Since discovering The Works science/technology museum several years ago, it’s been on of our family’s favorites.  We’ve attended special events and camps as well as during regular hours, and our kids always ask to go back again.

Earlier this winter, The Works moved from its old location in Edina down the road a few miles to Bloomington.  We visited the new location in December and found all of our old favorites, plus some new exhibits and activities.

Location

The Works’ new location is at 9740 Grand Ave S in Bloomington.  From 35W, take the 98th Street exit and go a few blocks east, then left on Grand and a quick left into the parking lot.  The parking area is much more convenient than the Edina location’s was.

Exhibits

All of the familiar exhibits from the old The Works came over to Bloomington except the robots.  In addition, there’s a new traveling exhibit area (currently hosting displays about the science of toys).  The space is large and open, and each exhibit seemed to hold our kids’ interest for longer periods of time than before.  It will take a lot more people now to make the exhibits seem crowded, and there’s plenty of natural light coming in to brighten things up.

In addition, there’s a special “design lab” upstairs with do-it-yourself projects and experiments.  Staff move in and out to help with questions or ideas, but visitors can stay and work (or play?) as long as they want.  Our kids didn’t want to leave until they’d each completed all four stations.  The projects in this area will be changed periodically so there’s always something new to try.

Hours and Admission

During the school year, The Works has these expanded hours at its new location:  Thursday-Friday 10-8, Saturday-Sunday-Monday 10-5, Tuesday-Wednesday closed.  Groups, such as schools or birthday parties, can be scheduled any day of the week.

Admission for ages 3 and up is $6 for the exhibit area, and $8 for both the exhibit area and design lab.  The extra $2 is well worth it if the projects have changed since you last visited.  Members of The Works and children 2 and under are free.  ASTC reciprocal membership is accepted for the exhibit portion of the visit only.

Membership

Membership at The Works is affordable at $70 for a family, which includes free visits, discounts on camps and classes, and reciprocity at related museums around the country.

Tech Fest

Tech Fest is held each February and includes admission at a discounted rate plus a variety of special activities and shows.  If you have kids who love science, or you want to show your kids some really exciting things about science, TechFest should be on your list to visit.

Moving The Works to a new location has done nothing but make it better.  We loved the new space and more easily accessible location, the increased exhibit area, and especially the design lab.  If you haven’t been to The Works yet, I really do recommend it as a kid-friendly hands-on science museum in the Twin Cities.

Don’t let the Onamia address confuse you; though you may not be familiar with Onamia’s location on Lake Mille Lacs, you probably know the museum’s nearby neighbor a bit more:  Grand Casino Mille Lacs.  It’s just north of the museum on Highway 169.

The museum’s location is that of a former resort and trading post on the shores of Lake Mille Lacs.  Today, some of the resort buildings are still standing, though not open, and the trading post is open, with museum displays in part of the building and Native American handicrafts and foodstuffs available for sale in the shopping area.

Just up the sidewalk, the Mille Lacs Indian Museum displays the history and culture of the Ojibwe tribe in Minnesota with multimedia displays and hands-on activities for kids.  A scheduled employee-led program depicts the historic life of the tribe, season by season, in a diorama-like setting.

Families heading up north should find the Mille Lacs Indian Museum to be an interesting stop along Highway 169.  The Mille Lacs Indian Museum is open seasonally and for special events.

One of our family’s favorite types of museums is the living history village.  Places like The Landing in Shakopee, Minnesota, Bonanzaville in West Fargo, North Dakota, Farmamerica near Waseca, Minnesota, or even my tiny hometown’s historical complex give us the opportunity to step back in time and experience the buildings and communities that my great-grandparents lived in.

Cassville, Wisconsin, has such a site at the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Stonefield Village.  My grandmother took me to Stonefield when I was a girl, so it was a treat to take my own children there.

We started with a guided tour of the Governor Nelson Dewey estate, across the road from the rest of the complex, and then moved on to the village, which is accessed by walking over a covered bridge.

While the village itself is made-up, its buildings are authentic and came from various locations near Cassville.  From homes to businesses to community buildings, Stonefield has excellent variety in its little town.  My kids loved the ice cream parlor and saloon, while I found the creamery and funeral home to be interesting.  Stonefield has a millinery shop, photography studio, general store, doctor’s office, and other businesses that were common in small towns in the late 1800′s.

Most of the village of Stonefield is accessible as a self-guided tour, but select buildings have living history interpreters providing guided tours at certain times during the day.  For children, there is a challenging scavenger hunt that takes them throughout the village finding historical items, some of which are commonly known, and others that are more obscure.

Stonefield also includes an agricultural history museum that was my husband’s favorite.  The entrance building houses a barn with agricultural implements, and another large farm museum building houses ag exhibits.

Cassville, Wisconsin, is just across the Mississippi River from Iowa, and Stonefield is an easy day trip from Dubuque, Iowa.  On our return to Iowa from Cassville, we took the Cassville Car Ferry across the river, which was an adventure in itself.

Like the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Circus World Museum, we found Stonefield Village to be an interesting, educational, and enjoyable history lesson.

Stonefield Village is open during the summer and early fall.  Hours and admission information can be found on its website.

Have you been to any living history villages?  Which is your favorite?

After enjoying the pleasant drive from Colorado Springs, which is all on nicely paved roads, we came around a bend to see the town of Cripple Creek nestled below us in a valley, and just ahead of us was the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine.  After paying our admission, we donned our miners’ jackets and hard hats and were packed carefully into a mineshaft elevator with our tour guide, Ed, who is a former miner.

Then we went down . . . and down . . . and down some more, until we were 1000 feet below ground level.  Perhaps it should have been scary, but it wasn’t particularly claustrophobic, and Ed explained the precautions that were taken in the old mining days and still are today to ensure that the air quality is fit for humans.

