Weekend Picks: Plenty of Hoop-la

All sorts of goings-on all around our little state this weekend.

Antiques? More than 500 upscale dealers will be at the Atlantique City Antiques & Collectibles Show, which bills itself as the world’s largest indoor antique show. Saturday and Sunday at the Atlantic City Convention Center. Check www.atlantiquecity.com.

Athletics? Tune in ESPN 2 Sunday 2:30 p.m. to root for the Rutgers women’s basketball team in the Sweet Sixteen against George Washington. 

Or if you’ve got game, go to the Third Annual March Madness 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament and Skills Competition, Sunday at the Kinnelon High School gym. More than 78 teams — male and female, from 2nd grade to 40-plus — play to raise funds for the Jewish Congregation of Kinnelon (www.jckinnelon.org).

Dining? Try Spirited Cape May Weekend. It begins Friday with a four-course dinner at the Washington Inn. It continues Saturday with a tour and tasting at Cape May Winery. And it ends Sunday with a wine class back at the Washington Inn. The package is $125.

History? Sneak out today at lunch (tell the boss it’s almost the weekend) for a 1 p.m. walking tour of Newark. A guide from the New Jersey Historical Society takes you to  historically and architecturally significant buildings downtown, like Symphony Hall and the National Newark Building.

Concerts? Friday night at 8 at the Commerce Bank Arts Centre in Sewell, you can hear Sweet Honey In The Rock (www.sweethoney.com) bring together African American musical traditions with a rich combination of the blues, gospel, rap, reggae, African chants, lullabies, and jazz.

Then Saturday at 8 in Red Bank’s Count Basie Theatre the Monmouth Civic Chorus sings Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and works by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams inspired by the poetry of Shakespeare and Walt Whitman.

Dance? Friday 8 p.m. at William Paterson University’s Shea Center for Performing Arts in Wayne there’s a performance by Pilar Rioja, “the Queen of Spanish Dance.” And Sunday 7 p.m. the Russian National Ballet takes the stage at Raritan Valley Community College in Somerville.

Outdoors? Something fishy at The Pequest Trout Hatchery in Hackettstown. Activities include a trout-fishing tank for kids, shotgun and archery ranges, craft-making, wildlife art and fishing equipment sales. 

Or take a hike with naturalists at Palisades Interstate Park, sponsoring a 4-mile round-trip walk of the Palisades. The group leaves the Ross Dock Picnic Area on the Fort Lee-Englewood Cliffs border at 11 a.m. and will use “moderate trails with some challenging slopes.”

Maybe you just want to sit and let somebody else do the walking. You can do that at Johnson's Corner Farm (www.johnsonsfarm.com) in Medford, which is starting “Moms and Tots” hayrides for the spring season starting Sunday. No crops to pick yet — spinach, lettuce, radishes won’t be available ready until late April.

But that’s only a month from now. Think of it this way: one month ago,  it was still a winter’s day in February and spring seemed a long way off!

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