Attractions

Orchard House - Home of Little Women

How would you like to step inside the setting of your favorite book and walk around in it for a while? See where the characters that you have come to know so well lived and breathed. Or get a look at the view the author had while creating those very same characters that you hold near and dear. If you stop for a visit at Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House you can do all of that and more.

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Dakota Dinosaur Museum, Dickinson, ND

A dinosaur museum?  In North Dakota?  Yes, you read that right.  Dickinson, North Dakota, is home to the Dakota Dinosaur Museum.  The exhibits at the Dakota Dinosaur Museum include both real skeletons and casts, as well as fossil and geology displays.  It includes a full triceratops skeleton, which is considered one of the best ever found.

Triceratops Skull

This is not so much a “Hey, kids, let’s go have fun with the dinosaurs!” type of musem as it is a scientific collection.  In fact, the museum consists entirely of pieces owned by one couple, Larry and Alice League, who have been collecting specimens from all over the world for more than forty years.  The Dakota Dinosaur Museum opened in Dickinson in 1994 to share the Leagues’ collection with the public.

Exhibit Explanation

While most of the museum is kept quiet and the exhibits are kept behind railings, the Dakota Dinosaur Museum does include a small children’s corner, consisting primarily of books, and there is a “please touch” table in the entryway.  The museum shop includes gifts for dinosaur and fossil enthusiasts of all ages.

Please Touch Table at Dakota Dinosaur Museum

Dakota Dinosaur Museum

200 E. Museum Drive, Dickinson, ND 58601
701-225-3466

Open May 1-Labor Day, 9-5

$7.00 – Adult

$6.00 – Senior

$4.00 – 3-12 years

Photo credits:  minnemom on flickr

Linda (minnemom) writes about family travel at Travels with Children.

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On the morning of May 25, 1539, Hernando de Soto sailed into what is now Tampa Bay, Florida. On the shore where the town of Safety Harbor now stands he discovered natural mineral springs that were revered by the local Indians, perhaps leading him to name the area Espiritu Santo (Holy Spirit). De Soto spent four years searching fruitlessly for gold and silver across the southeast, in the process spreading diseases like smallpox and typhoid fever that wiped out the indigenous tribes. Today, only shell middens – huge mounds composed of discarded oyster shells – remain to tell of civilizations that inhabited the area as far back as 20,000 BC.

Safety Harbor Museum

While de Soto may not have found the precious metals he so desperately sought, excavations of the mounds, as well as trenches dug to install utility lines and build home foundations, have yielded a modern day treasure trove. Prehistoric arrowheads, stone scrapers and knives, and partial skeletons of now extinct species like the woolly Read More »

Hockey Hall of Fame

Right now the MLB Playoffs are in full swing, the NFL has a month under its belt and NCAA Football is well underway. Amongst all of that you may have missed the fact that the NHL season just began again. Hockey is struggling to gain a larger share of the sports spotlight again, and perhaps one of the reasons they have trouble drawing fans is that they make it nearly impossible to find the entrance to their Hall of Fame.

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Rick Treworgy purchased his first beat-up old car at the age of 16. Back then, it was all he could afford; at the time he had no idea that classic cars would become a lifelong obsession. He restored that first car and sold it for a profit, then repeated the process because he enjoyed the work and it provided him with good pocket money. But somewhere along the line, Treworgy stopped selling and began collecting the vehicles he restored, becoming especially enamored with mid-60’s to early 70’s General Motors muscle cars.

Gorgeous grillework on an old Chevy

For years, his successful real estate and development company subsidized the expensive hobby. Now 60, Treworgy still oversees operations in his firm, but these days he is more likely to be found in a small office at the rear of the old WalMart in Punta Gorda, Florida that he recently purchased and converted into Read More »

At $10, $15, or more – adult admission to the Shedd Aquarium in nearly $25! –  visiting several of Chicago’s great museums can really take a toll on your budget. If you plan on going to more than one during your stay in the Windy City, it makes financial sense to look into one of the city’s multi-attraction passes. There are two options.

Field Museum

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Lights dimmed. Music filled the auditorium. The sold out auditorium was silent in expectation. Suddenly, exploding stars, colliding solar systems, and giant meteors raced across the domed ceiling of the Definiti Space Theater at the Adler Planetarium. Cosmic Collisions, narrated by Robert Redford in his liquid, sexy voice, takes visitors on a trip through space and time to explore the continuing evolution of the Universe, focusing on the continual explosions occurring throughout the galaxy.

Adler Planetarium, part of Chicago's lakefront Museum Campus

Cosmic Collisions is just one of numerous special programs offered at the Planetarium. In the upper level Sky Theater, the wonders of the night sky are projected on the dome of Adler’s historic Zeiss planetarium theater, providing visitors with a deeper look at the diverse objects that make up our universe. The Universe Theater celebrates Read More »

When you tire of the repetition of slot machines or after you’ve had your fill of partying like a rock star, take a break from the win-lose cycle of gambling and set out to explore some of Las Vegas’ other delights. For a trip down memory lane to the Sin City of yesterday, make an appointment to visit the Neon Boneyard.

The Boneyard was founded by the Neon Museum, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring the historic neon signs of Vegas’ heyday. Once the signs are refurbished, they are displayed near the Fremont Street Experience near downtown. But while they wait to be returned to their former glory, they live in the Neon Boneyard.

Historic Signs at the Neon Boneyard

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At first, the John G. Shedd Aquarium was just as I remembered it from childhood visits. Divers still hand-feed reef fish, rays, and sharks that circle endlessly in the 90,000-gallon circular Caribbean Reef aquarium in the main hall. Galleries jut from the tank like spokes of a wheel, each exhibiting an array of sea creatures from lake, riverine, and ocean environments. It was comforting to think that nothing much had changed, but also slightly disturbing because, like visiting a house where you grew up, what had once seemed huge now seemed so small. There must be more to this place, I mused.

John G. Shedd Aquarium in Grant Park, part of Chicago's downtown Museum Campus

Finally locating a map, I discovered a huge portion of the facility that I had overlooked. Down a short fight of steps I discovered the Polar Play Zone. Billed as a place that kids can call their own, this subterranean exhibit features penguins, beluga whales, and an ever popular touch pool. Rockhopper penguins, with their glowing red eyes and egg-yolk yellow eyebrows that swoosh upward into long yellow plumes, are always a hit, as much for their unique appearance as for their antics. They are the only penguins that enter the water feet first, then burst back out and grab onto any perch they can with their beak, flippers, or feet. After watching the penguins in their glass case, kids are invited to don a penguin suit and slide down rock chutes that mimic an arctic environment.

Divers feed fish, rays, and shark that circle in the huge circular Caribbean reef tank

At the opposite end of the Polar Play Zone I climbed back up to the main level, where I discovered the Oceanarium, an enormous pool where trainers conduct interactive shows with marine mammals. On one side of the pool semicircular concrete steps create amphitheater seating, while floor-to-ceiling windows on the far side provide breathtaking views of Lake Michigan. This was definitely not part of the facility when I was a child. Indeed, I later discovered that the Oceanarium opened in 1991 and Read More »

Although you may not think of Iowa as an art center, it is indeed home to one of America’s favorites, Grant Wood.  And while Grant Wood’s famous American Gothic is part of the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art holds the largest collection of Grant Wood works.  Grant Wood’s studio, located just down the street, is also run by the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

Grant Wood grew up in nearby Anamosa, Iowa, and was a friend of Marvin D. Cone, a Cedar Rapids native whose work is also featured at the museum.  The museum goes beyond Iowa artists, however, and has several different galleries with various types of art. Read More »