Once in the mine, Ed gave us a guided tour of stations located throughout the mine that are set up in historical order.  We learned how dusty and dangerous the early mines were, and saw how the equipment and techniques gradually progressed to be safer and more efficient.  It was as much a history lesson as a gold mine tour, and it was interesting in both regards.  Ed demonstrated much of the equipment that had been used, and though some was loud, he always warned us first so the kids could cover their ears for the brief noisiness.

Near the end of the tour, we got to ride on a minecar on a rail, powered by an engine invented right there in Cripple Creek.

The mine was much bigger than I’d expected, and it was interesting to learn about how the various pathways were created far below ground.  We learned some of the miners’ terminology, and how hit-and-miss the mining operation was; one vein was just feet away from where the miners had quit after looking for it for years.

At the end of the tour, we each got a piece of gold ore as a souvenir, and other mine memorabilia was available in the gift shop.

After visiting the mine, we went across the road to the Cripple Creek Heritage Center, a beautiful museum and visitors center that depicts the history of the area, including that of Zebulon Pike of Pikes Peak fame.  Mining is an integral part of the history of the area, and is portrayed in various interactive exhibits in the visitor center.

For those looking for a day trip from the Colorado Springs area, I highly recommend the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine for families with children older than age 4 or 5.  Just warn the kids that there will be a few loud noises, and that you’ll be going underground; other than that, I had no qualms about the tour.  At $18 for adults and $10 for kids, it’s not a bargain, but I felt that the history and experience were worth the cost of the one-hour tour.

If I’d have planned ahead better, I would have realized that the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument isn’t too far from Cripple Creek, and would have built enough time in our day to visit there as well.  Also, while the road from Colorado Springs is a good paved road, getting to Cripple Creek from other directions is more difficult, so be sure you’ve researched your route before you go.

The Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine is open seasonally; check the schedule to see the dates and hours of operation.  To learn more about things to do in the area, visit the Cripple Creek website.

So see it we did.  We packed up our extended family, all 16 of us, and drove from our vacation home rental to the site.  After paying the $11 parking fee (cash only, and it’s good for the rest of the year), we parked in the ramp and walked up to the memorial.

The avenue of flags has always been one of my favorite parts of Mount Rushmore, and my kids liked it as well, spotting the flags from various states as we walked to the primary overlook for the faces.  With plenty of room to move about, this plaza was a good location for photos of not only the presidents, but us with the presidents, kids with the presidents, Mom and Dad with the presidents, and all of those vacation photos that need to be part of your scrapbook.  We even took “Flat Kathy” from our local library along on our trip.

After we’d seen the memorial, we moved on to the Junior Ranger program.  There are two places where you can pick up National Park Service Junior Ranger Program booklets for the kids–one is at the small information center as you walk in from the parking lot (across from the restrooms), and the other is in the visitor center/museum that is below the viewing plaza.

Bleachers set up in the shade on the plaza gave us a good place to start completing the booklets as the heat of the day grew, and then we moved down to the museum to do the rest.  The short film about the making of Mt. Rushmore provided background information and was interesting for the adults in our party yet short enough to hold the kids’ attention (and contained the answers to some of the program booklet questions).

The Mt. Rushmore junior ranger program is divided by age, so the older kids in our group had different pages to do than the youngers.  In all, six of the eight cousins completed the program and were sworn in as junior rangers when the completed their booklets.  (The ranger did not let anything slide, and a few kids had to finish up things they’d missed before they could be sworn in.)

For those looking for souvenirs of Mt. Rushmore, there is a large gift shop just before the avenue of flags that is run by the park’s concessionaire, Xanterra.  This is where you’ll find the pressed-penny machine, if you like to collect those, and there’s a wide variety of merchandise.  It’s also very crowded.

There are also two smaller bookstores adjacent to the park ranger desks in the entry visitor center and the museum.  If you’re looking for books, puzzles, postcards, or other such merchandise, you can find it in these less-crowded venues, and if you wish to become a member of the Mount Rushmore Sociey, you’ll receive a discount in these bookstores as well as others at selected national parks around the U.S.  My favorite bookstore find was the Junior Ranger hat for the kids, which is perfect for storing and displaying the Junior Ranger badges they’ve collected over the years.

We spent about 2.5 hours at Mt. Rushmore just seeing the memorial and completing the Junior Ranger program.  We did not hike any of the trails, and I regret that we were not able to return for the evening lighting ceremony, which I have heard is superb.  Because we had arrived shortly after the memorial opened in the morning, crowds were moderate on our mid-July Saturday visit, but they were increasing as we prepared to leave.  There is a large concession building with outdoor umbrella-covered seating, but we opted to eat lunch in nearby Keystone instead of at Mt. Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore is one of those American landmarks that is amazing to see, and even though this was my third time visiting, I was no less awed by the work that went into making this memorial.  If you take your kids to Mount Rushmore, I highly recommend the Junior Ranger program, which can turn your visit from a ten-minute “ok-we-saw-it-let’s-go” visit to learning a lot about how this great mountain was carved into a lasting tribute to four American presidents.

Fellow family travel blogger Beth Blair of The Vacation Gals recently visited Mount Rushmore with her kids.  Read her take on visiting Mount Rushmore with children.

Have you been to Mount Rushmore? Do you have any tips for visiting with kids?

We’ve seen American Gothic in Chicago, and the traveling American Gothic statue.  We’ve seen Grant Wood paintings at the Dubuque Museum of Art and the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, which has the largest Grant Wood collection in the world.  We’ve seen the inspiration for paintings like Young Corn as we traveled the rolling hills of northeastern Iowa and drove through Stone City, Iowa.  While we haven’t seen the real American Gothic house, we’ve posed in front of the Stone City replica.  And of course, because we collect books on our travels, we own a children’s biography of Grant Wood.

This weekend, we had the opportunity to make one more stop on the Grant Wood trail, a visit to the studio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he lived and painted some of his most famous works, including American Gothic and Young Corn.  The Grant Wood Studio at 5 Turner Alley is just a few blocks from the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, with which it is affiliated.

