THE DESTINATION
Liberty Science Center in Jersey City

THE JOURNEY
For me, the journey is the destination in this case, and if you have young kids or folks visiting from out of town, it’s a great outing.
Going there, we took the PATH one stop to Exchange Place. You then walk around the corner to grab the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (it’s crazy to see tracks at grade!) towards Bayonne to Liberty Park. (Tickets are $2.25 on the station platform, though no one ever collected our tickets.) The walk from the light rail stop at the museum has cool science-y references embedded into the sidewalks.

Coming home we walked the 25 minutes to the NY Waterways ferry terminal at Paulus Hook that took one stop to Battery Park City’s Vesey Street dock, because we wanted to walk through Jersey City. But the Liberty Harbor stop is much closer; you need the app to get tickets and you have to transfer at Paulus Hook. OR you can take the Liberty Landing CityFerry, which does a quick stop at Warren Street in JC before heading to BPC.

There are other ways to skin this cat. You can also grab a Citi Bike and go door to door, and I am sure there is some sort of cab service out there.

THE DETAILS
We had a young cousin in town, so my daughter and I planned to take her to the Minecraft show at the science center. I would say the show — much like other exhibits at museums (we also went to Philly to see the Harry Potter show) was mediocre, but fun enough. The rest of the center is pretty cool — there is a suspended climbing apparatus, a excavation dig, the planetarium and my favorite: the giant and creepy Hudson River fish and erosion exhibit.

Don’t expect the Museum of Natural History — nothing compares. Instead think solid museum in a smallish city and you won’t be disappointed.

PIT STOP
There are all sorts of options in Jersey City, but we went with a spot on our walk to the ferry because the outdoor seating looked so nice: Light Horse Tavern. But there’s a diverse cuisine in JC, and next time I would refer to Eater’s list here.

ADD ON
Liberty State Park is either an add-on or an alternative to the museum. We didn’t go there this trip, but the 9/11 memorial — Empty Sky — is on the water at the north end of the park, along with the restaurants and the marina. The boardwalk is 2 miles long, so that alone would be worth the trip.