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On cloudy days. Like today, it's the perfect time to head to the board game cafe in Huntington. Our Shannon Lanier takes us there with some surprise guests in this week's road trip close to home. If you're looking for a fun interactive activity for you and your coworkers or maybe your friends and family come to the main street board game cafe in Huntington today. I brought my news 12 buddies for a little competition. What is this game? Chill? What news team assemble here? You'll also get up to three hours of play time and can select for more than 300 games. I'm gonna pick Burger Balance because it's similar to Jenga and I love Jenga. I love party games and charades. So ha ha I'm picking someone has died. Let's take it back to my childhood with candy land and for my game, I'm picking just one because I love a game that features a lot of teamwork. Ok. The next part is easy. Just play y'all ready, do it, do it. However, if you need a little help, they have people on staff to do just that Neil. What would you say is the most popular game here, tickets arrive. It's one of the most popular games in board gaming history. 10 million sold. Yes, it's great. Anyone can play it. It's good for all ages. What's the newest must have game? Well, it just came out a few weeks ago and this is Worms Span. It's a sequel game to an earlier game from a few years ago called Wingspan. The Food at the Cafe definitely comes in handy if you lose a round and have to sit out until it's your turn again. Yay. Yeah. Come on, Shannon win or lose. This is a great place to put down your phones and spend some quality time together from the main street board game cafe where Team News 12 on this road trip. Close to home. You went.

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Several artists have been capturing the lives and emotions of people in our area for years. And now they're on display for all to see at Rutgers University in this week's road trip. Close to home news, twelve's Amanda Lee takes us there. If a picture is worth 1000 words, then these images will tell you 1000 stories in this week's road trip close to home or at the Zimmerly Museum in New Brunswick. This exhibition comprises 70 photographs from across her time at the New York Times, which was from 1989 to the present Michelle Agens is an extraordinarily famous photojournalist and she has a five decade career. Her images are generally featured in newspapers. So this is really wonderful to be able to print them and and get them on the walls. These are all from 1994 and it's a series called Another America Life on 100 and 29th street. It explores gun violence in Harlem, but also the sweetness of communities, the images themselves just incredibly moving. This is a woman actually um from the Stonewall riots. She's sitting in front of pictures of herself. So on the left is her as her quote unquote female self. And on the right shows her when she was a male impersonator. Another new exhibition here at the museum is the work of George Segal, which was heavily influenced by everyday people right here in New Jersey. George Segal was a New Jersey artist. He lived in New Jersey from about 1942 till his death. And he's very well known for the sculptures that you may see around New York. And in New Jersey, this is a very early and important work by George Siegel. It's called the Dancers. And this shows you, you know, his original technique where he would be casting figures in plaster and leaving the plaster white. So he had this person stand here like this. Wow. Yeah. And they would have to stand there like that for about 20 minutes. George Siegel would invite people to come to his studio and serve as models. And he always said that he only wanted to work with people that he liked because he had to spend the whole day with them. George Siegel's work will be here until July and the Michelle Agents Exhibit will be here through December entrance to the museum is free and it's a great way to spend the day indoors. Michelle Higgins will be at the uh museum to tell her story on Saturday, April 21st. The museum will be closed for the month of August. You can find more information on News, twelve.com and the News 12 App.

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Fun things to do around the city this spring. You know, News 12 has you covered a natural oasis awaits you right here in the heart of Brooklyn. And now that it's spring, it's a good time to pay a visit to Prospect Park. News Twelve's Nadia Galindo takes us into the park on this week's road trip. Close to home. Prospect Park is home to Brooklyn's last upland forest and today we're here for a walking tour to see what's in bloom. Let's check it out inside this urban green space. We meet up with Hannah Sassoon, our guide. She's an ecological zone gardener with the Prospect Park Alliance. The Spring is an especially exciting time to be here. It's an explosion of energy and leaves and flowers are starting to emerge across this 585 acre green oasis. This is one of my very favorite plants that emerges this time of year. It's called a trout Lily and it's a spring ephemeral. They emerge uh really early in the spring before almost anything else and bloom, you can also find yellow root, may apple and other native plants. These are Virginia Bluebells, the Prospect Park Alliance offers these nature tours and bird watching tours to the public. But a piece of advice, it's important to stay on the trails when people veer off the path or when dogs are off leash, it can actually harm the sensitive plant material that we are putting in place to help make a healthier ecosystem. The prospect park alliance is adding native plants and trees and creating habitat for the park's hundreds of species of birds and mammals. Paths like this one are also being restored to be easier to identify and the alliance is exploring possible routes for new paths in the future and as the seasons change, so do the plants and the trees. So you'll have plenty of reasons to come back on another road trip in Prospect Park. I'm Nadia Galino News 12.