Grant Wood studio, photo by Mark Tade.

The studio, formerly a haymow and stable, is now used as a visitor center on the ground floor while Grant Wood’s workshop is upstairs.  Tours begin in the visitor center, where guests are shown a video about Grant Wood and the importance of the Cedar Rapids studio in his art life.  After the video, a docent leads visitors up the outdoor staircase to the second-floor studio.

Interior view of 5 Turner Alley, looking east, c. 1925, courtesy of Figge Art Museum, Grant Wood Archives. Photo: John W. Barry.

Grant Wood’s special touches are everywhere–the shelves and storage spaces he created not only for doing his work but for making it a living space for himself, his mother, and his sister.  Though the space is not large, he made efficient use of it.  The docent was happy to answer my children’s questions as she led us around the workshop and showed us photos of what it was like when Grant Wood lived there.

Interior view of 5 Turner Alley, looking west, c. 1925, courtesy of Figge Art Museum, Grant Wood Archives. Photo: John W. Barry.

Because the tour is guided and there are no hands-on activities, I’d recommend a stop at the Grant Wood Studio for children who are school-age or older.  Those who have some background knowledge of Grant Wood will enjoy it most.  My children’s eyes grew wide at the end of the video as a modern photo of Stone City was transformed into Grant Wood’s painting of the village, and my formerly-shy first-grader raised her hand and proudly declared, “We’ve been to Stone City!”

The Grant Wood Studio is open on Saturdays and Sundays, and admission is now free.  If you have any interest in Grant Wood’s life and work, it’s a good way to learn more about this artist who depicted the Midwest so well.

Photos courtesy Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

On our last day in Sioux Falls, it was cold and blustery, so we were looking for something indoors to complete our family weekend.  I remembered that a reader had told me of a new children’s museum in Brookings, so we made Brookings a part of our route on the way home.

Like the Kirby Science Discovery Center in Sioux Falls, the Children’s Museum of South Dakota is located in a repurposed downtown-area school building, though it’s done so well that it’s easy to forget what the building was originally used for.  The primary exhibit areas are on the ground level of the building, with a traveling exhibit area, offices, and other special rooms upstairs.

My first impression of the museum was that it is airy and bright, yet calm.  Lots of outside lighting and pleasant colors make it just-right for both kids and parents.  Some classrooms have been transformed to small exhibit areas, like a mechanic’s garage, a get-fit station, and a water area that’s combined with a ball run.  There’s an art studio where kids can paint on the window (and then spray and wipe it clean), a music area that’s in a soundproof room, and a unique sand-sculpture station.

The largest room in the building, formerly the gymnasium, was our favorite.  While one child was building a house, another was climbing a unique structure.  They played weather forecaster in the TV studio and delivered the mail.  But the best part was the farm-to-market area.  Kids can “harvest” vegetables from the fields, take them to the “processing plant,” and then shop at the market.  This cycle of planting, harvesting, and shopping kept my kids busy for a long time. The murals in this room are beautiful, covering all the walls with scenes from the local agricultural community.  Carpeting and slyly placed acoustic panels kept things calm in what could have otherwise been a chaotic area.

Outdoors, there’s a “prairie” play area, where kids can have fun in nature and learn some conservation and ecology basics.  Be careful, because you just might encounter a dinosaur or two out there as well.

There’s a small gift shop and a large sunny cafe for those who want to make an all-day trip of the museum.  While it’s not the biggest children’s museum out there, it’s very well-done and easy enough to spend 2-3 hours there.  Our five-year-old cried sadly when it was time to leave, and she’s still asking when we can go back.

To see all the photos from our visit, visit my Children’s Museum of South Dakota set on Flickr.  Thank you to reader Jenny for telling about this new place to visit on the prairie.  Brookings is just an hour north of Sioux Falls on I-29.

Sioux Falls is one of our family’s favorite weekend getaway spots.  Not much more of a drive than the Twin Cities, there’s a lot packed into a small space.  There are plenty of restaurants, a better-than-decent mall for running a few errands, and lots of family-friendly things to do.  We have yet to visit Sioux Falls in the summer, when there are even more things open, so my list is based on winter and spring activities.

1. Kirby Science Discovery Center.  Located in Washington Pavilion, a repurposed school building, this is one of our family’s top 5 hands-on museums, and we’ve been to a lot.  Each family member has a favorite at this museum: the rock-climbing wall, the earthquake simulator, the water area, the Mars rover.  This was our fourth visit to the museum, and the kids to go back for a second day before we left for home.  There’s something for all ages here.
2. Sertoma Butterfly House.  Where better to escape from a cold winter day than a butterfly garden?  If the sun is shining, the butterflies are especially active.  Maybe you’ll get lucky and see one come out of its chrysalis.
3. Great Plains Zoo and Delbridge Museum.  Our January walk through the zoo was brisk, but seeing the stuffed animals in the museum indoors was a good alternative method of learning about habitats.
4. Falls of the Big Sioux River.  The green grass and roaring falls belied the near-freezing temperatures, so we pulled our hoods up to wander around Falls Park.  The waterfalls that give the city their name are beautiful and plentiful, and seeing the Queen Bee Mill Ruins and mill race give an interesting perspective to the history of the area.
5. Falls Park Viewing Tower.  After seeing the waterfalls up close, we climbed the tower to see a panoramic view of the area.  The women manning the visitor center were friendly and welcoming.
6. Sculptures and Fountains.  Downtown and in Falls Park, as well as other parts of the city, sculptures are featured.  Sculpture tour information can be found in Sioux Falls visitor information.  There are also a number of waterfall-like fountains throughout town.  Our kids loved being the first to spot a new fountain.
7. Vintage signs.  Driving down 12th Street especially, but in other areas of town as well, time seems forgotten as signs from days gone by are still advertising businesses that are local fixtures.  It’s refreshing to see signs like this that haven’t been updated every few years.  We played a game of “spot the old signs” while driving around Sioux Falls.
8. Splashtacular Waterpark.  The Ramkota Hotel has a waterpark that’s just right for families with young children.
9. Visual Arts Center at Washington Pavilion.  On your way out of the science museum, head to the other end of the building to see the Visual Arts Center.  Check out the artwork, and then let the kids have some time in the children’s workshop area.
10. USS South Dakota Memorial.  No, it’s not an entire battleship, but there’s enough of an outline and a few pieces from the ship that you can get a good idea of the scope of this historical ship.
11. Downtown.  Stop for a cup of coffee at Michelle’s, where there are games and children’s books available to keep them busy while you relax.  Chedd’s, a gourmet grilled-cheese shop, looked mighty tasty.  There are enough unique shops downtown that I told my husband that my next trip to Sioux Falls will be a girlfriends shopping trip.

