The King would have turned 73 this January. His fans need only turn to Red Bank’s Count Basie Theater (www.countbasietheatre.org) for The Elvis Birthday Bash, Friday at 8 p.m. Elvis impersonators will pay tribute to the man and his legend, and there will be prizes for the best Elvis costume in the audience. 

Also in Red Bank, the German School of Monmouth County (www.germanschoolmc.org) presents the only New Jersey performance of Der Kiepenkasper.

“Whut?” you surely ask. Well, it’s traditional German puppet theater, we are told, with roots that stretch not to Sesame Street but to the early days of Christianity. The Sunday, 2 p.m. performance is one stop in a world tour by master pupeteer Uwe Spillman. He likes to encourage kids in the audience to participate in the show.

Fun of a more adult nature can be yours at the Rutgers Geology Museum (http://geology.rutgers.edu/museum.shtml)  in New Brunswick. It is having its annual open house Saturday starting at 10 a.m., with lectures and exhibits including dinosaur tracks from Towaco, a mastodon from Salem County, a mummy from Egypt.

Too much excitement? Get away from it at all, Friday through Sunday, at Mountain Creek’s Women’s Weekend (www.mountaincreek.com). Activities at the Vernon resort include skiing clinics for beginners and a 3 or 5K snowshoe walk to fight breast cancer, with pledges going to  Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Lodging packages (starting at $200 per person per night) include workshops on yoga and massage, plus a cocktail hour.

We have two festivals. In South Jersey, Mount Holly’s Fire & Ice Festival (www.mainstreetmountholly.com) is blowing hot and cold with a chili cook-off and an ice carving competition, Saturday starting 10 a.m. Also around: dog sled demonstrations, fire engine rides, a Revolutionary War encampment.

And on the Delaware, the sister cities of Lambertville and New Hope on the Pennsy side stage their annual Winter Fest (www.winterfestival.net) now through Sunday. Philadelphia Mummers are parading, there will be historical walking tours of the two towns, and Friday there’s a concert by Lori McKenna (www.lorimckenna.com). Plus, the always terrific shopping and dining.

Plenty of reasons to get out and enjoy…. though we’re partial to the Jersey side.

If you are of a certain age, and hung out with a certain clique in high school, you might remember a rock group you have most likely not thought about for years: Grand Funk Railroad (www.grandfunkrailroad.com).

They are still an American band, and they are getting closer to your home, specially if you live near Morristown. GFR is in concert at the Mayo Center for the Performing Arts on South St., tonight at 8 p.m. Grab tickets online at www.mayoarts.org.

Horse lovers might enjoy the winter clinic on equine behavior, Sunday 9-11 a.m. at Watchung Stables in Mountainside (www.ucnj.org/parks/stable.html).

Maybe you just want to dive in, or at least watch them dive in. It’s the Polar Bear Plunge (www.njpolarplunge.sonj.org) into the frigid Atlantic, Saturday 1-3 p.m. in Cape May to benefit  the more than 16,000 athletes of Special Olympics New Jersey. Miss it, and there’s another one in Seaside Heights February 23.

But if you do make it to Cape May this Saturday, follow the hop into the cold by warming up with a nice glass of grape libation from the Cape May Winery (www.capemaywinery.com). They’re giving visitors a cellar tour and tasting.  It all starts at 3 p.m., just in time to cross over from the beach into the vineyard.

Ahh. If you are like us, by now you are thinking, “summer…the Shore…vacation.”

Start dreaming at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, which is throwing an Indoor Beach Party where you can practice the stuff you like to do out on your favorite spot of sand, whether it’s our beloved Shore or beaches of the Caribbean or Hawaii. There will be indoor surfing, kite making, hanging out in flip-flops if you like,  plus a limbo contest and, we are told, “grass skirts for hula dancing.”

You can start planning a vacation, too — a mobile one — at the 40th Annual New Jersey RV & Camping Show (www.macevents.com). It’s at the Convention & Expo Center in Edison, Friday through Sunday. You can chill inside and get a taste of the great outdoors.

You know it just by hearing the first four notes: Da-da-da-dumm. Listen to the rest of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, as well as his Violin Concerto in D, when Pinchas Zukerman conducts the Royal Philharmonic Saturday at NJPAC, 8 p.m. Tickets $25-$79,  www.njpac.org.

