Ode to New Jersey:

New Jersey is a peninsula.
Highlands, New Jersey has the highest elevation along the entire eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida.
New Jersey is the only state where all of its counties are classified as metropolitan areas.
New Jersey has more race horses than Kentucky.
New Jersey has more Cubans in Union City (1 sq. mi.) than Havana, Cuba.
New Jersey has the most dense system of highways and railroads in the US.
New Jersey has the most diners in the world and is sometimes referred to as the Diner Capital of the World (and boy does my waistline miss them! It ain't suffering w/o them, it just misses them. Here's to the Tic Toc on Rt. 3 and the home to the greatest cheesecake on the planet, the now defunct Claremont Diner.)
New Jersey is home to the original mystery pork parts chub (no, not spam)
Taylor Ham or Pork Roll. Yo!.....with fried egg & mustard on a hardroll.
Home to the less mysterious but best Italian hot dogs and Italian sausage w/peppers and onions.
North Jersey has the most shopping malls in one area in the world, with seven major shopping malls in a 25 square mile radius.
New Jersey is home to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
The Passaic River was the site of the first submarine ride by inventor John P. Holland.
New Jersey has 50+ resort cities & towns, some of the nations' most famous: Asbury Park, Wildwood, Atlantic City, Seaside Heights, Long Branch & Cape May.
New Jersey has the most stringent testing along our coastline for Water Quality Control than any other seaboard state in the entire country.
New Jersey is a leading technology & industrial state and is the largest chemical producing state in the nation when you include pharmaceuticals.
Jersey tomatoes are known the world over as being the best you can buy.
New Jersey is the world leader in blueberry and cranberry production (and here you thought Massachusetts?)
Here's to New Jersey-the toast of the country!
In 1642, the first brewery in America opened in Hoboken.
New Jersey rocks! The famous Les Paul invented the first solid body electric guitar in Mahwah in 1940.
New Jersey is a major seaport state with the largest seaport in the US, located in Elizabeth. Nearly 80% of what our nation imports comes through Elizabeth Seaport first.
New Jersey is home to one of the nation's busiest airports at Newark Liberty International.
George Washington slept here. Several important Revolutionary War battles were fought on New Jersey soil, led by General George Washington.
The light bulb, phonograph (record player) and motion picture projector, were invented by Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park, NJ laboratory.
We also boast the first town ever lit by incandescent bulbs.
The first seaplane was built in Keyport, NJ.
The first airmail (to Chicago) was started from Keyport, NJ.
The first phonograph records were made in Camden, NJ.
New Jersey is home to the Miss America pageant held in Atlantic City.
The game Monopoly, played all over the world, named the streets on their playing board after the actual streets in Atlantic City.
And Atlantic City has the longest boardwalk in the world.
New Jersey has the largest petroleum containment area outside of the Middle East countries.
The first Indian reservation was in New Jersey, in the Watchung Mountains.
New Jersey has the tallest water-tower in the world. (Union, NJ!!!) N
ew Jersey had the first Medical Center, in Jersey City.
The Pulaski Sky Way, from Jersey City to Newark, was the first skyway highway.
NJ built the first tunnel under a river, the Hudson. (Holland Tunnel).
The first baseball game was played in Hoboken, NJ, which is also the birthplace of Frank Sinatra.
The first intercollegiate football game was played in New Brunswick in 1889. (Rutgers College played Princeton.)
The first Drive-in Movie theater was opened in Camden, NJ.
New Jersey is home to both of "NEW YORK'S" Pro Football Teams!
The first radio station and broadcast was in Paterson, NJ.