There’s more to see and do in Sioux Falls. On our to-see list next time we’re in the area are the Outdoor Campus and the Museum of Visual Materials, and maybe a stop at the EROS center just outside of town.  In the summertime, even more activities and attractions are open.  For a great Midwest getaway, I highly recommend Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

One of our favorite days was the one spent in Dubuque.  This beautiful old city on the Mississippi River has attractions for every interest, from the Mines of Spain recreation area to a large casino.  These were our Dubuque highlights.

• National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium.  I’d heard good things about this museum, and it did not fail to impress.  Set in two buildings with outdoor exhibits in between, this museum encompasses many aspects of the river.  Kids will love the hands-on area upstairs in the main building, or “steering” a steamboat.  Wildlife and aquatic exhibits tell of creatures that live along the river.  Mark Twain, who so loved the river, has a section of his own that includes Tom Sawyer’s cave and a riverboat model.  Museum staff were very friendly and helpful throughout the museum.  My highlight of the day was the kids “reading” a book with Mark Twain himself.  The Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium tells the story of the river in an interesting way.
  
• Spirit of Dubuque.  After you learn about the river at the museum, step aboard the Spirit of Dubuque steamboat replica for a leisurely narrated ride on the river.  Whether you sit on the open-air deck or down below in the air conditioning, you can learn about the river from a new vantage point.  If you’re lucky, you can visit the captain in the pilothouse before the boat returns to the dock.
• Fenelon Place Elevator.  This small cable car that runs up the river bluff dates back to the 1800′s.  At the bottom, you’ll find unique stores and shops, and at the top there are beautiful views of Dubuque and the surrounding area.  It’s an old-fashioned ride that’s functional and fun, and only costs a dollar or two per person.
• Dubuque Museum of Art.  Located downtown near the clock tower, the Dubuque Art Museum isn’t large.  It is, however, free, and shows off some works by Grant Wood as well as other artists.  It’s worth a stop.

If you have more time in the Dubuque area, check out Dyersville, where you can see the Field of Dreams Movie Site and National Farm Toy Museum, or Galena, Illinois, former home of President Ulysses S Grant that is now filled with resorts and unique shops.

Libraries hold a place near and dear to my heart.  As a child in North Dakota, we lived 45 miles from our county library in Grand Forks, yet a stop at the library was a part of every trip to the city, to return our books and get new ones, and if time allowed, to browse the records or magazines or sit and read in the big egg chairs.

In college, I studied to be a librarian, then got my master’s degree as well.  I worked as a school librarian, called a “media specialist” in some circles, until my first child was born.

My library love did not stop there.  From taking wiggly toddlers to story time to hunting for lost books behind sofas and beds, we used our local libraries, and we used them well.

Even as a travel destination.

Sometimes I would plan a day trip that didn’t really need a whole day’s time.  If we had an extra hour, we’d stop at a library along the way and investigate its offerings, sliding inside to see if it had puzzles or train tables for the kids, fish tanks to watch for a few minutes, cozy spots to curl up with a book.  Because of Minnesota’s excellent reciprocal borrowing program, my card is registered in four or five regional library systems, where we’ve borrowed everything from books to museum passes.  We’ve explored the St. Paul Central Library while getting lost in the skyway system, read in the cool air of the Burnsville library when early for an appointment, and stopped to use a computer in Eden Prairie.  In Mankato, we explored Betsy-Tacy land and we went to a Dennis Warner concert in Morgan.  I’ve lugged bags of books out of the St. James library and carried a screaming baby out of St. Peter‘s library with my other young ones in tow.  A stop at new library for our family is a new adventure, where we never know what we’ll find.

It was with great delight, then, that I received a review copy of the Minnesota Historical Society Press’ new book Libraries of Minnesota.  It’s a browsing book, to be sure; my kids picked it up and instantly wanted to see if any of our county’s libraries were included.  (Two of them are indeed pictured.)  Doug Ohman’s photographs depict libraries old and new, urban and rural, quiet and busy.  In addition, Minnesota authors like Will Weaver and Nancy Carlson tell of their experiences in libraries big and small, here and there.

Libraries of Minnesota is a beautiful tribute to the libraries of our state.  Look for it soon at a library near you.

And if you’re anything like me, you’ll take it as somewhat of a challenge.  You see, of all the libraries pictured in this book, I’ve only been inside nine of them.  It’s time to pack up the kids and explore a few more.

Because we’ve been to quite a few, they seem to blur after a while–most have a water-play area, and other popular exhibits are replicated in a number of museums.  Each children’s museum we’ve visited, however, has something unique that we really enjoyed, and this is what makes it fun to go to new museums.

Here are some of my favorite children’s museum exhibits:

• San Antonio Children’s Museum, San Antonio, Texas: The history of the area is portrayed with replicas of the San Antonio Missions, which we had toured the day before.  The ball area was hard to pull the boys away from.  But the gem of this museum is the giant H-E-B grocery store on the lower level, where the scanners really work and museum staff are on hand to help kids put things away.  Big and bright, I wanted to do my grocery shopping here!
  
