InfoAge Science & History Museum
In the planning stage, the trip to the InfoAge Science and History Museum in Wall, New Jersey, seemed like an afterthought, an add-on, a place to visit in cold weather where we could view some decommissioned military equipment and then head for lunch. So wrong! We could have spent a day here and not seen everything.
First, the trains. With two large rooms filled with active train sets, there’s lots of noise and plenty to see. Some tracks even allow kids to operate the locomotives.
Then on to the military stuff. This museum is heavily oriented toward early stage military communications, like radio. The buildings were originally constructed as Camp Evans during World War One by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company as part of a project to wirelessly surround the planet. The equipment on display in this museum is the ancestor of all the wireless gadgets we use today.
The museum is stocked with a small army of retired guys who are dying to impart their knowledge. We let them tell us everything they know—good for them and good for us.
Five Sullivan brothers enlisted in the Navy and requested to serve on the same ship, which sank with all them onboard.
Exhibits include the 1940s-1960s mainframes, 1960s-1970s minicomputing, 1970s-1990s microcomputing, and modern technology.
The M-209 converter was a small and rugged machine that required no batteries to encipher and decipher messages in the field during WWII.
A wedding dress constructed from parachute material.
Asbury Park Boardwalk
Asbury Park is a short drive away. Our original intent was to Christmas shop in historic Convention Hall. The shopping there is somewhat disappointing, though, but it’s a brisk, beautiful walk along the boardwalk (one of the best boardwalks on the Jersey Shore) to get there. Most of the stores along the way are closed for the winter, but not the Silverball Retro Arcade, well worth a visit if you’re into pinball machines.
Kimchi Mama
We heard about this Korean restaurant on Asbury Park’s Main Street, and it does not disappoint. A family-run operation, they serve bowls of kimchi and piping hot tea both before and during the meal. The Korean pancakes and chicken hot stone bowl counter the cold and satisfy our tastebuds. We also like the décor, subdued and a world apart from the street scene outside.
In sum, a surprisingly interesting museum, a great lunch, and a good walk on the boardwalk.