What are some good family outings?

[Danielle]

I'm trying to get some ideas for single day outings for the family. What do you like to do with the kiddos when you want to have some fun but don't want to venture too far from home? TIA.

[Christine]

We have a really nice state park that's not too far away. Just far enough to make it a non-regular event. It has two huge play structures in tall pine shade, is on a lake and has picnic tables surrounding it. It's very rarely busy there.

We also have season passes to the nearby amusement park. With the season passes, we can just stop in for an hour or half a day and not feel like we wasted money on a ticket.

[Mary]

Something we did last spring and really enjoyed was a picnic. Now, our picnic was outside of a drive-through wildlife park, which we did after we got done eating. But I think it would've been just as fun if we hadn't gone in. There was some playground equipment there that the kids played on after they ate. The weather was lovely and it was just nice. I think the kids really dug eating their stuff outside, out of bags and containers. :giggle We're going to do another picnic soon at some other location.

[Jbird]

Ugh - nothing without some venturing far from home. We do day trips - but we spent at least two hours driving.

[kcmomma]

We have a family owned amusement park within an hour of our home. It's free parking, free admission, pay as you go or one price handstamp. Food is relatively inexpensive, and you can bring your own food and drinks if you'd like as well. It's only 8 miles from my grandparent's home and I worked there when I was in high school and college. We go there about twice during the summer, but can go more often if we'd like. We hit the town's park with their playground for a quick afternoon trip. THere's a reptile house about 5 miles away, the one featured on a recent episode of Jon and Kate plus 8, that I've been considering taking Madison to. We've got an animal park that we were going to go to last year, but went to the amusement park instead. They have all different kinds of animals there, and buses with the tops cut off to ride in. We went to Hershey Park's ZooAmerica last year for one day trip. It's about an hour and half drive to get there, but was worth it, plus Chocolate World is free and great for little kids too. Heck, Madison's excited about going to Grandma and Pappy's pool (5 miles away) or Grammie and Pappy's back yard to use their swing set too LOL

[Kristi]

Gosh we have tons of things we do. We go to a state park near here and take day hikes, we take picnics to the park, when it is warmer we can go to the beach, we have a small farm near here that the kids can go visit and pet the animals, we have season passes to the zoo and the aquarium. There are a few museums we visit. We take Oz to the dog park (The kids can't go in the part the dogs are in but there is a playground right outside and they like watching the dogs and there is also a lake where they can feed the ducks)

[Beka]

We have a beach (a not v.pleasant to sun bathe or swim at as it's quite polluted- you can see signs of safe sex washing up on the shoreline :eek all the time :vomit ) with a seaside resort within an hour and a half drive, so although not ideal it is entirely do-able in a day without anyone feeling too tired from driving. It has an amusement arcade on the pier, a sealife centre and general tacky british seaside-ness :D The kids do love it and it's a reasonably priced day out as we only pay for food really.

We have a city centre nature park too which is around $1 to get in and kids are free, that is fabulously good fun as it's mostly farm & domestic animals with a few reptiles & exotics but the kids adore it. It's nice and quiet too, not overly commercial so the food is reasonably price and it's next to a huge park too.

I also live not far from Shakespeares Stratford which, although it is an expensive tourist trap by nature, has a great river, biiiig fields to play on alongside the river and a free play-park too suitable for all ages. Also it's nice just to walk around the shops & see the street poets and feed the ducks.

We also walk alot just for the sake of getting out of the house- I grew up with a raging hippy for a father and spent my summers being entertained by my friends uncle (he was in and out of jail alot so when he was out he lived with his sister and her kids and obviously found it hard to get work with a record so he would be free childcare and he taught us survival training- lots of nature walks) so I know alot about the native woodland around here which endlessly amuses the kids learning new stuff. I'll admit it's not everyones bag though (many of chase's friends find it boring or icky :rolleyes)

We often go around garden centres and aquatic centres too- free to go around as they are shops but alot to look at whilst walking around and most have a cafe these days.

I do like going to the zoo too with the kids but we don't have a good one locally- we took them to an awesome zoo at Paignton the other year and it was awesome. The best bit about the zoo is it suits everyone as we have a 10 year age spread between our kids.

My parents often come along on our days out so my kids are constantly building grandparent memories too which is important to me.

[Danielle]

Those are some great ideas ladies.

We usually go hiking or to one of the local zoos/amusement parks but I've been trying to think outside the box.

[Joy]

On a windy day - pack a lunch go to a park a big enough field and fly kites - the kids love it.

[Beka]

Ohhh Joy I've not done that since I had just Chase, hmmm I may have to go buy some new ones! :D

[tidee]

one of our favorites was to go to a drive-in. there may still be one in your area. you get there early while it's still light and the kids and you can have a picnic, run around or play ball. you can set out lawn chairs or blankets to watch the shows (usually two shows) with sound over a boom-box, or sit in the car and listen over your sound system.

[Danielle]

Oooh Tom, you reminded me that the drive-in opens this weekend for the season! That would be fun! We usually get the kids into their PJs and have a picnic before the show.

[Beka]

Do you know drive-ins always seem like the only kind of cinema when I think of America :giggle I think because I grew up seeing them in films like the outsiders and grease but knew there weren't any in England.

[Jejune]

We have a zoo membership, and that's a great thing, since it's already paid for and we can just pack up and go any time.

We live a block from the library so that's another easy one.

There's a park by the bay that is windy year round, and you can always fly a kite there.

Parks in general are fun, and we like to go on picnics.