish with the enchilada, you notice a taco to the side. You take a several bites, and before you know it, the taco is gone. You yawn and slouch in you chair. You breathe in the aromas of the different spices. You realize that you cannot manage one more bite only to discover you have ordered dessert.

Dessert

Your eyes virtually pop out of your head. Your thoughts of being full vanish. You smell chocolate and ice cream blending together. You see a chocolate taco with ice cream and whip cream piled on top of each other. You grab your spoon and start shoveling the desert down your throat. You pick up the chocolate taco and bite into it: ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate melt into your mouth. The mouth-watering dessert is gone in a snap. Then you slouch back into your chair feeling sleepy. Then you hear a waiter saying that the bill is ready.

Bill

You slowly, oh so very slowly reach across the table. You grab a little black book. Then you open it slowly. You wish you had not eaten so much. Based on the quality of the food and the speed at which it arrived, this is probably going to be an expensive restaurant. Sweat rolls down your cheeks. The numbers on the check blur in your excitement. Then you come back to your senses. You look at the total and sigh. By some miracle, your appetizers, main course, and dessert were only twelve dollars!

Waiters

Like many restaurants, this could be one of the most enjoyable moments of your day with the atmosphere and delicious food. An additional benefit to eating here would be the ability to converse in Spanish with your waiter. It is not often you get this opportunity and, as the entire staff is Hispanic, they can cheerfully brush you up on your Spanish speaking skills.

Conclusion

At Don Jose, you get distinctly quality food at an amazingly affordable price. The tables are against the wall giving the restaurant a spacious feeling. If you wanted to, you could even eat outside on a patio. The waiters there are very friendly and provide fast service. The only down fall would be that the waiters can be hard to understand at times. They speak fluent English. What makes them hard to understand is their accent. This can cause confusion and sometimes mixed up orders.

We are only a half hour away from Philadelphia, two hours away from New York, and an hour away from all the wonderful beaches. We are right in the middle of everything. So what ever you are in the mood for, we've got it.

A couple of the first settlers were the English and the Welsh farmers. They came here because our town has really fertile farming soil, so they could plant there crops. Our home town was founded in 1676. It was called Evesham. It was called that because Thomas Eves came to Marlton in 1676. Also Elizabeth and William Evans were with him so they named a street after them and an elementary school too. It was a village at one time in the past. In 1845 the name Marlton came from our soil. Marl clay, it is very fertile. Since I was talking about the founders how about our events and landmarks.

One of our landmarks is the Promenade. The Promenade is an outside mall. Some of the stores are L.L. Bean, P.F. Change, and Cold Stone. And it has wonderful pond with a water fountain. For another thing our soccer field, Savage Fields is an Indian burial ground. If you dig it up you might be able to find arrowheads and artifacts like that. In addition to the soccer fields, there are many more sports like football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. It is for R.E.C, Marlton Rec Council. The Blue Barn is where you play some of the sports at. It is a really fun camp, in the summer. And George W. Bush visited there in 2004. As you can see there are a lot of sports so growing up in Marlton is really fun as a kid.

When you grow up in Marlton there are a lot of nice people and is in the top Two Hundred safest towns in New Jersey. So you don't have to worry about bad people hurting you. That why Marlton is the best town to live in.

New Jersey Hiking Trail for Kids - Monument Trail

This New Jersey hiking trail is found in High Point State Park in Sussex, NJ. It is named for the large monument to war veterans. The path is nearly five miles long and requires a long climb up many stairs to reach the top. This is a challenging path with several sections of boulders to scramble across. It is best suited for older kids with some hiking experience.

New Jersey Hiking Trail for Kids - Cedar Swamp

The Cedar Swamp trail is in Wawayanda State Park in the Highland Lakes area of north Jersey. This is an easy four-mile hiking trail for kids. It has a small elevation gain that should not cause any trouble.

The main attraction of the Cedar Swamp hiking trail is the long boardwalk that takes you through a real cedar swamp. There are many swamp plants, birds, and frogs in this interesting ecosystem.

New Jersey Hiking Trail for Kids - Lost Brook Preserve

This is another easy hiking trail for kids in New Jersey. It is about four miles and begins at the Tenafly Nature Center where you and your kids can speak to a naturalist and view various animals, insects, and birds from the area.

This hiking trail winds through woods and fields and passes the tiny Pfister's Pond. The area is abundant in wildflowers.

New Jersey Hiking Trail for Kids - Jenny Jump

The Jenny Jump state forest in Hope, New Jersey offers multiple easy to moderate hiking trails for kids and their parents. The main trail is a three mile long loop with a moderate elevation gain.

This hiking trail gives you pleasing vistas of the farmland below and the Kittatiny Mountain ridge.

New Jersey Hiking Trail for Kids - Washington Crossing State Park

Washington Crossing State Park is near the famous site of George Washington crossing the Delaware River. The park actually spans the river with areas in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

There are many hiking trails perfect for kids in this park. There is also a Nature Center crammed with hands-on exhibits, playgrounds, and an open-air theater.

New Jersey Hiking Trail for Kids - Allaire State Park

The main draw of Allaire State Park is Allaire Village, a historic site peopled by reenactors that educate and entertain. Beyond the village, there are almost four miles of hiking trails that are perfect for kids. After hiking, the kids might like a ride on the Pine Creek railroad, a steam train in the park.

