Little Ferry, NJ Indoor Activities

Queens Museum of Art plumps imaginations and piques visual interest with an ever-growing collection of art and educational programs. A one-year membership guarantees family admission for the entirety of a 365-day period, a 10% discount at the museum store, four free passes to the museum, and a free game of catch with the docent of your choice. Once inside the art vault, guests are free to gambol with their legs and frolic with their eyes over exhibitions such as the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, which dazzles brainwaves with lampshades, windows, and more than 200 flat glassworks made for and used by Tiffany Studios.

S3 Leagues scoops up locals and arranges them into kickball, softball, and bowling teams according to their age and neighborhood, giving them the opportunity to enjoy team sports while meeting new people. In the summer 2010 season alone, more than 4,000 players took to the fields at McCarren Park for competitive kickball and softball competition followed by friendly postgame carousing at a nearby bar. After each game, teams receive two complimentary pitchers of beer to facilitate boisterous discussions about how many ounces are in a liter. This postgame partying perpetuates team solidarity, as does wearing matching team shirts, cashing in on food and drink specials together, and mingling at the end-of-season party.

Murder mysteries should be anything but silly. That’s the view espoused by Live In Theater Productions, the brainchild of prolific actor and playwright Carlo D'Amore. Eschewing the goofy tone of some other shows, Live In Theater plunges participants into cases that take their immersive details from unsolved, historical murders in New York. Showgoers make their way along the city streets where the real crimes once took place, interrogating actors playing roles ranging from 19th-century Irish slumlords to strung-out 1970s junkies. Each event plays out differently as the amateur sleuths weigh evidence, pursue leads, and finally find some use for their pocket-sized polygraphs, creating a one-of-a-kind adventure that earned a 2012 Drama Desk nomination for Unique Theatrical Experience.

Standing at the intersection of contemporary art and design, The Museum of Arts and Design explores the way that artists and designers from around the world translate ideas in masterpieces that range from traditional to bleeding-edge. At its stunning Columbus Circle headquarters, visitors marvel at its glass-and-terracotta exterior before exploring a rotating collection that ranges from jewelry and delicate glass works to ceramics to architectural designs and furniture. This meshing of masterpieces has attracted more than a million visitors to the museum since it opened in 2008. The jewelry collection illustrates the transformation that took place in the world of studio jewelry from post–World War II to today, while woodwork by generations of well-known artists charts the evolution from handcarved pieces to astonishing works of machine-aided art. Other rotating exhibits the museum hosts explore topics such as glassworking, scent, and sculpture.

In the 19th century, the Tenderloin district of New York City lured visitors with bordellos, dance halls, and saloons. These days, the area houses the Museum of Sex, which explores the historical and cultural significance of the types of human sexuality considered taboo in the Tenderloin era. The more than 15,000 sexual artifacts in the museum's permanent collection include vintage vibrators, period photography, and copies of Playboy's predecessor, Philandering Archduke. Rotating exhibitions also delve into current sexual scholarship; past exhibits have explored the history of condoms, sexuality in 1930s comics, and Japanese erotic art.

After exploring the museum's galleries, visitors can reenergize with a bite or a drink from the museum's in-house bar, which blends traditional aphrodisiacs into cocktails and housemade sodas. Suggestively named edibles are also available in the museum's store, alongside artwork and contraceptives. For further education, visitors can peruse the events calendar to sign up for classes offering sex tips.

Within its newly modernized facility, Astoria Bowl entreats visitors to spend days and nights spinning bowling balls down 28 synthetic maple-finished lanes and helping to domesticate the escaped penguins posing as pins. Black lights and lasers illuminate the lanes during glow-in-the-dark bowling, and new touchscreen automatic scoring monitors save bowlers the hassle of tabulating scores. Chef Vesna serves up burgers, meatloaf, and pub specialties that can be enjoyed while sipping refreshing libations at the sports lounge or alongside each family friendly lane.