Elsewhere in New Jersey this weekend, a concert in which you may not recognize the notes — but whales might.  David Rothenberg (www.davidrothenberg.net), a humanities professor at NJIT (www.njit.edu), is a composer and clarinetist who integrates music with the sounds of nature. His book and CD Why Birds Sing (www.whybirdssing.com) explored birdsong, and at 3 p.m. Saturday he presents his upcoming CD Whale Music at the Puffin Cultural Forum (www.puffinfoundation.org) in Teaneck.

In downtown Collingswood (www.collingswood.com) merchants along Haddon Ave. are hosting Second Saturday, with invited crafters, sculptors, photographers, musicians, chefs — and bargains. Check out the winter blow out sale of the must-have threads at chic Antoinette Gabrielle (www.antoinettegabrielle.com).

A different demographic, the one interested in antique waterfowl decoys, songbird carvings, fish sculptures, wildlife photographs, will find lots to like at the 24th Annual Toms River Art & Decoy Show. It’s Saturday and Sunday, sponsored by the Ocean County YMCA (www.ocymca.org/display.php?id=48) at the Poland Springs Arena (www.ritaccocenter.com).

And since it’s January, it is time for home and garden shows. One of the first is the Jersey Shore Home Show (http://macevents.com/show.cfm/eventID/96) Friday through Sunday at Brookdale Community College. You can start planning that new kitchen now.

We close by extending Weekend Picks to next Wednesday, just because we think the women-only snowboarding class at Hidden Valley (www.hiddenvalleynj.com) sounds like fun. The lesson is taught by Chickie Rosenberg, a high-level instructor who will come down from Killington. The $95 fee gets you the lift ticket, a two-hour hour lesson and lunch.

Get out there. Yes, we know it’s cold. But get out there. Warm up and sweat off those extra pounds from the holidays.

Go snowboarding. If you know nothing about it, check out the equipment demos at Mountain Creek resort (www.mountaincreek.com) in Vernon, Sunday 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Go cross-country skiing. The New Jersey Audubon Society’s (www.njaudubon.org) Weis Ecology Center in Ringwood is sponsoring beginner’s clinics Saturday and Sunday. It’s $5 members and $10 nonmembers if you bring equipment, or $15 members and $20 nonmembers to rent gear.  Times depend on weather, so call (973) 835-2160 to find out. Saturday 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. there’s a bird feeder workshop, where you learn to attract different kinds of bids to your backyard.
 
Go birding. A bracing walk on the beach or a hike in the woods might yield some wintering rarities (www.njaudubon.org/Sightings). If you need an expert to tell you what you are seeing, nature guides from the Cape May Bird Observatory (www.birdcapemay.org) take groups on walks through the best seasonal habitat Saturday mornings.

Say Hello Kitty at the Central Jersey Cat Fanciers’s show. Bengals, Sphynx, Maine Coons, Siamese, Orientals, Ragdolls, Persians will be there — and also homeless pets for adoption. Admission $7, Sheraton in Iselin, Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (570) 807-0406  for more information
 
Sunday is Three Kings Day in Latin America and Mediterranean Europe, when children get gifts to commemorate the Magi said to have visited baby Jesus bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh. The Kings, Melchor, Gaspar and Baltazar, will be in full royal regalia Saturday 1 p.m. at the Camden Children's Garden (www.camdenchildrensgarden.org). Then at 2 p.m. ¡Retumba! — “a multi-ethnic, all-female ensemble dedicated to the folkloric culture of Latin-European and Afro-Caribbean cultures” — celebrates the holiday at NJPAC (www.njpac.com). $20-$22. 

But the hottest ticket this Enn-Jay winter weekend is for Hannah Montana Saturday at Boardwalk Hall (www.boardwalkhall.com) in Atlantic City. If you have been living in a teenage-less cave lately, we can tell you it’s a spinoff concert from the hit Disney Channel series (http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/hannahmontana) starring Miley Cyrus. The show is sold out, but tickets were still available from Internet resellers this week for as much as $2200.

We won’t say if that steams us up, or leaves us cold.