I’ll admit I have a soft spot for themed family restaurants.  That may be why I love almost every restaurant in Disney World.  I also luck out by having New York City and Philadelphia so close by that they also have quite a few of these, Gump & Co, and the Jekyll & Hyde Club are just a couple I can think of.  I’m no foodie but as long as the atmosphere is fun, service good and the food at least edible I’ll give the place a chance.  Once of my all time favorites is the Rainforest Cafe chain.

I remember the first time visiting one of these as a teenager and just being blown away, and I think that initial experience stuck with me that I keep going back whenever I can.  We used to have quite a few of these nearby but over the years they have been slowly closing up.  There is one in Atlantic City that I visited earlier this year and posted about, but this time I visited the only other location in Jersey which is located at the Menlo Park Mall in Edison.

The fun begins as soon as you walk up to the restaurant.  Even if you  There is front desk to check in and “Start you adventure”, and in the event you need to wait for your table, not to worry there is a nice big gift store filled with all sorts of things your kids will beg you for.

Right next to the gift shop is a very nice bar with all sorts of Rainforest-y inspired drinks both alcoholic and non.  The animal themes even continue in here, I mean who wouldn’t want to sit on one of those chairs.  Not much lumbar support but you should be leaning forward enjoying your drink anyways so no biggie.

We eventually made it to our table in the middle of the jungle and Hanna was immediately given a special Cha-Cha piece of headwear to put on.  Cha-Cha is one of the Rainforest Cafe mascots and I believe is some type of tree frog.

As you wait for your food there is a lot of things to look at.  Luckily when we went it was early so there weren’t too many people there and we were able to wander around without intruding on anyone’s lunch.

  

There are some animatronic Elephants, Butterflies, and even some Gorillas that come to life periodically and keep things interesting.  Every 30 minutes or so there is even a thunderstorm that really gets the animals riled up.

Lunch eventually showed up and everyone enjoyed their entrée.  When we were done Hanna asked for one last tour around to say goodbye to all the animals.  Then we headed back out to the gift shop area.  Just like every other Rainforest Cafe location I have ever visited they have a penny machine.  One really cool thing about their machines are that the designs always includes the location of the restaurant.  This makes a cool subset of coins that can be collected as you check out all their different locations across the country.  Plus they take up a lot less room than the souvenir glasses they always try to get you to buy.

The machine worked really smoothly and pressed the designs nicely.  There were some children nearby that immediately ran over when I started using the machine.  They wanted to asked questions and I walked them through what the machine was doing and showed them the final products.  They seemed impressed and ran off no doubt to ask their parents for some extra change.

The designs include: Bamba the Gorilla, NJ Turnpike, Cha-Cha the Frog, and Nile the Crocodile.  You can also get Rainforest Cafe penny booklets in the gift shop.

This location only had the Second Edition available, but I have seen the First Edition available from time to time you just have to keep looking.

Here’s a close up of the special penny available on the Second Edition booklet.  It has three of the Rainforest Cafe characters: Tuki the Elephant, Cha-Cha the Tree Frog, and Rio the Macaw.

Here’s a little secret.  I can’t guarantee this is even still available but a few years ago when I visited this location to use the penny machine I also bought the penny booklet.  While at the register paying for the booklet the cashier asked if I collected pressed pennies.  I told her I did and she pulled out a bag from under the counter and offered me a special gift.

The Rainforest Cafe used to have a Safari Club that you could join and accumulate points with each meal that would be used to pay for future appetizers and other things.  This was a special pressed penny they would give to anyone that signed up for the Safari Club.  The cashier didn’t make me sign up for the club (although I probably would have if needed to get the coin), I was truly grateful to her for offering this to me.

I have talked with other collects and not many people seemed to know about this coin.  I still don’t know if all their locations offered this at some point, or if you can even still get it.  I have asked from time to time hoping to try and get another one, but I always get a confused look from the employee so I think this may not be available anymore.  But it doesn’t hurt to ask, and don’t be afraid to tell people you collect pressed coins, you never know who may have a special one to give out.  You’ll never know unless you ask.

