Travels with Children

Sometimes on our travels we come across things that are truly off the beaten path.  Such is the case of Cliff Haugen’s sculptures near Larimore, North Dakota.  They’re on a gravel road a few miles northeast of the rest area, and not marked in any way.  My mom just happened to know about them and so I ventured off the highway to take a look.

I’m guessing most of these pieces are made of scrap pieces of metal from around the farm, so this is recycling taking on an interesting form.

Some of the pieces are in motion and move gently with the wind.

I apologize for the quality of the photos; it was a cloudy day. And these are only a few of the pieces along the farmsite; my camera battery died after I snapped these pictures.

While these aren’t the masterpieces that others have seen at the Louvre or other famed museums, they’re pieces of art nonetheless.  I love these types of finds on my travels!  If you ever want to see this collection for yourself, make your way to Larimore, ND, and ask someone for directions to Cliff Haugen’s farm.

For more travel photos, head over to DeliciousBaby for Photo Friday.

The latest overnight trip I made with the kids was to my parents’ farm in eastern North Dakota.  It’s a 6-hour trip, and one that we’ve made many times.  Some trips home are short, or packed with activities, but this time we had a free day so I offered to help Mom and Dad pick the apples from their tree.

My uncle came over to run the “farmhand”, an ancient tractor with a loader bucket that looks innocent enough but really goes quite high.  (I spent many an hour in the farmhand, painting the big white barn, when I was in high school.)

Once we were up at the top of the tree, I remembered that I don’t like heights any more, so my apple-picking was done one-handed while I hung on for dear life with the other.

This 30-year-old Haralson tree was loaded with apples.  Its twin didn’t have as many so we left it alone this year.  We kept only the best apples, leaving many hanging on the tree for the birds and throwing some to the ground for the deer that congregate in the yard.  Even being choosy about the ones we kept, we did very well.  We ended up with nine 5-gallon pails and several peach boxes of crisp, sweet-tart apples.  The standing joke for the rest of the trip was to ask everyone we saw if they needed any apples.  (The answer was always “no” because all the neighbors had good apple crops of their own this year.)

Who needs an orchard when you have Mom and Dad?

To see more travel photos, visit Photo Friday at deliciousbaby.com.

We’ll be in Grand Forks next weekend, and as is often the case, I’m a loss as to what to do with the kids.  It’s not that I’m unfamiliar with the area; I grew up near there and spent five years at UND.  But as a mom, I always seem to have a hard time finding fun things to do with the kids.

Here’s what I’ve thought of:

• Play area in Columbia Mall. No. 3 of my 4 kids are too tall for most mall play areas.
• Splashers of the South Seas Water Park at CanadInn.  Not this time.  Looks like fun, but a water park’s not on my list this time around.
• Myra Museum.  No. Closed after September 15.
• North Dakota Museum of Art.  Maybe, but would be a short visit.  It’s free, though, so we might give it a try.
• Ralph Engelstad Arena. Maybe–do they still do tours? I can’t find anything about it on their website.
• Grand Forks Public Library.  (I worked there for several years.) This is a good bet.  The kids always love the pirate ship, and they have a great book collection.
• East Grand Forks Campbell Library.  Another nice library; will check hours and maybe we’ll go there again.
• The park across the street from the East Grand Forks library.  Maybe the kids are getting old enough for this one, since the play area is so big and has so many walls, I never liked supervising four of them there by myself when they were little.
• Valley Dairy Car Wash.  This is a definite possibility.  See my other post about the car wash.
• Bike trails. I wish I had room to take our bikes along, because Grand Forks has no hills!
• Homecoming Activities. Parade if the weather’s decent. I don’t think they’d appreciate it if I took my four kids into an English class during their reunion visits.

Don’t get me wrong, the Grand Forks area has some great festivals (where else do they have an all-you-can-eat french fry feed for Potato Bowl?) and nice parks, but this time of year it’s hard to come up with fun things to do.

People who are familiar with Grand Forks, clue me in.  What can I do with the kids there next weekend?

