Travels with Children

On a rare Saturday with nothing on the schedule, we ran some errands in the morning, and after lunch mowed the lawn.  Just as the kids were getting restless, we sprung a surprise on them:  We were going to ride our bikes into town for the baseball game.

Now, this is a bigger deal than you might think.  First of all, we live three miles from town, with gravel roads all the way.  Because it’s been a wet spring, the gravel is loose and not the easiest for riding.  There are some low but long hills along the way.  And we haven’t been out on the bikes much at all so far this year ever.

Add to that the fact that none of our children ride a two-wheeled bike yet, and training wheels don’t work well on loose gravel.  Because we do plan on biking as a family this year and in the years to come, we’ve invested in some contraptions:  two “tagalog” trailers for the boys, and a double trailer/stroller for the girls.

I get the five-year-old on the tagalong behind me.  He’s a good pedaler, especially when he doesn’t want to lose the “lead.”  My husband, on the other hand, gets the seven-year-old on the tagalong, and then the two little girls in the trailer behind that.  All in all, I’ve got an extra 50 lbs, and he has 130.  Of course, he does physical work for a living and is in much better shape than me.

Anyway, we made it into town without too much trouble and parked the bikes at the ball game.  Almost all of the small towns around here have “town ball” baseball teams that play on weekends throughout the summer.  Our baseball field is in the city park, so as soon as we had parked the bikes, the kids were off to the playground, and only came to find us when they wanted a snack.

This is one of the things that is really neat about living in a small town.  The kids knew the other kids at the park, and we could visit with friends and neighbors, all while sitting outside on a beautiful June day and watching a baseball game.

Our team played to a crowd of around 100 people.  The announcer kept us apprised of the game and was sure to work in the game’s sponsor every so often.  The concession stand offered the usual baseball game fare, but at affordable prices.  And during the 7th inning stretch, there was a motorcycle parade that made a few trips around the park square.

After our experience at a minor league ball game, I think town ball is what we’ll watch for now.  As my daughter said, “Mom let us play as long as we wanted, and then we could come eat.  And then go play some more.”  The kids had fun playing while we watched the game.

The hard part was the trip home.  Somehow the hills got longer and higher, and the wind had picked up.  My tagalong guy was happy enough to lose the “race” home once he declared that the winner was going to “bake” supper.  We made it eventually, arriving home with memories of a pleasant afternoon spent at the ballgame.

I’ve written about the Minnesota Children’s Museum before, and how it’s a really neat place but sometimes very crowded.

The week after Memorial Day, we hit the Children’s Museum trifecta.  1) My husband was able to get away, so we had a 2-to-1 child-to-adult ratio; 2) we didn’t arrive until 2 p.m., when most of the school groups were leaving, and 3) we visited on a weekday when most of the metro-area schools were still in session.

This meant that there were very few people in the museum, which is a lot more fun for the kids, and less stressful on the parents counting heads.

We started out at a paint-your-own face booth, where we ended up with one child with whiskers on his cheeks, one child with a vehicle upside down in water on his chin, and one with an interesting array of colors and shapes all over her face.

As always, the kids loved the block factory area and the bubble/water stations.  This time, we also got in on the new Run! Jump! Fly! exhibit, as well as the fairy tale area where my daughter loved trying on Cinderella’s glass slipper and riding in the pumpkin carriage.  The Rooftop Art Park was also open, with some nice nature and art activities for the kids, including an “Eye-Spy” hunt.

The kids always enjoy the children’s museum.  All of the activities are kid-sized and hands-on and make learning fun.

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August Schell Brewing Company

• 1860 Schell Road
• New Ulm, MN 56073
• 800-770-5020 (ph)
• 507-354-5528 (ph)
• www.schellsbrewery.com
• $3 tour admission, under 12 free.  No charge for museum or gardens.
• Restrooms with changing tables available.  Stroller accessible except for one part of the tour.

My husband and his brother came along on a Sunday afternoon outing, so with a favorable adult-to-child ratio, we toured Schells Brewery in New Ulm, MN.

Schells is the 2nd-oldest family-owned brewery in the country.  Built into the side of a bluff in New Ulm, the brewery makes Schell’s, Hauenstein, and Grain Belt beers, as well as 1919 Root Beer and Buddy’s Sodas.

