Children's museums on the WebSites help parents plan truly 'interactive' vacationsNovember 12, 1997Web posted at: 4:51 p.m. EST (2151 GMT) (CNN) -- Kids and vacations are a natural mix, but it's not always easy to satisfy everyone's needs. While beaches, miniature golf and amusement parks entertain, parents also want their kids to explore new ideas -- and they want to have fun themselves. And that's where the growing number of children's museums steps into the picture. They're all over -- from Washington, D.C. (Capital Children's Museum) to Scotland (Highland Museum of Childhood). And many of them can be found online, making vacation planning with museum stops a few mouse clicks away. The Web pages vary, from extensive looks at a museum's exhibits and programs to very basic information -- where to find the museum, hours of operation, and cost of admission. The museums themselves are a diverse lot, but virtually all boast interactive, hands-on exhibits and plenty of time and space for kids to learn as they play -- and in many cases, the adults as well. The types of exhibits are often determined by the location of the museum. The Children's Museum of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for example, features an exhibit on lobstering -- kids can don the yellow raincoat and hat, climb aboard a life-sized replica of a lobster boat, and practice pulling in the lobsters that are a major industry off the coast. 
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis has a pioneer log cabin from rural Indiana, a 1917 carousel, and a 55-ton 1868 steam locomotive that pushed freight and passenger cars uphill in nearby Madison, Indiana. The Fox Cities Children's Museum in Appleton, Wisconsin, hosts an exhibit on the children of Kanonji, Japan -- Appleton's sister city. At KIDSPACE at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History in Texas, visitors can help build a house, practice electronic finger painting via computer, and toss objects into the Vortex, a large gravity well. KIDSPACE's parent museum houses nearly as much fun -- including the Dino Dig, where visitors can experience a dinosaur fossil "dig," and the Lone Star Dinosaur gallery with fossils and fossil casts of extinct critters found in Texas. The Children's Museum of Memphis, Tennessee, has coupons on its Website for discounts on admission and membership. The museum itself has an eight-story vertical maze called Skyscraper, a "play-the-dentist" exhibit called "The Tooth, the Whole Tooth and Nothing But the Tooth," and programs including a noon-time New Year's Eve countdown at the "Time Square" exhibit (actually a lot of clocks) and a Thanksgiving parade through the museum (actually on November 22). 
Many of the museums offer science/technology exhibits. Among those: Portsmouth , the Eureka Children's Museum in Halifax, England, Atlanta's SciTrek, France's City of Science and Industry and the Capital Museum in Washington, D.C. Housed in an old railway station, the Highland Museum of Childhood in Strathpeffer, Scotland, features exhibits on birth and baptism, folklore, toys and games, and dolls. The Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, California, comes in on the opposite side of the kids' museum spectrum with high-tech exhibits on sights, sounds and more. So, take a trip to the museum on your next vacation. And don't be afraid to bring along the kids. Related stories:
Note: Related sites will open in a new browser window. Related sites:
© 1997 Cable News Network, Inc. Terms under which this service is provided to you. |