• 1201 28th Avenue N
  Fargo, ND 58102
  (701) 232-6102
• http://www.childrensmuseum-yunker.org/
• $4 ages 1 and up
• Carousel and train rides for additional small fee
• Stroller accessible
• Restrooms with changing tables available
• Free parking

I was surprised to learn recently that there was a children’s museum in Fargo.  Having grown up in North Dakota, it was something I’d never heard about.  My friends and family who have kids had never mentioned such a thing.  It’s not an ACM museum, so I hadn’t come across it in the reciprocity listings.  Since learning about it last winter, I was interested in taking the kids there, and the return from our Memorial Day weekend trip offered the opportunity.

Our GPS took us in the “back way” from the north, but if I’d known it was just a few blocks north of the Fargodome, I could have found it easily on my own.  When we arrived, there were some people picnicking on the grounds, which are very inviting.  We went in the front door and paid our admission and then were off to explore.

This museum is in an old farmhouse.  Because of this, the rooms are smaller than many children’s museums, but this isn’t a bad thing.  Each of the rooms is focused on a different theme, and it’s easy to keep an eye on several children at a time.

The kids were eager to explore it all.  They loved climbing in the beehive and “milking” the cow.  They explored the upstairs music room, pretend cafe, and kinetic energy area, and braved their fear of darkness in the small planetarium.  They did not explore the special toddler area (since 3 of the 4 are too old for it) or the painting workshop (since Mom wasn’t sure she could keep the paint on the paper and off four kids at once).

Seemingly very soon, it was time for our train ride.  There is a small track just outside the museum with a little passenger train, and each ticket buys two circles around the track.  It even goes through a little shed/tunnel.  (Warning! It gets pretty loud in there.)  After the train ride, we went for a ride on the small carousel.

Also on the grounds are a seasonal mini golf course, and “A to Z” garden, and a nice playground area.

The Children’s Museum at Yunker Farm is a fun and relaxing place to visit.  With the train ride, carousel, and playground, it has a lot to offer beyond the museum itself.

The only problem is that the kids are now going to ask to go there every time we drive through Fargo!

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You’ll probably think I’m grasping at straws on this one, but while we were in North Dakota we had a great time at the car wash.

Really, we’ve had the car washed before, in the stay-in-your-car-while-you’re-blasted-with-water sense. The only reaction I get from the kids now on that one is the 2-year-old saying, “Really really LOUD” as she covers her ears.

But this one’s different. This is a great car wash. I actually make a point of working it into our North Dakota trips if possible, preferably when the luggage is not in the vehicle. I actually clean the inside of the car (relatively speaking) before I go to this car wash.

When we arrived, there were five cars ahead of us. At any other car wash, I’d drive right past and not even consider waiting. But, like I said, this one’s special. I love this car wash.

After waiting almost 30 minutes, it was finally our turn. I had to decide if I wanted the basic wash ($10), midrange washes, or the super-duper wash for $20, which includes a 48-hour rain guarantee (and some extra potions applied to the vehicle and wheels and an air freshener in my choice of scents).

Since I only do this once or twice a year, I splurged and went whole hog on the wash, and not because there was rain in the forecast. The extra $10 was worth it because they would clean all the mats and vacuum all the way to the back. (Apparently for the basic wash, they would have vacuumed part of it for me, but we had a Cap’n Crunch incident in the trunk area a few weeks ago and this was an easy way to destroy the evidence so the back-end vacuuming was essential for me.)

Here’s the fun part: After choosing our wash, we all got out of the car. While I paid for the wash, and the kids opened their complimentary Safe-T Pops, car wash workers cleaned my mats and vacuumed the car. Apparently they vacuumed for quite a while, because four other cars from the other lane came through before ours did. Oops. Guess I got my money’s worth.

Then the car goes on auto-pilot through the wash area while its owners wait in the adjacent hallway, complete with benches and viewing windows. The kids thought it was great to watch our car being washed without us being in it. Really, it’s quite exciting.

At the end, after they hand-dried it and washed the windows inside and out, we jumped in, got everyone buckeld into their carseats, and drove away in our shiny, clean, vanilla-scented mini-van, off on another adventure.

I suppose you’d like to know where you can get in on this fun. It’s at the Valley Dairy Car Wash on the corner of South Washington and 36th Ave. S in Grand Forks, ND. There are other Valley Dairies in town, some with regular car washes, but this is the good one.