She is quite tall. Most people would have reluctant feelings about dating someone 60 feet taller than they are. Please take into consideration that she comes from a very well to do family and is currently living on a beautiful plot of beach in the city of Margate, New Jersey. It is a lovely section of land complete with wrought iron fence.

I understand that you may have reservations about her height, and have to admit that there are other shocking dimensions about her. Her ears, as it turns out, are in their own right quite prodigious. Several people that I must admit are much more intelligent than I am have estimated that each would weight in the neighborhood of 2,000 pounds. In all fairness to this lady, you hardly notice them next to her gigantic head, itself measuring some 48 feet in circumference. Rest assured, however, that she is quite well connected in society. She has been host to United States Presidents and innovators of industry, who all spoke fondly of her.

I am sure you have noticed some alarming numbers up until this point. She is a big gal; there is no point in denying it. As you have read this far, I assume that you would not mind me mentioning just two more items that many of the more shallow people in the world these days would be unable to overlook. Her height and ear size make for a frame that can be seen clearly from space with the proper satellite technology. Also there is the matter of her tusks. I ask you simply to look once into her beautiful eyes and I guarantee you will fall in love with her, just as I did.

Her name is Lucy. Did I mention that she is an elephant?

James Vincent de Paul Lafferty, Jr. wanted to attract buyers to his plots in then named South Atlantic City. At the time, the only buildings were a handful of fishing huts. By the end of 1881, however, there was a new inhabitant of South Atlantic City. She was a 65-foot tall elephant-shaped building, complete with observation howdah perched on her back. Lafferty was so taken with the elephant that he applied for and received patent from the U.S. Government.

Lucy was the first of three elephant-buildings designed by James Lafferty. Her sisters, the Light of Asia of South Cape May and Elephantine Colossus of Coney Island, were both built three years later in 1884. Only Lucy remains. Elephantine Colossus, the largest at a whopping 122 feet tall, caught fire and burned to the ground in 1896. The smallest of the three behemoths, the Light of Asia deteriorated beyond repair, and the owners purposely torched her in 1900. Maybe it was blind luck, but in my heart, I think it was because Lucy was made of something stronger.

By 1887, Lafferty was looking to rid himself of his Jersey Shore land. Lucy found a new owner in Anton Gertzen. From there, Lucy was passed down the Gertzen line, surviving a short stint as a tavern and several violent storms, including a 1944 hurricane that destroyed almost everything else on the New Jersey coastline. After almost 90 years in the Gertzen family, Lucy was donated to Margate due in large part to the work of the Margate Civic Association. Despite legal red tape and a variety of odd obstacles, Lucy was moved in 1970 to her present location two blocks south of the original and heavy restoration began.

I first went to meet this lovely lady fully expecting leave shaking my head, overwhelmed with a sense of tackiness. Lucy was, for me, the first planned stop on a trip that would take me from my home in Ohio, to Atlantic City, and then all the way down the eastern coast to Charleston, South Carolina. I had learned about her on accident. While searching for fun and strange stops along the way, I came across her web site. I mentioned to my traveling companion that it would be a laugh to stop and see. I fully expected to leave disappointed, having built up in my mind what I expected to be the end all-be all of roadside attractions.

As we grew closer and road weariness began to set in, I found myself calling out the big girl's name. A bizarre excitement poured over me. While I did not want to admit it at the time, I felt as if I was at the edge of a life changing experience. I was not prepared for what I felt when the light reflecting off her tin skin entered my eyes and burned onto my retinas, a sensation only slightly marred by the fact that the first view was of her cumbersome backside.

“Lucy the Elephant!” I screamed so loud that my voice failed slightly, and my companion chuckled. I whipped the car across two lanes of traffic, all four tires screaming, and dove into the small parking lot adjacent to the beautiful lass. I jammed the vehicle into the first spot I found, threw the door open and jumped out, all pretensions of adulthood thrown aside. Suddenly I was five again, and surely that elephant in front of me was the biggest thing ever built. I stood with mouth gaping open, corners turned up slightly in a goofy sort of smile. Once rational thoughts returned, surprisingly her size was not the dominant focus. “She's beautiful,” I thought. “I've never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life.”

We did not waste much time before I insisted on entering the gift shop. “Welcome to Lucy,” the woman inside greeted with a large smile. “Have you ever been here before?” I am sure she could tell that I had not. She sees that look all the time on faces of the young and old alike. I somehow found the words to express that it was my first time and that I had to have two tickets for the tour. Then again, maybe she just guessed based on my stunned face and sheepish child's grin, as I really do not remember saying anything. I stumbled around the gift shop only briefly, taking in elephants of all size and nature, before the tour guide announced that it was time to start.

We entered through her hind leg and ascended a set of stairs to the main room making up most of the inner belly of Lucy. Through windows in her side I could see the original inner shell, Lucy artifacts, and out through her eyes to Lucy's view of the ocean. The tour guide pointed out two wooden handrails. The first was an original; the second was a reproduction. Proudly, the old handrail is standing the test of time better than the new one, which is already showing signs of splitting.

After another climb, we found ourselves atop the elephant, taking in the 360-degree view from her howdah. From the perch, one can see up the coast to Atlantic City, not to mention Margate's water tower, complete with painting of the wonderful Lucy. As the ocean breeze blew by me, I knew that leaving was going to be hard. I know it will be for you, too. This is one woman you simply must meet.

I love you, Lucy, and I promise to visit you very soon. Wait until you meet this guy I set you up with. I think he is just your style.