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We'll take a walk down main street and it feels like you're stepping back into the 19th century. A unique town. Chester celebrates history, art, music, theater, crafts and cuisine in this week's road trip. Close to home news, 12 photojournalist, Laurie Goliath takes us to this hidden gem along the Connecticut river. We do have that old New England feeling here. Chester is wonderful. We have beauty. Chester has a lot of natural beauty. We have waterfalls. There's so much to do in one day here. We have wonderful restaurants, there's little shops, galleries, gift shops, clothing, this is the little shop and it's antiques, vintage and new. All coexisting together artwork. We have everything from fine paintings to a really beautiful prints and botanicals country house living. There's a huge art culture here. This is atmosphere, arch, one glass. So I'm a scientific glass blower that does artistic functioning art. So I make a lot of things for the garden, tiki torches. And then I do classes I teach to give people the experience of how glass melts. It's just very mesmerizing. I just find it very relaxing. And we also have music. We have the Norma terrace theater, which is part of the Good Speed Opera House. We have older buildings here from the 18 hundreds and that is part of the charm of the downtown as well. Chester Historical Society has been here since about 2000. They're always uh providing programs. We have lots of history about Chester, which translates into history of this whole region. There's so much to love here. So this is a little house brewing company. We've been here for six years. So we brew all different styles of beer. Everything from easy drinking lager to heavily hopped uh New England. IP A s this is the wish booth. When you pick up the phone and you put it to your ear, you hear Matthew, the poet start his poem and after this spell speak your wish in here and then you hear a tone and you leave your wish. We just made a very beautiful wish and we hope that it does come true. A whiff is um your heart's desire and so speaking, your heart's desire out loud. There's nothing more powerful than that. I think it is a curiosity, but I think it's very positive and I think it's a wonderful addition to Chester. It's just a lot of fun here. We're a welcoming town. Everybody says, oh my gosh, Chester is like the best kept little secret. Come to Chester. You'll have a great time. There's plenty of things to see and do. We just have a lot of unique offerings in a very small town and Chester First Friday strolls feature art, live music and shopping. The town will celebrate Earth Day, Saturday, April 20th with activities all day. And the Chester Headline ferry will begin service in 1769. That's when it started and it runs from April until November.

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We've got some very exciting news tours at Lyndhurst Mansion open for the season. This weekend news, Sal's Nikita Ramos is taking us back in time to the Gilded Age of America. On this week's road trip close to home on more than 60 sprawling acres. That's one of the most significant houses of the 19th century. Welcome to Win this stunning gothic revival mansion in T town is a masterpiece of art and architecture and wins is open for you to sign up and tour through a trove of treasures left behind by previous owners. Luckily was always sold with its content. So everything that you see here is what was originally in the house, you'll walk through two floors and more than a dozen furnished rooms adorned with lavish arts and original artwork from the gilded age. You'll also get a glimpse of what wealth looked like after the civil war in places like the dining room. Other areas give context to modern concepts. There's a huge desk in one of the rooms that belonged to Jay Gould, the railroad baron who was the third owner. It's on wheels and it went from his office to his train car to his yacht. So essentially it was an Ipad 100 years before the ipad existed. That's what he wanted, how interesting but will also catch your eye are special exhibitions this season like this sculpture magnificently blending authentic 19th century antiques. And through the summer months jump into the flapper era with some of the original fashion influencers between the walls and the landscape. There's something for everyone on this road trip close to home in Tarrytown, Nikita Ramos News 12.

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Well, history on full display today with a new museum opening at Hinchliff Stadium in Passaic County News. 12 New Jersey's Amanda Eustace gives us a look inside decades after Negro Leagues, baseball was played here at Hinchliff Stadium in Patterson. The Charles J Youth Museum honoring the stadium's legacy and prominent players opened its doors. Joseph Fulmore senior couldn't believe all this history was in his backyard. This is a renaissance to come and reminisce and reflect on life and history. Monclair State University officials in partnership with the city of Paterson cut the ribbon on the museum. The stadium's only one of two still standing from the Negro Leagues baseball era. We're able to tell a story, a story that many people don't know. The museum documents. Hinch Stadium's rich Negro League's history and more. It's named after Patterson native. And MS U will love Charles Youth who donated $5 million to the project. He hopes the museum provides educational opportunities for Patterson and Montclair State University students, such a rich history and its history of the stadium and how much it's meant to bring these diverse cultures in the city together. As one officials say the museum doesn't just share the contributions of great athletes, but it details a story that transcends Sports Hall of Famers play here. So the quality of baseball here was tremendous. The part of New Jersey being a part of the ripple that in segregation and creates a sort of more diversity in the society. Larry Doby who broke the color line in the American League was from Patterson. He had his original try out for the New York Eagles right here at the stadium and it really launched his career and the role that he played in the integration of baseball, making sure history even all these years later isn't forgotten in Paterson, Amanda Eustace News, New Jersey.

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Here's a look at all the great spots to hit from this week's episode of Road Trip Close to Home.

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