Now I'm not saying that the kids didn't enjoy the history, architecture, local sites, art and culture, but if there's a kid-fun to be had, they will have it.
We stopped to pet every dog.
We never missed a photo opportunity.
We played in the water lights, even though it was too cold for water.
We spied the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum. The highlight of our afternoon that day.
Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum
If you visit Winchester with children, this is a must see. We make it a point to visit as many museums, zoos and aquariums as possible on our family travels, and this one ranks high in the fun category. It was well designed, with lots of diverse exhibits and hands on activities. Well worth the admission price of just $6 per person.
The Winchester area climate is great for growing apples, and the whole apple exhibit highlighting simple machines was loads of fun--crates, buckets and wheelbarrows full, to be exact.
The museum also had an awesome Emergency Clinic and adjacent Ambulance with lots of hands on activities for the budding doctor, or for boning up on the human body and health care--including realistic pretend play with old hospital equipment and Maisey's favorite--the leg brace and wheelchair.
No kids museum is complete without a climbing wall.
Evie and Clint enjoyed building a house together.
The girls even stopped playing long enough to create a turkey craft.
Natural history exhibits included a dinosaur dig room with lots of fossils, a natural science room with information on just about every critter that exists in North America, the kid-sized climbable honeycomb, and an area dedicated to brook trout conservation and reptile education. Yes, they had live snakes.
The Native American Lodge was a lot of fun. It had an authentic lodge with benches lined in animal skins and a fire pit with all the tools and foods one might see in a real village. Evie loved playing her favorite song, We Will Rock You, on the drum.
We gained a little perspective of ourselves there too.
Antiquing
We drove 16 miles south to Strasburg to check out an antique mall called The Strasburg Emporium, which boasted over 50,000 square feet of space filled with antiques and collectibles. It didn't disappoint. I was too busy gawking at the awesome deals to take any photos. We had a quick lunch at the cafe, and I snapped the only picture I took while we were there.
Evie spells out c-o-f-f-e-e and reads the word. So proud of her!
After the antique emporium and cafe, we told the kids to keep a look out for a fun place to play for a while before we headed home, knowing that about 8 miles back north on our way to Route 81, in Stevens City, they'd spot dinosaurs milling about on the side of the highway.
There's no telling how much fun we'll have, but I know this: if you walk through the open jaws of a gigantic creature and trees with faces to get inside, it's bound to be fun.
There was a lot of running and pointing and screaming. Not the blood curdling kind. Okay, maybe it was a little blood curdling, but it was fun.
Clint had to tussle with the sabertooth.
We even encountered some creatures who probably had to do a little time travelling to get here. Is that a 40 foot pink octopus?
Believe it or not, sharks really are prehistoric. I'm not sure if great white sharks were around with the dinosaurs, but we had a lot of fun with this guy.
This brachiosaurus puts things into perspective. If they were alive and hungry, just about everything here could eat us.
The girls enjoyed seeing the carnosaur's carnage. Carnasaurage?
Run Mommy! Run! Carnosaur has spotted you!
Clint plays with the mylodon. I think this is a very distant ancestor of mine, the three-toed sloth.
I have to get in on the fun too.
Now it's Maisey's turn to play with Corithisaurus and Iguanodon. Evie is too excited to stand still for too long. What is she afraid of with all these gigantic scary creatures lurking about? The lawnmower guy, with the very loud leaf mulcher.
Diatryma: the Jurassic Big Bird. Probably not nearly as friendly, either.
The girls love the dimetrodon.
This is a dilophosarus
And this is a coelophysis. I think he looks more like a velociraptor than the one here at the park, but that's just my worldview. I thank Jurassic Park for that.
Maisey loves to drape herself on the dinosaurs.
We have matching smiles.
Triceratops is a favorite in our house.
One of the girls' favorite dinosaurs: parasauralophus, or Onk-Onk, as Evie calls him.
This is a plateasaur? That's what the plaque said. Maybe he's one of the duck-billed variety--like hadrosaurs?
Polycanthus.
Saltoposughus
Just so I don't forget again, this little guy is a psittocosaurus.
We also love Steggie or stegosaurus at home too.
Struthiomimus.
Looks like the triceratops got the better of T-Rex this time.
We love you Tyranasaurus Rex.
Here's velociraptor.
This is pachycephalosarus. We like him and his cousin, Mikey--micropachycephalosaurus. Fun name for a bumpy-skulled dinosaur.
Who is this guy?
Okay, so King Kong was definitely not in the right millenium, but he was a lot of fun.
Girls photo at styracosaurus.
I had to get a picture with my favorite dinosaur: Allosaurus, or Big Al, as I refer to him (thanks to Walking With Dinosaurs)
We had to hang out with the alien dinosaur. He's an alien because he resembles none of the real dinosaurs, and yet, he still fits in here. Maisey took this first two pictures. She's getting quite good with a camera.
Evie loved this baby brachiosaurus. Too cute.
An hour or so of running and screaming and posing and enjoying this prehistoric oasis on the way home was a great way to get the sillies out before the long drive home. Thank you Winchester, Salsburg and Stevens City. We had a wonderful weekend.
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