A Little Slice of Heaven: One For the Kids, One For Mom

On Friday we visited the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.  This place is what many children think heaven will be.  Their website correctly touts it as “an exciting, hands-on, welcoming place to play, learn, and dream; a place to pretend, wonder, and explore; a place to discover the past and imagine the future; and a place to rekindle memories and make new ones.”

Giant marble run across ceiling

We were there for more than 5 hours, and our kids (ages 4, 8, and 11) would have stayed much longer.  At first we worried that the museum would be too “young” for our older kids, but we were wrong!  There were activities and exhibits appropriate for all ages.  Some areas involved exploring different scientific principles (a giant marble run on the ceiling), while other areas (like a post office and pirate ship) facilitated pretending and role play.  They really enjoyed all of the hands-on activities, and we did not get to experience everything in the time that we were there.  Mom and Dad had fun too and were wishing a place like this existed when we were kids!

A favorite area was the Hall of Superheroes.  Through the magic of trick photography, the kids were able to see themselves scaling a building like Spiderman.  The girls  had a great time experimenting with different poses to achieve the best effect.

Hall of Superheroes trick photography. This...

... becomes this! Spiderman, look out!

You should definitely make plans to attend if you ever find yourself in Rochester with kids.  Check our Facebook page for more pictures of the whole family having fun at this amazing museum.

Two days later we found ourselves in Waterbury, Vermont, and Mom was psyched because we would be going to a place that she sees in HER dreams.  We took the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory Tour at their headquarters.  Even the pouring rain did not dampen our enthusiasm.  The tour starts with a humorous short film explaining the history and philosophy of Ben & Jerry’s, and then takes you on a catwalk above the processing plant to show you the process for making ice cream.  All of the machines have very technical names like “chunk adder” and “swirl maker”.  The best part of the tour was the Flavoroom where each of the guests was given a free sample of the new 2010 flavor “Milk & Cookies”.

Interesting fact – Ben & Jerry got into the ice cream business after taking a $5 Correspondence Course on “How to Make Ice Cream” back in the 1970s.  That was $5 well spent.  The only thing that would have made the morning better for Mom would have been if were given free samples of Chunky Monkey. Luckily we were able to buy her a scoop in the Scoop Shop on site.

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That Stalk Looks Familiar…Or Does It?

Another bucket list item checked off – we have found our way through a giant corn maze!  This morning we drove from Albany, New York, to the great state of Vermont.  We were riding high on the Texas Rangers victory over the Yankees last night to clinch a 2010 World Series berth, so all was right with the world.  The New England countryside was beautiful, with trees amazing shades of orange, red, purple, and yellow.

The fall leaves in New England are even more beautiful than advertised.

Soon after crossing the border, we stopped at the Vermont Welcome Center where Mom started looking at brochures.  Armed with new information, we scrapped our original plan in favor of a visit to a 12 acre corn maze (largest one in Vermont!) on Hathaway’s Farm and the New England Maple Museum.  Located within minutes of each other in Rutland and Pittsford, Vermont, it seemed meant to be.  We are loving this new “flexible” version of the YLA!

The corn maze was TOUGH.  At the halfway point, they have a snack bar and grill set up to sell you food, if that gives you any indication of how long you could possibly wander inside.  There are 8 differently shaped punches you can find and 6 multiple choice clues that steer you in the right direction (if you get them right).  It took us two hours to find our way out.

Trying to figure out the clues

We did it!

We found 4 clues, 3 punches, ate hot dogs at the “in maze” grill, and didn’t lose any member of the family – we call that a success!  After our triumphant exit, we also made a trip to the barn to visit the farm animals.  We got a great video of a horse sneezing on Allison and startling us all!  A great time was had by all.

Andrew loved meeting the animals in the barn.

After our success in the maze, we went to learn all about how syrup is made.  The Museum of Maple has a self-guided tour featuring dioramas depicting the various stages and history of the maple sugaring process, as well as artifacts and pictures from local syrup makers in Vermont.  We learned quite a bit about syrup, and we concluded that it seems like a LOT of work.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup!

We really enjoyed our time in beautiful Vermont, and might even contemplate moving here if it wasn’t for the extreme cold and snow at least four months a year.

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