We arrived early for the tour, which gave us time to look around at the museum, gift shop, and gardens.  Our guide then gave us the history of the brewery and showed us around the grounds and buildings.  We ended in the tasting room, where we viewed a video that provided more information about the making of the beer before sampling the various brews that Schell’s makes.

The kids thought it was great to get root beer (and 1919 really is the best, in my opinion), but in hindsight, I wouldn’t have taken the youngest on the tour.  For kids five and up, though, there’s enough moving around to make the tour interesting, even if they’re just looking for the peacocks that roam the site.

Schell’s has such a picturesque location, away from the hustle and bustle of the town below.  I like to go there once or twice a year just to walk through the gardens, which are always open to the public.  But a tour of the brewery is interesting once in a while as well.

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• 8 miles northwest of New Ulm, MN, on County Road 21.
• 507-354-8666 or 507-934-2160.
• http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/hs/
• Stroller accessibility via handicapped parking and entrance, but better to leave the stroller behind.

Around this time every year, the kids ask to go to the Harkin Store to see if there’s any mail for us.  That’s because each time we tour the historic store, the guide says, “There’s nothing here for you, but check back next time.”  They’ve taken his words to heart.

Each time we visit, though, they learn something new.  This time, they all wrote their names on the slate board (well, the 2-year-old told us her name and made some scribbles).  They all tried on hats so they could do their chores; the fun of coffee grinding was saved until after they’d churned the butter, done the ironing, and carded the wool.

After a quick game of checkers, we headed outside for a special treat–a taste of homemade ice cream.  The Harkin Store has special programs on Sundays throughout the summer, and this was 4-H day and the dairy month celebration.

The staff at the Harkin Store work really well with kids to teach them about life in the 1870’s in language kids understand.  It’s interesting to take a step back in time and think about a time when all the goods people needed to buy could be found in a single small store.

Read about our previous visit to the Harkin Store.

I’ll admit it.  Although the vast majority of our trips and adventures are successes, once in a while we bite off more than we can chew, or we overestimate the kids’ interest in an activity, and we come home without having a lot of fun for the day.

Jonah Lisa’s post about a minor league baseball game was my latest inspiration.  Well, that and the fact that there wasn’t much else on the GoCityKids Minneapolis-St. Paul calendar for today.  When I told my husband after church that the St. Paul Saints were playing at 1:05 and he had to decided immediately whether to go or to stay home, he say “go!”  So I called for tickets and we loaded up the kids.  Along the way, we stopped for fast food in the car (an adventure in itself with four little kids) so we could get to the game on time.

We found free on-street parking, not knowing that we’d be walking a half-mile or more, or that $6 would have bought us much closer spots, and headed to Midway Stadium.  There was a hold-up at the will-call window, and we had no idea where we were going once in the stadium, but we found seats in the general admission section just as the National Anthem started.

It was a nice afternoon for a ball game, but that was about the end of the positive experience for us.  Even the antics between innings didn’t keep the kids entertained.  Between them begging for food from the vendors (even though we’d just finished lunch 30 minutes before), the boys saying they were bored, and the girls unable to sit still, we gave up midway through the sixth inning.  The kids were looking forward to running the bases after the game, and they were disappointed to miss that part of the day.

So, what went wrong to make a fun day turn out poorly?  My husband discussed it on the way home, and it may have been a combination of these factors:

• Since we went at the last minute, I didn’t have time to explore the Saints’ website for stadium area.  That, combined with what I consider to be poor signage at the stadium (Would it hurt to have a sign on the back of the general admission area so you know you’ve found it?) sent us to one set of general admission bleachers.  Little did I know that there was a kids’ play area on the other section of general admission seats.  I didn’t discover it until we were driving past the stadium on the way home.  Besides, I wouldn’t have known how to get over there (again, the signage).  If I’d planned ahead more, I would have been able to take the kids there to play so that at least my husband could stay to watch the game.
• We didn’t give the kids the “we just ate so we won’t be spending exorbitant amounts of money on food that we don’t know is peanut-safe at the game” speech.  Silly us, we assumed that since we’d just eaten, they wouldn’t claim to be hungry and thirsty.  We were wrong.
• We were sitting in the cheap seats.  By the time we decided to go, general admission was all that was available.  But we (even us adults) couldn’t see much of the game, and bleachers seem to invite climbing for kids.  Perhaps sitting in stadium seats with a better view would have sparked more interest for the kids.
• We thought one or more of the kids would fall asleep in the car on the way there and be refreshed by a nap.  Again, we were wrong.  They never sleep when we want them to.
• We’re cheap.  I probably could have kept them quiet and still for a while longer with $20 of popcorn and root beer.  But we’re trying to teach them that if you’re going to have soda, it’s better to have the $.25 can at home than the $3.00 glass at the ballpark.
• The kids haven’t been to a lot of sporting events and they don’t have the “love of the game” that some kids seem to have.
• They’re young yet.  And there are four of them.  Maybe we were just plain crazy to think it was going to work.

