First off, even the best laid plans change! We were supposed to spend 4th of July weekend at Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort with SIL and her family. Schedules and other plans got in the way so we'll be doing that next 4th of July.

Instead we'll be doing DC and Hershey with SIL and her family over 4th of July weekend. DC on the 3rd and 4th, and Hershey on the 5th and 6th. I know we won't be able to do and see it all in such a short amount of time, and being it will be super crowded with the holiday and all. Any suggestions or tips to make the most of the time we will have? They have done both places before and said they didn't need lots of days to do what they wanted, and we all think it'll be super cool to experience the 4th in DC so we really don't mind the crowds.

From Hershey my family of 4 will then be spending 2 weeks with DH at Fort Dix, New Jersey while he attends a military officer course. So my question is really more about what suggestions does anyone have about things the boys and I can do while DH is in class each day? The kids are 13 and 11 year old boys. I don't mind driving an hour or two to see and do things in the area. I know for sure we'd like to do a couple of day trips into NYC while there. Any suggestions about NYC or other places in the area are welcomed!

Also, DH will get the weekend in the middle of his classes off. We'd like to spend a Friday and Saturday night in a Jersey beach town. DH would rather a relaxing weekend at the beach, than a weekend in NYC. Any suggestions on great beach towns that were not affected by (or that have already recovered from) Sandy?

A good friend of mine, who lives in Jersey, has already started helping me sort things out, but I figured someone here may have some additional suggestions.