When visiting California, our family’s goal was to learn about some of the history and culture of the state as well as visiting attractions like Disneyland and Legoland.  As Minnesota farmers, we also hoped to learn a bit about agriculture in California.  We found the perfect stop for this at California Citrus State Historic Park in Riverside.

California Citrus SHP exists to preserve the history of the citrus industry that is shrinking in Riverside and its surrounding areas.  While our children explored the exhibits and worked through the children’s brochure in the visitor center, my husband and I visited with the knowledgeable docents, learning about the citrus industry’s history in California and how it is changing in a time of population growth and urbanization.

After we’d had our questions answered and browsed the gift shop, the docent took us to the patio behind the visitor center, where we were offered tastes of a variety of citrus fruits.

We had our first experience with kumquats (little tiny oranges that are eaten like grapes, skin and all), really sweet clementines/mandarins, lemons, and juicy, red-orange Cara Cara navels.  Even the choosiest eaters in our family were adventurous enough to taste the fruits.

The docent then led us down the sidewalk and showed us some of the other varieties growing near the visitor center.  The rule was that we, as visitors, could not pick any of the fruit in the park, but our ranger could pick things and share them with us.  It was a new and tasty experience to eat oranges that had just been picked from the trees.

After trying several of the varieties, the ranger left us to wander through the rest of the park on our own, and we walked the many paved paths through what is an actual working orchard.  Throughout the park, signs indicate the varieties of the trees, from the Meyer lemons that are common in California backyards to the spiky Flying Dragon seedling that is good for root stock but does not bear good fruit.

Our kids liked learning about the trees and how they grow,

as well as just walking between the palm trees, which were originally grown in the orange groves as a navigation aid, so workers could find the roads among the acres of orange trees.

Displays along the paths explained things such as the importance of the local canal to the citrus industry and the citrus heritage of the area.

The orange trees were just beginning to bloom and I found that their sweet smell now rivals lilacs as my favorite scent.

The visitor center is only open on weekends, but the park is open daily for walking its tree-lined paths.

After leaving the park, we stopped at the Gless Ranch stand, conveniently located just outside the entrance, and purchased some fresh California oranges to take home with us.  Sadly, they did not make it home, as we ate 16 pounds of oranges in a week’s time.  Even worse, we cannot find anything that tastes nearly as good now that we are back in Minnesota.

We made one more stop before heading back to our hotel in Anaheim, at the ranger’s suggestion:  We drove through Riverside to the corner of Magnolia and Arlington to see the Parent Navel Tree.  If you’ve ever eaten a navel orange grown in the United States, it is likely a descendant of this tree that dates back to the 1800s.  How’s that for a piece of history?

I highly recommend California Citrus SHP for visitors to California who want to learn about this type of agriculture or to taste a variety of citrus fruits, or to California residents who may know little about the citrus industry and its history in the state.

Set in the beautiful hills of Simi Valley, California, north of Los Angeles, the setting for this museum is breathtaking.  Our children enjoyed seeing the banners depicting the order of the presidents as we wound up the driveway, until we arrived at number 40, Ronald Reagan, at the top of the hill.

Our first contact upon entering the building was a representative offering a membership to the library.  We declined this option and moved to the admission window, where we paid for our visit and a Guidecam tour upgrade for an additional $7 per person.  Though this price was somewhat high, we hoped that it would provide additional interest for our kids as we walked through the museum.

The museum itself is very large and well-done.  The exhibits are informational and appealing to look at, with each area based around a specific period or topic of President Reagan’s life.  Occasional interactive areas, like a radio show from Reagan’s early days, or a White House etiquette trivia quiz, livened it up a bit for the kids.

The Guidecams, which are specially-purposed iPod Touches, were indeed a good choice, as the exhibit areas were marked with audio locations.  One daughter especially liked the option of using the Guidecam to take photos in the museum, which were e-mailed to us at the end of the tour.

Guidecam Photo taken by 7-year-old

On the downside, there is no child-specific audio option, so the kids got the same spiel as the adults.  A special kid-friendly audio tour would make the Guidecams even better.  Still, listening as we walked and looked made for a very well-rounded experience.

Docents were available at every turn should we have questions, and while some waited quietly in the exhibit areas for questions to be addressed to them, others interacted with the kids as we walked through.  One even gave us tiny bags of Jelly Belly jelly beans (Ronald Reagan’s favorite) when we stopped to ask a question.

After learning about most of Reagan’s life, we made it to the Air Force One exhibit area.  The large annex area is home to the Air Force One that was in use during Reagan’s presidency, and it was very interesting to step on board and walk through the plane, seeing the office areas, press seating, and how the president’s office in the sky is set up.  While photography is allowed in the rest of the museum, there are no photos allowed on board Air Force One.

Other presidential and military vehicles, including a presidential limousine from the Reagan years, are also on exhibit in this large area of the museum.

From Air Force One, we continued the audio tour to its end.  We kind of breezed through the last area quickly because we were hungry; we hadn’t realized just how much time we’d be able to spend in the museum.  Using the Guidecam, we had spent nearly three hours learning about Ronald Reagan.

We ate lunch at Reagan’s Country Cafe, which was at the end of the tour.  (If we had only realized when we entered that it was just through the doors by the Guidecam pickup point, we would have eaten first).  There is also a pub in the Air Force One exhibit area, but we opted for the cafe with more menu options and beautiful views from the dining area.

Though it rained while we were in the museum, by the time we headed outdoors again it was sunny, so we took some time to see a portion of the Berlin Wall and the replicas of the White House gardens, as well as President Reagan’s gravesite.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum is one of the largest and most-visited presidential museums in the U.S.  With its excellent exhibits, the Guidecam tour, and Air Force One, we found it to be an excellent history lesson amidst the fun of other southern California attractions.