The lesson continued on the way home.  Three of the four fell asleep on our way through the metro area, and my husband stopped to run an errand.  After he came back to the car, we were going to eat an early supper.  We told the kids upon leaving the store parking lot that Mommy and Daddy were going to choose where we would eat supper, and if there was any complaining about the choice we made, we’d go all the way home (another hour and a half) and eat there.  A half-mile later, we pulled into a restaurant parking lot and our four-year-old promptly announced (whined?), “But I don’t like Pizza Hut!”  So . . . we continued out through the parking lot and out to the street, despite her quick change of heart. “I really do like Pizza Hut!  I’m hungry!  I’m thirsty!  Please can we go back?”  The crying continued for another 30 minutes, but by the time we arrived home, she was happy again.

We quickly heated up leftovers and cracked open some of those $.25 cans of root beer.

So, although we generally have fun on our outings, there are times that it just doesn’t work out so well.  Now we’re trying to figure out when we should try it again.  We’re thinking we might try it again when the youngest is six or seven.

What do you think?  What’s a good age to take kids to the ballpark, and what do you do to make the visit go smoothly?

Related posts:  Root, root, root for the home team at Family Travel; Double A Baseball in Frisco, TX at Travels with Children; Take Me Out to the Ballgame at Nerd’s Eye View; Take Me Out to the Ballgame at Midwest Guest.

• 540 West Hills Circle, Owatonna, MN
• 800-423-6466
• www.orphanagemuseum.com
• Free
• Free parking
• Restrooms available
• Stroller accessible

Another museum I’d read about in guidebooks was the “State School” museum in Owatonna.  Before we left for the day, we watched the WCCO “Finding Minnesota” segment about the state orphanage and its museum.

Although the museum was interesting, it wasn’t quite what I expected.  After watching the news segment, I had envisioned a large museum with guides available.  Instead, the State School now houses the Owatonna city offices, an arts center, and other organizations.  The museum is a series of display cases on the main floor, adjacent to the city offices, and there is an audio walking tour available to take you around the grounds.  A guide is available for scheduled groups, but for the general public, the museum is self-guided.

The information and artifacts were interesting to me, but it wasn’t a great place for small kids, so we did a rather quick tour.  From the comments that had been left in the guestbook, the museum holds a lot of special memories for former residents and staff, and it is an important part of Minnesota history.  But because it is not hands-on, it is probably better suited for older children and adults.

• At the intersection of County Roads 2 and 17, west of Waseca, MN
• 507-835-2052
• www.farmamerica.org
• $5 Adults, $4 seniors 62 & over, $3 youth 6-13, free for 5 and under
• Stroller accessible (although possibly not all building interiors)
• Restrooms with changing tables available in visitors’ center.

When we go on our adventures, we try to be flexible in case something comes up. Sometimes I don’t tell the kids where we’re going until we get there. “It’s a surprise!” Sometimes we have more things on our list than we have time for. And sometimes our plans don’t quite work out.

This was the case when we drove to Waseca to see Farmamerica. I had checked the website before we left for the hours, but when we arrived, there was only one car in the parking lot. When the staff member came to help us, she explained that this was supposed to be their opening day of the season, but they’d had so much rain recently that we wouldn’t be able to get to all of the site.

I was just beginning to be disappointed when she gave us the silver lining: She wasn’t going to charge us admission, and instead of the usual walking tour, she’d allow us to go through the “authorized personnel only” area and drive through the site. They’d also open up the buildings in case we wanted to go in, but she asked that we try not to track in mud.

