Things to Do in Pennsville

Most camp counselors can teach children how to tie-dye a t-shirt or braid a friendship bracelet. Very few, however, have experienced the exhilaration of vaulting into the end zone for a goal-line touchdown or intercepting a game-winning pass in front of thousands of rabid football fans. Across the country, Sports International Football Camps grant participants the opportunity to learn firsthand from professional athletes, whose gridiron battle scars have been forged by bell-ringing collisions with fearless opponents and reckless mascots on motorcycles.

Since 1983, the organization has partnered with veteran high-school coaches and pros, such as three-time Pro Bowl running back Priest Holmes, All-Pro linebacker Brian Cushing, and Super Bowl champion–cornerback Terrell Thomas. In those years, the camp has schooled some 91,000 alumni, including current NFL quarterback Byron Leftwich. Coaches break campers into groups by age, position, and ability and run practices that are competitive yet fun and supportive. For in-depth focus on the specific techniques of skill-position players, the camp also offers special academies for passing and receiving as well as kicking, punting, long snapping, and cooler lifting for Gatorade victory showers.

From a total of 12 shops on both sides of the Atlantic, Potomac Bead Company supplies the artistically inclined with everything they need to craft DIY accessories, ranging from the elegantly simple to the intricate and ornate. Beads, wiring, ribbons, and other materials are peddled wholesale, while regular jewelry-making classes educate first-timers, preventing them from accidentally crafting a magical Lasso of Truth instead of a necklace. Though the teachers recommend starting at the most basic level and working up, customers may attend any class, taking advantage of literally endless possibilities for personalized bangles, chokers, and earrings.

Although Sightseer Whale & Dolphin Trips continues an almost 70-year tradition of chartering sightseers out to sea in search of wildlife, oceanography isn’t its only passion. The company also holds in high regard the patriotism and courageousness displayed by our nation's armed forces, honoring all active members of the military and their immediate families with complimentary tours through aqueous avenues. Each two- to three-hour voyage brings up to 187 guests in close quarters with the Atlantic Ocean's splash-happy mammals while a knowledgeable biologist narrates the tour. The company's cruise boat manned by seasoned captains boasts both shaded and sunny areas, and summertime travelers can count on a refreshing ocean breeze to keep them cool.

Bright lights emblazon the adjoining boardwalk of The Palace of Sweets, beckoning passersby inside for fun-filled challenges and the sugary outflow of towering candy dispensers. Devised by world-renowned maze designer Adrian Fisher, the fun center's one-of-a-kind maze envelops guests into its candy-decor depths with a disorienting array of mirrors and surprise reunions with your long-lost twin. After regaining bearings, guests can test their agility in the center's laser challenge, which sends lasers zooming through the room as they try to make their way to the other side unscathed. Known for sporting the largest selection of self-serve candy on the boardwalk, The Palace of Sweets serves as a well-stocked host for birthday parties or a press conference announcing the end of dieting.

Though she worked as a graphic designer for more than 35 years, Tara M. Smith never considered herself an artist until she opened The Uncorked Artist, a casual salon where artists and locals of all experience levels come together to paint, drink, and unwind. The welcoming studio is stocked with all the painting essentials: smocks, brushes, canvases, paints, and bowls of fruit trying to launch their modeling careers. Though the studio does schedule open painting time, its staff of artists also leads painting classes, camps, and parties for adults and kids.

Taking over Morey's Piers & Beachfront Waterparks for the weekends of October, Morey’s Fears Terror on the Boardwalk shoots chills down unsuspecting spines with five frightful attractions. Terror Trench dares scare-seekers to venture beneath the park into a noxious pit inhabited by the mutant mole progeny of waterpark construction workers lost decades ago. Those brave enough to tiptoe through The Other Side might lock eyes with the ghosts of souls lost at sea as they roam under the Wildwood boardwalk, and the CornStalkers maze threatens guests with supernatural dangers from the countryside, such as killer scarecrows and murderous corn subsidies. Modeled out of a multilevel miniature-golf course, Ghost Ship 2.0 ensconces landlubbers on a decaying vessel haunted by mad sailors and spooky ghouls, and CarnEvil infects the park's regular attractions with a macabre atmosphere, replacing the regular barkers with sinister clowns.