• Winnipeg Children’s Museum, Winnipeg, Manitoba:  Our youngest was only six months old when we went here, and there was plenty for our really young kids to do.  Their favorite at the time was running the excavation equipment mock-ups.  There was also a big, open arts area, and some unique musical instruments outside.  Located in The Forks area of Winnipeg, we also enjoyed shopping and eating and walking along the river, all without moving our car.
• Children’s Discovery Museum, Normal, Illinois:  This was a road-trip stop that we found to be a gem.  The agricultural exhibits were perfect for America’s heartland, and there was a huge creative art area.  The toddler area is adjacent to places where the big kids were, so I could keep an eye on everyone at once.  Our favorite part, though, was the Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman area, where the kids got to make their own gooey concoctions.
  
• Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:  This is Mr. Rogers’ hometown, and this museum pays homage to him in an area that will bring back memories in the parents while the kids are having fun.  I also remember this as the place where the aprons really did not keep the kids from getting wet in the large water-play area.
• The Magic House, St. Louis, Missouri:  This children’s museum is huge!  Although I found it confusing to navigate, there’s a wide variety of exhibits hiding within its walls.  The Lewis & Clark exhibit in the basement and the math hallway were my favorites, and the kids loved the pretend town where they could use their imaginations.
• Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: I think this gets the vote for my favorite children’s museum, even if just because its name is perfect for a children’s museum.  It has some of the most unique activities I’ve seen at a children’s museum, especially the Flight Fantasy area.
• Northwoods Children’s Museum, Eagle River, Wisconsin:  This small-town children’s museum is well-done.  We especially liked fishing in the stream and the kids loved watching for problems from the ranger tower.  Everything’s in one big room so each of the kids could do what they wanted and we could easily keep tabs on them.
• The Children’s Museum at Yunker Farm, Fargo, North Dakota:  I loved the small themed rooms in this museum, which is actually an old house.  The kids loved the train ride outside, and the nearby playground.  I wish this museum had been around when I lived in North Dakota.
  
• Minnesota Children’s Museum, St. Paul, Minnesota:  We’ve been here again and again, and yet the kids keep asking to go back (this time for the Lego exhibit).  Favorites:  the rooftop art park, where kids can “paint” the rocks with water, and making a thunderstorm.  I think they could work in the block factory all day long.
  
• DuPage Children’s Museum, Naperville, Illinois:  I like how this museum is set up with a toddler area within each neighborhood, making it good for families with kids of different ages.  Favorites: the wood workshop, the water area, and the kinetic sculpture.  My kids love to watch the balls climb and wind and fall.  We had so much fun on the main level that the museum closed before we could make it upstairs.
• Duluth Children’s Museum, Duluth, Minnesota:  It was a joy to take my kids here and climb in the treehouse that I remembered from a stop here when I was a little girl.  Although it’s not a large children’s museum, admission includes the adjacent train museum, so everyone in the family should be able to find something they like in a stop at The Depot.
• Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas:  Although this is technically not a children’s museum, the H-E-B Treehouse section is a children’s hands-on adventure.  Our favorite was the waterwheel outside.
• Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota, Mankato, Minnesota:  Although not yet in a permanent location, this newly-created children’s museum is on its second round of temporary exhibits.  I think my husband and I had as much fun building sculptures and marble runs with the huge foam pieces as the kids did.

As our children grow older, our days at children’s museums are drawing to a close, but we have a lot of “remember when” moments from our visits to children’s museums around the country.

Do you have a favorite children’s museum?  Which one is it, and what’s your favorite part about it?

I’ve been hearing about the Bily Clocks Museum for years, first from a college friend who lived in the area, then from my parents and in-laws who visited the museum.  Although they all raved about this museum, I was still skeptical.  How exciting could a clock museum be?

Yet, when in Rome . . .

As we were vacationing in Iowa, we stopped first at the World’s Smallest Church in Festina and then drove up the road a few miles to Spillville to see the Bily Clocks Museum.

Not knowing what to expect, we entered and paid our admission.  The guided tour had just begun, and we were allowed to join the group as they circled a single room filled with clocks, listening to a white-gloved tour guide tell about each clock.

These weren’t just any clocks, however.  All of these clocks were intricately hand-carved by two bachelor brothers with the last name of Bily, and they are beautiful works of art.  The clocks depict various scenes–religious, historical, technological–and do much, much more than tell time.  Some have moving parts that come out on display at certain times, and color is found here and there, but the real beauty of these clocks is the wood work.

What surprised and delighted me even more, though, is the story of the Bily brothers.  They were school drop-outs, yet very well-read, taking several newspapers.  They carved scenes from around the world, but never traveled more than 35 miles from home in their entire lives.  They were offered huge sums of money for some of their clocks, yet never sold one.  The Bily Clocks Museum is a complete collection of their work.  Every clock they ever made is here.

Following the guided tour of the actual clocks, visitors are allowed to peruse the upstairs area, where various collections are contained, as well as information about composer Antonin Dvorak, who lived in what is now the museum building during a visit to the United States, composing all the while he was in tiny Spillville.  Outdoors, there are a unique schoolhouse building and sheds with some other local artifacts.  My favorite was the early-1900s voting machine.

While this is definitely a no-touching museum, our kids really liked the it.  Seeing the clocks and their moving parts and learning about Dvorak were interesting for them.  (They won the hearts of the museum staff when they correctly pronounced Dvorak’s name.)  Restrooms were easily accessible and each child was given a postcard from the small gift shop at the conclusion of our tour.

I wish I had photos of the clocks to share, but photography is not allowed in the museum.  You can see some of them on the museum website’s “about” page.

If you’re ever in northeast Iowa, I highly recommend a stop at the Bily Clocks Museum in Spillville.  The talent and workmanship shown there is something you won’t see anywhere else.

The Bily Clocks Museum will soon be reopening for the season.  See all of the details about visiting at the Bily Clocks Museum website.