Looking for something different to do with the kids?  Well located in Toms River New Jersey is a really neat little place, although some people may find it a bit creepy crawly.  Insectropolis is completely filled with bugs, but in a good way I guess.

The outside doesn’t do this place justice, but as soon as you walk in you are transported into a bug-themed city.  There are thousands of bugs on display both alive and not but beautifully displayed with a lot of detailed information.

  

They do also offer a learning session that also includes the change to touch some unique bugs like large millipedes, beetles and of course a tarantula.  I will be honest I’m not much of a bug person especially spiders so I kept my distance but there were many people much braver (and younger) than I that couldn’t get enough of the bugs.

After you have had your fill of  bugs there is a penny machine located right inside the main door.  No admission is required to use the machine so if you are squeamish and not up to seeing the bugs you I guarantee you the machine is in a bug free zone.

The machine pressed 4 designs.  They did press a little short but the designs still appeared mostly complete.  The designs were: Monarch Butterfly, Ladybird Beetle, Emperor Scorpion, and a Tarantula.

These pennies are also knows an mules as they also had a back stamp on each coin.  The back stamp listed “Ozane’s bugseum of New Jersey”.  I’m not sure if this was the original name of the place or not but either way still pretty cool.

Whether you’re an entomology fan, or just trying to face your fears (One of these days I’ll touch the Spider…nah who am I kidding) I’m almost positive your kids will love it.  They also offer birthday parties and an overnight sleepover for the truly brave.  Or just run in and press the pennies, I won’t think any less of you as I would probably do the same more often than not.

Just the other day I had to take a trip up to northern New Jersey to visit a government building as the next required step in getting my American Citizenship.  For those of you that may not know I’m originally from Canada and relocated to the States almost 20 years ago.  So we figured it was about time to finally take the plunge, but unfortunately it is an extremely slow process.  Anyways, after my appointment to get fingerprinted I had the rest of the day off from work so I figured I would stop by and acquire a new set of pressed pennies from a place I had never been to before.

Located in Columbia, NJ is a place called Camp Taylor Campground.  This place is located up in the mountains and it did put my car to the test driving up some pretty steep climbs.  But once I arrived I could see why this is a popular place to come and camp.  However one thing did make me a little nervous about potentially camping here in the future.

It is also home to the Lakota Wolf Preserve.  Unfortunately I didn’t have much time so I couldn’t go and see exactly what it was all about.  From what I read off their webpage they offer guide tours to see wild wolves in their natural habitat.  Hopefully they don’t come too close to the campsites, but I’m sure that has been well planned out in advance.  Anyways, as I pulled in off the main road I parked outside the main store.

It’s set up almost like an old fashion general store, and I was immediately greater upon entering.  I said I had just stopped in to use the penny machine.  The nice woman there asked if I needed any shiny pennies for the machine which was very generous and something I don’t experience too often when using the machines.  I thanked her but explained I had come prepared with my own.

The machine was located right inside the front door of the store.  This place had a lot of stuff for same and wasn’t big on space, but when rolling pennies you don’t need much room.  The machine worked very smoothly which isn’t surprised as I was also told that machine had just recently been services.

Each coin pressed with a bit of a tail on each one but the designs still appears without too much distortion.  The found designs included: A Camp Site Scene, A Bear, A Wolf Howling in the Woods, and a Wolf Face.

The back of each design had information about the camp.  It said “Camp Taylor Campground Columbia, NJ” and also listed their website www.camptaylor.com.  This was the third campground I have visited that has had a penny machine.  There was of course a few machines in Florida at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground, and another near Gettysburg, PA that I will write about at another time.  We used to camp a lot when I was a kid, and now that I have a little one of my own once she’s a little older  I’ll definitely be taking her out of the city to the great outdoors.  Maybe we  can catch a glimpse of some wildlife and you never know maybe another penny machine.