Since we couldn’t see the whole thing, we decided not to get in and out of the car, but we did drive through the site. We’ll go back another time (probably with Dad) to see the interiors. In the meantime, we got a nice taste of the place.

Along the gravel loop, which is set up for a tram to take visitors from area to area, there is a paved sidewalk, so stroller navigation would be all right. There are various sites (1850’s farm, prairie, church and school, feed mill, 1930’s farm) at intervals along the path, with signs explaining each part and its significance.

The visitors center includes rest rooms and a gift shop. Special events are held throughout the season. Some of the fall activities look particularly interesting, so that may be when we head back there.

Although we were disappointed that we didn’t see all of Farmamerica, it was nice to get a taste of it to see that it is worth visiting again.

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• 1448 Austin Road, Owatonna, MN
• 507.451.1420
• http://www.steelecohistoricalsociety.org/village.php
• $5 adults, $3 ages 7-16, 6 and under free
• Free parking
• Mostly stroller accessible

On our list of things to do in Owatonna was the Steele County Historical Society’s Village of Yesteryear.  Tours are given at 1:30 daily, and we were guided through the site by a very understanding man named Bob who said to give him a signal if the kids were ready to move on to another building.  It turned out that a signal wasn’t needed very often, because the kids were very interested in the site.

The buildings in the Village of Yesteryear were all moved into the historical complex from elsewhere in Steele County.  The house was that of a former Congressman who lived in Owatonna, and the other buildings came from other parts of the county.  Bob gave us a tour that included the church, log cabins, fire hall, caboose, schoolhouse, general store, and more.

The best part about the tour for the kids was that there were several hand-on activities that they could do.  They rang the bells at the school, church, and fire house, climbed up into the caboose, and played the pump organ in the church.

There’s a lot to see at the Village of Yesteryear.  It ended up that we took the full hour and a half for the tour, and the kids didn’t get restless because there was such a variety to see.  We were able to ask questions, and our guide was very knowledgeable and worked well with the kids to keep it interesting for them.

When we got home, the kids were very excited to tell their dad all about the Village of Yesteryear.

Shakopee, MN.  800-386-7433. www.valleyfair.comVarious price structures available.  Pay parking.
Stroller accessible.  Restrooms with changing tables available.  Concessions on-site.

We convinced my husband to take us to Valleyfair on a Thursday afternoon in mid-June. I had admission coupons that expired mid-month, so if we were going to go this summer, now was the time. It turned out to be a nearly perfect day.

We packed a lunch and ate at the picnic grounds before going into the park. Then we paid our admission and stopped at the guest services office to get emergency ID bracelets for the kids so we could be located if we were separated from them. After that, we were off to the rides!

Although the foam ball factory was the boys’ primary destination, we convinced them to go on some of the other rides along the way. It was fun to watch our two-year-old go on some of the little-kid rides. Although she didn’t seem wild about them, she seldom turned down a chance at an age-appropriate ride.

It was very important that we have two adults along with the varied ages and sizes of the kids. With the different height restrictions on the rides, there were times when only one or two of the kids were tall enough, and/or had to be accompanied by an adult. That left the other adult behind to watch the smaller ones. Until all the kids are over 48″ tall, I don’t think I’d attempt taking them to Valleyfair alone. Besides, my husband is the one who likes the rides!

We caught the “Squiggles” show in front of the Foam Ball Factory . . . three times during the afternoon. The kids kept pulling us back to the Rockin’ Tug and the Foam Ball Factory, so we happened to catch the show several times. It was enjoyable, with talented musicians and fun “oldies” songs, and I’d recommend it whether or not you have little ones along.

Somehow we managed to pick a beautiful day weather-wise, and there was virtually no crowd in the park the day we were there. Our family got a private ride on the Ferris Wheel, and our five-year-old got to ride solo on the “Mild Thing” kids’ roller coaster. We seldom had to wait in line, so we all got to do what we wanted, as many times as we wished.

Mid-afternoon, we shared some snacks for a total of $12.60. While not a bargain, the container of fries, bag of chips, and two sodas were enough to tide us over until we left the park at 6:30 p.m. We really didn’t want to pay for an entire meal at the park, and we didn’t want to walk back out to the car to eat the snacks that we had along, so it was a decent compromise for us.

