04th Sep 2009
Things to do in Princeton
Princeton is a small but upscale town with a thriving downtown, the Nassau Inn being right in the middle. Across from the hotel is the university campus, whose tranquil and pastoral architecture is work exploring. Beyond this, here is a list of specific locations worth checking out.
- Visit the Princeton Art Museum.The Princeton Museum of Art is on campus, across from the Hotel.
Also, if you are an art buff, you may want to check out the tap room in the basement of the Nassau Inn: behind the bar is one of the few murals painted in place by Norman Rockwell. As is the case with many of his works, he painted himself into it.
- If you are in town on Sunday at 1pm, you may want to walk to the Graduate College and hear the weekly carillon concert. The graduate college is in the west end of campus, and sports a 20-ton carillon with 67 bells, one of the few in the country. Every week the carillon is played from 1 to 1:45pm.
- Visit the Bent Spoon. This is right in the same courtyard as the Nassau Inn, and features the best gelato in New Jersey.
- Visit Grounds for Sculplture. Off I295 driving towards Trenton, Grounds for Sculpture is a sculpture garden of unusual size. If you have a car, you might want to consider finding it.
- If you are a history buff and have a car, you may want to check out the Princeton Battlefield. This is the site of the battle of Princeton, a turning point in the American revolutionary war. The site includes a small museum, and a replanted shoot from the Mercer Oak (Gen. Hugh Mercer died at the foot of this tree, which finally fell down from strong winds in 2002.)
- See if you can find the steganographic message concealed in the exterior of the Computer Science building. This is the brick building merged with the Friend Center, our conference venue. Hint: the message payload is small, and it isn’t anything you don’t already know.