In early January, we went to West Point to watch a basketball game and visit the West Point Museum. This is a great wintery day activity and it is a quick drive from Northern NJ/NYC. The tickets are only $10 each, are almost always available (even at the last minute) and the kids love the atmosphere of a college game. There is one game left in the season this weekend but if basketball isn't your thing, there are still a few hockey games on the schedule and in the spring, baseball starts up.

We were lucky to get tickets to the Army-Navy game, which was almost completely sold out. It was great as all the cadets were there to cheer on their team as well as quite a few midshipmen and it made the game that much more exciting. One tip if you go, allow plenty of time to get through the security checkpoint at the entrance of the Academy as we did not and missed the first half!

After the game, we went over to the Museum located next to the Visitor's Center. Admission is free and it takes about 2-3 hours to go through it. This was our second visit but there is so much to see we found things we had missed on our previous trip. There are fantastically detailed dioramas detailing famous battles throughout history (Jack's favorite part), a kid's scavenger hunt you can pick up in the gift shop, and uniforms from every era of the American military from the Revolution to the present.

On the way home we stopped for an early dinner at The Burger Loft in New City. The restaurant grinds its own beef daily so not surprisingly the burgers were delicious as were the fish tacos, fries and shakes. In fact, everything was so good we all agreed we would willingly drive the 1 hour round-trip from our house just to eat here again.