Have you visited the Reagan Library or another presidential library/museum?  Was it interesting for kids?

The Pavek Museum of Broadcasting is located in a business/light-industrial area of St. Louis Park, MN, just off Hwys 100 and 7.  After paying our admission and hanging up our coats, one son noticed the audio tour option, but we instead went with the guided tour of the museum that was offered to us.  Our guide cranked up a Victrola and a replica of Edison’s first phonograph, and we threw some nickels into an old-time juke box.  We learned about electricity with Leyden jar experiments like they have at the Bakken Museum, and got a demonstration of a ship’s radio system from days gone by.

Then it was on to the next room, where three kids at a time competed in a quiz show, complete with Jeopardy-style buzz-in buttons and broadcast on an old-time TV right in front of us.

Our guide read the questions and kept score.

We tried our hands at playing the Theremin, and then were shown a video that proves that some people actually were able to get songs to come from this electronic musical instrument.  We were taken to a back room where it was explained how film works, and after being given actual film clips to look at (something new for our kids’ generation), we watched the Roadrunner escape the coyote until the film broke.

Each child tried their hand at a telegraph, we heard music from old-time movie-theater speakers, and watched old-time TV shows on an old-time television.

The highlight of the visit, however, was doing our own radio show in the radio studio.  With one child at the controls, two announcers, and two reporters, we followed the script and broadcast our very own radio show, which was e-mailed to us after we left the museum.  Seeing how radio works, even though the studio setup was from the late-1960s, was an eye-opener for our WCCO-listening family.

Our Pavek Museum Radio Broadcast

We spent about an hour and a half at the museum; enthusiasts who want to examine all of the old radios and television sets on site could spend much longer.

At the end, even those children who weren’t sure about going to the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting said it was a lot more fun than they’d expected it to be.  I’ve already recommended it to friends and to our school as a good field trip option for upper-elementary students.  The Pavek Museum of Broadcasting does an excellent job of portraying the history of broadcasting in an informative and interactive way.

You’ve heard of tall tales, right?  Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill were larger than life, imaginary characters whose experiences were perfect for a story but hardly realistic.

If you like tall tales, you’ll want to find your way to Cabot’s Pueblo Museum in Desert Hot Springs, California, to learn about Cabot Yerxa.  As our tour guide told us about Yerxa’s life, it sounded more and more like a tall tale, yet the museum includes artifacts showing proof of these things really happening.  Cabot Yerxa was born in 1883 and during his life met the Mexican president, joined the Alaskan gold rush, where he opened a cigar store and lived with an Inuit family, was appointed the youngest postmaster in U.S. history by his personal friend Theodore Roosevelt, lived in Cuba, served in the U.S. Army, and studied art in France.  Buffalo Bill had a standing invitation to stay at Cabot’s home when he was in town, and Yerxa used rattlesnakes as a secondary security system when he was away.

Oh, yeah, and he was the one who found both the hot desert springs and the excellent cold drinking water in Desert Hot Springs, based on a tip from a Native American friend.  And that water just happened to be on the land he had homesteaded, saving him from a 7-mile walk for fresh water.

Throughout his life, Cabot Yerxa collected things with the intention of creating a museum to honor and educate about the Native American people who were many of his friends.  He began building his house in 1940 from reclaimed materials.  He made the windows to fit scraps of glass he found, and used innovative methods to reuse and recycle everything he could, including several uses of precious water before it was finally dumped out.

In some ways, Cabot’s home reminded me of The House on the Rock but with a lot less show and a much better story behind it.

Cabot’s home/museum itself was saved from the wrecking ball by a friend who knew it was too good to let it be destroyed, and today hourly guided tours of this unique home and museum are offered.  Some come to hear Cabot’s story, some to see the Hopi-style home and museum, and some because they heard it was a little-known treasure in Desert Hot Springs and wanted to see what it was all about.

Desert Hot Springs is just across the San Andreas Fault from Palm Springs.  (If you take the tour, you’ll learn what importance the faultline has on the water in the area.)  If you’re in the Palm Springs area, be sure to put Cabot’s Pueblo Museum on your must-see list.  You won’t find anything like it anywhere.

Tips for Visiting Cabot’s Pueblo Museum:

1. Tours are given six times a day and are limited to twelve people on a tour.  See the museum website for tour times.  The museum is closed on Mondays, so plan your time accordingly.
2. This is a “no-touching” museum, but the tour moves through the house and is interesting enough that kids over the age of five should be fine with it.
3. At $11 for adults and $9 for seniors/kids, the one-hour tour isn’t a bargain, but it’s worth it to hear the almost unbelievable story of Yerxa and to see his unique dwelling.
4. Photography is not allowed inside the museum.
5. At the end of the tour, you’ll get a bottle of water from Desert Hot Springs.  It’s really good water and the bottle is unique as well.
   
6. Visitors on the first tour of the day have the best chance of seeing Cabot’s “angel” in the mountains.
   
7. Before or after the tour, be sure to go up to the desert gardens that are part of the property.
8. If you don’t like the desert heat, winter might be your best bet for visiting.
9. The gift shop also sells locally made handiwork and serves as a visitor center for the Desert Hot Springs area.
10. If you take the first tour of the day, you’ll have time to drive out to Joshua Tree National Park, and then back to Palm Springs to ride the Aerial Tramway for a very interesting day trip.  Palm Springs is just 90 minutes from Anaheim.

Have you been somewhere as unique as Cabot’s Pueblo Museum?  Please share in the comments.  I love finding interesting places to visit.

More photos:

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.

The “11 Things” series is designed to give tips for traveling families to destinations well-known or off the beaten path.  Learn how to share 11 Things about your favorite destination, or read other 11 Things posts.

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.