When I look through guidebooks from state or local tourism offices, inevitably many of the attractions listed are local history museums, whether they be sponsored by a city, a county, or an interested group of historians.  And as we travel, I’ve sometimes taken those museums off our itineraries because they’re not as interactive as the bigger, flashier state and national history centers, and, in some ways, they all begin to look the same after a while.  After all, if you’ve seen one recreated 1800′s village, you’ve seen them all, right?

Not necessarily.

While not always exciting for kids to visit, each local site has its own unique characteristics.  You may have peeked inside a dozen one-room schoolhouses, but then you encounter one where the kids can sit in the seats and try out the slate boards.  You may have walked through historic house after historic house, restored with period items, and suddenly find one where kids are allowed to explore the nooks and crannies.  Finds like these make it fun for kids to visit local sites.

There’s another reason, however, to visit your local history museum even if it’s not the biggest or most exciting museum around.  That’s because it’s LOCAL.  It showcases the history of your area–your county, your town, where your ancestors lived or where you live now.  You just might recognize some of the names on the World War I roster, or locate your home on a hundred-year-old map of the area.  You might see the bell that was hung in the one-room school that used to be just down the road from you.  You might learn how your community was involved in national issues, or was at the forefront of something regional that was important at the time but has since been nearly forgotten.  You might see the tools and artifacts that were common in your particular area, as opposed to those of all of the other museums you’ve visited.

My tiny little hometown in North Dakota (and by tiny I mean tiny–its current population is about 65) has an active historical society that takes care of four buildings:  a one-room schoolhouse, a log cabin, a church, and a jail.  When I was a kid, we drove past those old buildings regularly, and it was exciting when we got to visit during community celebrations or by calling Richard to get the key for a self-guided tour.  These buildings weren’t that much different from ones found throughout the Midwest, but they were ours, part of our community’s history, right there in front of us.

This year, I challenge you to take your children to your local history museum, even if its hours are limited, even if it’s a “no-touching” museum, even if it is tiny and not at all exciting and maybe even smells a bit musty.

It won’t cost you much–most are cheap for adults and free for kids.  You might find that one of the dedicated staff members or volunteers knew your great-grandfather, or can tell you something you didn’t know about your town or even your house.  You might find something fun to do nearby.  (We enjoyed a new park and a soda fountain when we visited our county museum.)  It likely won’t take up your entire day.  It will, however, give your family a bit of a picture of local history and the way things were done in the “old days” by people who live right where you do now.

What could be better than that?

Hmmmm… Illinois… long weekend… President’s Day… sounds like the perfect opportunity for a presidential field trip!

Although we may typically think of the presidents as hailing from the eastern United States, and the many monuments in the Washington, D.C. area, the Midwest has its share of presidential places to visit as well.  These are some I’ve thought of (with thanks to my friends on Twitter for their input).

• Springfield, Illinois, and area:  Abraham Lincoln’s home area.  Lincoln’s home is a National Park Service site and I’ve been told the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield is spectacular.  There are also Lincoln stops in southern Indiana.
• Dixon and Eureka, Illinois: Ronald Reagan.  His boyhood home in Dixon is closed during the winter months, but there’s a Reagan museum in Eureka, where he went to college.
• West Branch, Iowa:  Herbert Hoover Library and Museum
• Independence, Missouri: Harry S Truman home and library
• Galena, Illinois: Ulysses Grant home
• St. Louis, Missouri: Ulysses Grant National Historic Site
• Medora, North Dakota: Theodore Roosevelt enjoyed the time he spent here, and now has a national park named after him
• Omaha, Nebraska:  The Durham Museum has a Lincoln Bicentennial exhibit as well as a special exhibit about the presidents’ educations
• Boone, Iowa: Mamie Dodd Eisenhower birthplace (First Ladies also have Midwestern connections!)

Then, of course, there’s Ohio, which has turned out eight presidents, enough for a presidential site post of its own.

I’m hoping our President’s Day “field trip” will work out, but if not, I’ve had fun exploring presidential connections in the Midwest.  Do you know of any others?

Mission Concepcion

The Alamo may be the first thing that comes to mind when visiting San Antonio, but our kids weren’t impressed with it.  We walked through the crowded museum areas, circled it on foot, and took the requisite photo in front of it, but other than saying, “We’ve been to the Alamo,” it doesn’t stick in our minds much.

The Alamo

The Missions, however, offer a less-crowded peek at San Antonio’s history.  The four missions (Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan, Mission Concepcion, Mission Espada) that are part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park are scattered south of the downtown area and can easily be visited one after the other for a half-day (or longer) adventure.  You can visit just one or two, but seeing all four will provide insight into both their similarities and differences.

Mission Espada

The National Park Service visitor’s center is located at Mission San Jose, and this is a good place to start.  A small museum gives background and rangers are available to answer questions.  Our kids enjoyed the short film that is shown routinely in the visitor center.  Children can pick up a Junior Ranger booklet here and complete activities as you visit the missions; they’ll earn a badge upon completion.  The Junior Ranger program is an excellent way to pique kids’ interest in the places they visit.

From the visitor center, walk to Mission San Jose, where you can wander through the courtyard and learn about the functions and activities that took place here.  The church itself is an important part of each mission, but the missions were also complete communities with all of the necessities of daily life taking place.

After seeing Mission San Jose, choose another mission to visit.  Some are more complete while others are more ruinous, but each has a unique feel to it.  Active Catholic congregations still use the Mission churches, so they are both historical and current.

Mission San Jose

After visiting each of the Missions, we enjoyed good conversation.  Which was your favorite, and why?  What would it have been like to live at the Mission?  What was the most unique thing you saw?

Mission San Juan Model

If you take your kids to San Antonio, by all means see the Alamo.  But don’t discount the San Antonio Missions as another important stop in your itinerary while you’re in Texas.

Have you been to the San Antonio Missions? What were your impressions?  Are there missions in other parts of the United States that you’d recommend visiting with kids?

Read more about San Antonio Missions National Historical Park at Uptake.

Calm? No way! Quiet? Not a chance. Historical? Well, yeah, in a way.