One of the best things about our day at Valleyfair was that we could let the kids take the lead, and since the rides were all paid for, they could go on as many as they wanted. We didn’t take advantage of the Imax theater or the water park during this trip as we were busy going on lots of rides.

I came away from our day at Valleyfair with some good memories. I loved the look of sheer delight on our four-year-old daughter’s face as she rode on the Scrambler, and the smiles that our five-year-old had on his face when he got to ride three different trains, twice each. Our not-always-so-brave seven-year-old rode the Flume with his dad and his brother, and our two-year-old loved dancing at the Squiggles show. My husband got to ride on the newest roller coaster, and I got my traditional carousel ride. It was a good day.

Read about our last trip to Valleyfair.

• 120 W Kellogg Ave, St. Paul, MN.
• 800-221-9444.
• www.smm.org
• Exhibits only:  $11 adults, $8.50 Senior 60+ and Child 4-12, 3 and under free.
• ASTC membership reciprocity.
• Pay parking available.
• Stroller accessible.  Restrooms available.  Cafe on site.

Since it was Father’s Day and my husband is a Star Wars fan, we managed to work in a stop at the new Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota.  We don’t like big crowds, and because it was the opening weekend of the exhibit, we almost didn’t go.  When we noticed that the museum was open until 11:30 p.m. through the summer, we decided to eat an early supper and go in the evening.

We arrived at the Science Museum at 5 p.m.  The first-available tickets for the Star Wars exhibit were at 6:30.  (There is an additional charge to see Star Wars, and tickets can be purchased online ahead of time if a specific time slot is desired.)

An hour and a half was a good amount of time to explore the rest of the museum.  It had been two years since we’d been to SMM, and now that the boys can read, it was a lot more interesting for them.  We spent a lot of time in the weather and light exhibits on the 3rd level, as well as exploring the 5th level Mississippi River area before entering the Star Wars area.

Even for a non-Star-Wars fan, the exhibit was interesting.  We saw actual costumes of Han Solo, Chewbacca, and other characters, and other items from the movies.  What I was most impressed with were the hands-on activities for the kids that demonstrated how things in the movies were done.  Building a magnetic levitation Lego car, using computer animation to make various facial expressions, and making a robot’s legs move in a walking motion were hits with the kids.

Because tickets were sold for specific time periods, the Star Wars area wasn’t overly crowded.  There was a 20-minute film that we did not stand in line for, but we got to do all of the hands-on things without waiting long.

On the way out of the exhibit there is a Star Wars gift shop (Halloween costumes, anyone?) and a photo opportunity with your choice of Star Wars backdrop.

My husband said the Star Wars display was definitely the highlight of his Father’s Day.

When we returned to the museum, we explored the human body area and then headed down to the Big Backyard, where you can pan for gems, play in the sand and make your own rivers, and play mini-golf (additional charge for mini-golf).  We’d have liked to explore the backyard more, but by 8 p.m. the kids (and their parents) were ready to head for home.  We definitely want to go back to spend more time in the Big Backyard.

The Science Museum was definitely more interesting for our older kids than for our toddler.  Unlike other science centers we’ve been to, there’s no toddler/preschool activity area.  Our two-year-old loved pushing buttons, but there wasn’t much that was age-appropriate for her to do.  This museum is best suited for children ages 4-5 and up.

The other thing we noticed is that it was hard to keep track of the kids in the exhibit areas.  Most of the hands-on activities are for one person at a time, so the kids would go around a corner to find something they could do.  Even with a 2:1 child-to-adult ratio, we kept losing track of one child or another, even if they were just on the other side of an activity station.

My favorite part of the museum is the large set of chimes that play music faster as there is increased seismic activity around the world.  They’ll be nearly silent for a while, and then chime more frequently in a song pattern as small earthquakes occur somewhere in the world.

We’re saving the Omnitheater (also at an additional charge) for when the kids are older as well.  There will be plenty for us to see and do at the Science Museum for many years to come, and I think it will only get more interesting as the kids get older.

You can also read about our previous visit to the Science Museum of Minnesota.

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