Hidden jewels in Jersey

Start your visit at the Camden waterfront, which boasts the best view you'll ever see of the Philadelphia skyline. The area's pioneering attraction, the New Jersey State Aquarium, has just closed for a nine-month, $57-million renovation, but there is still plenty to do along the river. (The aquarium will reopen in May, with double the exhibit space.)

Across the Delaware, development plans for Philadelphia's Penn's Landing seem perpetually stalled, but Camden's one square mile of real estate adjacent to the river includes the Tweeter Center at the Waterfront, the Camden Children's Garden, Campbell's Field and minor league baseball, Wiggins Park Marina, the South Jersey Performing Arts Center, and the Battleship New Jersey, now a floating museum. All offer entertainment value. If time is limited, the Battleship New Jersey is the must-see. Nearly three football fields long and more than 11 stories high, this most decorated battleship in US naval history sailed in World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, and the crisis in Lebanon in 1983 and 1984. You can see missile launchers up close on your tour -- guns that could launch a 1,900-pound shell 23 miles -- and climb the ship's narrow stairs for a look into the navigation room. There's an engaging video about the ship's history, and, for an extra $6.50, you can "fly" a Seahawk over Iwo Jima, engage in an enemy dogfight, and land on the water next to the battleship with the help of a flight simulator. In the next few years, an Imax theater and at least two restaurants are set to open nearby.

For now, there is a neighborhood pub a few blocks from the river, the newly opened 20 Horse Tavern, in the former stable house of a long-closed local lumber company. Also in the works is a $46 million aerial tram that will shuttle passengers from the aquarium to Penn's Landing. The newly opened Victor Building, housing luxury loft apartments and a casual restaurant in the former RCA Victor headquarters, is the latest sign that Camden's stars are finally in alignment.