My best description of City Museum is “House on the Rock meets Chutes and Ladders.”  My friend calls it a McDonald’s playland on steroids.

We entered City Museum soon after it opened on a Tuesday morning during Christmas break.  The first thing our kids spotted was a big slide, and I think they would have been happy to stay there all day if we hadn’t pulled them into other areas to explore.

Next stop–a ride on a small train for the little girls, while the boys found a crawling tunnel that would let them peek out from inside the model railroad display.

A few minutes watching circus performers practice.  Time spent building with sponge blocks.  Walking on the world’s largest pencil, and sliding down skateboard ramps.  A wall of post office boxes next to a bank vault.

Playing on old-time pinball machines in the arcade.

That’s when the real fun started.

The kids found another slide while I explored the wall made of old printer’s plates next to one of the concession areas.

That’s when we discovered the caves and tunnels.  Almost everywhere we looked, there was an opening.  Some big, some small.  All of them a mystery as to whether we’d be walking, crawling, scooting, or climbing our way out.

After a lot of time finding new nooks and crannies, our eight-year-old wasn’t satisfied.  He wanted to find the 10-story slide.  So he and my husband went off again, through more caves, until they found the really big slide.  I stayed behind to look at some of the exhibits.  There’s something for everyone at City Museum.

Our kids are already begging to go back in the summertime, when the outside area and rooftop are open.

It isn’t exactly cheap to visit City Museum; everyone aged 3 and up costs $12 for basic admission, and extras such as the aquarium and rooftop will incur an additional charge.  Parking in the museum lot is $5.  Restrooms are tucked into corners throughout the museum, as are various shops and concession areas.

While I saw families with strollers at City Museum, this place will be best enjoyed by kids 5 and up who can walk, crawl, and slide independently.  The tweens and teens there appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely, and it’s one of those museums that would work really well for families with kids in different age groups.  Parents can play as much as they want–my husband did all the slides and tunnels with the kids, while I counted heads from the main paths.  Staff are plentiful and not afraid to enforce the few rules in place, especially “no running.”  They seemed to enjoy their work and were friendly and helpful.

If you’re heading to St. Louis, you’ll likely be going to see the Arch, but put City Museum at the top of your list if you have an extra half-day or more.  You won’t find anything else quite like it on your travels, and your kids will thank you for taking them there.

City Museum is located in downtown St. Louis at 701 N 15th Street.

Have you been to City Museum?  What did you think of it?  Have you seen something similar in other cities?  If so, let me know so we can check it out.

Read reviews about City Museum at Uptake.

The details:  You need to download a ticket from Smithsonian’s website in order to get free admission.  Each ticket will admit two people, and only one is allowed per family. All of the details, including a list of participating museums and the ticket download, can be found on Smithsonian’s website.

While your entire family may not be free on Museum Day, it may be a good time to check out a new museum while a couple of you have complimentary admission.  Also, watch for other museums that are not officially participating, but may be offering free admission in conjunction with the day (like the Minnesota History Center).

Happy Museum Day!  Which museum do you want to visit?

To learn more about the Minnesota History Center and visiting with kids, see these posts on Travels with Children.

What do you think?

This is what we saw:

Compare with Grant Wood’s Young Corn.  See any resemblance?

How about Near Sundown?

We also drove to Stone City, Iowa, where coming in from the south still looks just like Grant Wood’s Stone City, Iowa, if you can see past the trees that have grown up along the road.  And, while not entirely accurate (as the real American Gothic house is somewhere else in Iowa), it’s fun to stop and have your picture taken at an American Gothic replica.  Unfortunately, we forgot our pitchfork on this trip.

Grant Wood buffs ought to take a nice drive around Iowa.  Visit his studio in Cedar Rapids, or some of the many art museums around the state (Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Davenport, and others), and then explore the countryside to see where Wood’s inspiration came from.  You just may see it come to life, as my son did.

The Minnesota Historical Society has some special activities planned during the school break, October 21-23, at the History Center, Historic Fort Snelling, and Split Rock Lighthouse.  If you’re looking for a family activity while the kids are off school, check out the options at the Minnesota Historical Society website.  Hint:  there’s chocolate involved at the History Center program.  Did that get your attention?

The History Center also has some chocolate-focused special activities on Thanksgiving weekend.

If you have other family favorites during the fall break, please share then in the comments.

We’ve been to all but six of the Minnesota Historical Society’s 26 sites, and overall we’ve been impressed with them.  Most are nice museums with visitor centers, or historic buildings that have been preserved, and staff are friendly and helpful.

When we visited Marine Mill this past weekend, however, we learned about the other definition of historical “site.”

Marine Mill is the site of the first commercial sawmill in Minnesota, located in Marine on St. Croix, 11 miles north of Stillwater along the St. Croix River.  Follow the signs for the business district, and at the first intersection, choose the street with the general store on it and go about a block past the store.  The site is on your left, with parking available on the street.  There are no signs from the road indicating that there is a historic site in the area, and the small park that borders Highway 95 and has a historical marker with millstones by it is not quite what you’re looking for, although it’s another stop of interest in the town.

The Marine Mill site itself is a series of signs describing where former mill buildings stood.  There is no actual mill to see.  A short path will lead you past the interpretive signs toward the bluff, and another path through the woods contains more signs.  There are a few picnic tables near the parking lot.  And that’s the site.

Across the street there’s a refurbished log cabin that is open on weekends, and the Stonehouse Museum in town is also open weekends only.  There’s a general store and an ice cream shop in town as well, so if you’ve come to explore one of Minnesota’s oldest towns, you’ll find something to do.

I don’t recommend going out of your way with kids for a visit to the Marine Mill historic site.  If you’re expecting something like Mill City or Fort Snelling, you’ll be disappointed.  If you enjoy reading signs and trying to picture the past, you’ll enjoy the site more.

Marine Mill is open from dawn to dusk, just like Birch Coulee Battlefield, which is another unmanned, self-guided Minnesota Historical Society site.

We took our kids to see the replicas of Columbus’ Nina and Pinta today in Hudson, Wisconsin.

The two ships are located at Hudson Docks through August 16.  There is free parking available along the riverside park area and throughout Hudson’s downtown.

The cost to board the ship is $8 for adults and $5 for kids 5-12, and they accept CASH ONLY.

Volunteer deck hands are available to answer questions, but their knowledge varies from person to person.  A small gift shop is also available, and there are deckhand tip jars in many locations.

All in all, it was interesting to see the ships and to carry on a conversation with the kids about their size and setup and how it would be to look for a new land in a vessel such as these.

On the other hand, we felt that the charge was quite high for the amount of time we actually spent on board.  Tours are self-guided, so you can spend as much time as you want on each ship.  I’m sure that part of the cost is for the maintenance and sailing of the ships.

Upcoming stops include Davenport, Iowa; Grand River, Kentucky; Florence, Alabama; Huntsville, Alabama; Knoxville, Tennessee; Lenoir City, Tennessee; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Guntersville, Alabama; Columbus, Georgia; Demopolis, Alabama; and Biloxi, Mississippi.

For more information, please see my previous post about this sailing museum.

Our previous visit to the Walker Art Center was on a “Free First Saturday” in winter about two years ago.  Stroller navigation aside, we all had a lot of fun and the family activities were very well done.  I’d been looking for an opportunity to return, and today was our day.

This summer, the Walker Art Center’s Free First Saturdays are taking place outdoors on Walker Open Field.  That was the first problem of the day, because a steady rain was falling the entire time we were there.  We grabbed umbrellas and attempted to make the rounds of the outdoor activities, some of which were in tents, but umbrellas are cumbersome for adults, and for kids to try to hold an umbrella while accomplishing anything else, including walking without running into someone, is very difficult.  We walked past the tents but did not partake of any of the outdoor activities, and then returned the umbrellas to the car.

The concert by the group Roma di Luna was moved to the auditorium inside the museum, and it was the brightest part of our day.  I enjoyed the music (although being able to understand the words of the songs would have made it better) and the kids enjoyed being invited to dance onstage.

After the concert, we walked through the museum.  At the first gallery, I was given a stern warning to make sure the kids didn’t touch anything, and to either hold their hands or make sure they all held hands together.  1) My kids have been to “no-touching” museums before, and 2) We’d gone over the rules before going in.  I made sure they stayed to the centers of the galleries and we got a quick glimpse of the artwork.

When we got to the Target Gallery and adjacent gallery (I don’t recall its name, and I can’t seem to find a map of the museum online), signs posted at the entrance were clear: You must hold your children’s hands in these galleries.  If nothing else, I’m a rule-follower, and I have four children but only two hands.  We skipped these galleries.  For being a family-friendly day, there were a lot of family un-friendly vibes going around.  I haven’t encountered this scrutiny when we’ve attended family days at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, or at other art museums we’ve been to.

On our way back to the car (still not touching anything, mind you), we left the museum and entered the hallway leading to the parking garage.  As we were walking, we heard a loud noise that sounded like someone dropping a huge tub of ice cubes, followed by a loud “Oh!”  We rounded a bend in the hallway to see that the glass door leading to the parking garage had shattered, leaving glass all over.  Someone who had been at the pay station was helping a woman who had been hit by the falling glass, and we ran to alert museum personnel about the incident.  The woman apparently suffered some cuts, and an ambulance was called by museum personnel.  As we walked back through the museum to an alternate exit, a museum staff member commented that this wasn’t the first time this has happened.  If I return to the Walker Art Center, I’ll be very, very careful when entering and exiting.

All in all, our afternoon at Walker Art Center was a disappointment.  I wanted so much for it to be a good day, but we left the museum with the kids saying, “Mom, you said we were going to go somewhere fun today.  Can we please go somewhere fun?”

I think the outdoor family activities are a great idea on nice days, and if the first Saturdays in July, August, and September are nice, I’d encourage families to go check them out.  If it’s raining, however, you may want to make other plans.  Unless your kids are very talented with umbrellas.

The sites of the Minnesota Historical Society are one of our state’s treasures, each different in location and type of history.  We’ve visited many of them in the past several years, from the Forest History Center logging camp to the Oliver Kelley 1850′s farm, from the Jeffers Petroglyphs to the Harkin Store.  This past weekend, we made the drive to Pine City, Minnesota, to visit the North West Company Fur Post.

Located just a few miles off I-35, the North West Company Fur Post is a recreated living history museum that portrays the life of the fur trade in northern Minnesota in the early 19th century.  Through the stories of a costumed guide, visitors learn about the Ojibwe people who traded furs, bark, and other goods at the post, as well as discovering what the daily life of a voyageur was like.  Our boys weren’t quite ready to sign a contract to be a voyageur, but they were more than happy to play with the children’s toys from the era.

The modern visitor center has museum exhibits about the fur trade, which include a birch bark canoe and several hands-on activities for children.

Guided tours to the post require a short walk down a level path.  Other paths are also available, the longest of which is 1/2 mile, and are excellent for enjoying views of the adjacent Snake River or wildlife.  We spotted various animal tracks, heard several birds, and a butterfly landed on my foot along the trail.

Special events are held throughout the year; we were there as the post was remembering the War of 1812.  Day camps and field trips are also popular at the post.

We’ve learned about fur trading before at North Dakota’s Fort Union, Manitoba’s Lower Fort Garry, and the Minnesota Historical Society’s Sibley House, and although all of these sites had similar purposes, they were each set up uniquely and there is something different to learn at each of them.

More about the North West Company Fur Post at Uptake.

This is definitely on our return list, and I suspect that if we go again, we’ll try to make a camping weekend of it, since the Lindbergh House is within Charles A Lindbergh State Park.  There are several other interesting things to do in the Little Falls area that I’d like to explore as well.