Adventure Park USA

I love amusement parks but hate the lines! We've been to Adventure Park USA a couple of times and will probably go back a few more....mainly because of two things. The price is right and it's not crowded.

Both times I bought the deal online (probably Groupon or LivingSocial because I'm addicted) and the price was $12 for 3 hours of unlimited rides plus 2 go-kart rides (the normal price for this is around $25). The unlimited rides consisted of indoor activities - rock wall climbing, a ropes course and laser tag, plus the outdoor activities - roller coaster, bumper boats, tilt-a-whirl, putt-putt golf, and water blaster (if you have little ones, there are additional kiddie rides included). Not bad at all for the price and because the place is not crowded, the lines aren't long so you get to go on everything multiple times, and 3 hours is just about my coping limit anyway. (By the way, Mondays and Thursdays are their least crowded days)

The go-karts rides are not unlimited, you get 2 rides in this deal and the wait for it is long....about 45 minutes or more. But here's what they don't tell you..... You can do the go-kart rides AFTER your 3 hour time limit is up. So use the 3 hours to go on all the other stuff (multiple times) and then wait in the line for the go-kart rides. This offer or offers similar to it are usually posted on their website and check the schedule because although they are open year round, some rides may be closed during the winter. http://adventureparkusa.com/

Driving there the first time, I felt like the GPS had sent me astray because who would put an amusement park out in the middle of a cornfield? but we eventually got there. So don't worry, you may see a few cornfields but the park is there and worth the drive.

Kid's View: "It was so much fun because of all the rides and no long lines. The laser tag was really fun but my favorite was the go-karts.This year was the first year I was tall enough to drive them alone and it was awesome!"

 

Eastern Market

I love art festivals, flea markets, salvage yards and anywhere else I can find cool things to use in our home, but it's always a struggle to get my husband to go to these things (he says it's boring), and my daughter usually will try to get out of it too (but I can always fix her with a little bribe). I think the day we went was one of those special occasions that I get to pick what we do and get no resistance from the family (like my birthday or our anniversary) so I chose the Eastern Market in Washington, DC. They didn't roll their eyes at me when I suggested it but I know they probably gave each other one of "those looks" behind my back. Nevertheless, they both said "Suuuuure Mom" and agreed to go along with no complaining.

The Eastern Market is in the historic Capitol Hill neighborhood in DC and year-round on weekends is a combination farmer's market, flea market and street fair all rolled into one. The street is blocked off to traffic and both indoor and outdoor vendors line both sides of the street with local fresh produce, handmade jewelry, leather goods, pottery, other arts & crafts and even a local band playing music.

Even though they went to make me happy, I watched my family looking in at every stall, admiring and trying things on, sampling and buying produce, and even offering to buy me things! Oh, and I forgot to mention the homemade kettle corn, churros and cotton candy which made the whole trip worth it for them. So what could have been a disaster with me dragging two long faces behind me while I looked for treasures, turned out to be a lovely afternoon with the family. Definitely somewhere I'd visit again.

Kid's View: "I think it was cool because there were a lot of shops with neat things to look at. I tried on a bunch of funky sunglasses and I loved the churros and the kettle corn." 

Eastern Market: http://www.easternmarket-dc.org/

Seneca Creek State Park

Maryland has so many parks and one of our goals is to see as many of them as we can. Seneca Creek State Park is smack in the middle of Gaithersburg but you'd never know it.  It is a huge park with an enormous lake (Lake Clopper) in the middle.  As far as parks go, it has all the usual things.....picnic areas, boat rentals, fishing, hunting (during season) and trails for hiking and mountain biking, but there are a couple things I'd like to point out to families in particular.

First of all, most of the parks that we have been to charge a flat rate per vehicle to get into the park, usually about $5. This park charges $3/person and $5/person if you are from out of the state. There were seven of us in the car so it cost us $21 to get into the park. Might I also add that the park was almost completely empty when we went, on a Saturday afternoon with perfect weather. I can't help but wonder if that was why.

If you are having a party or a company picnic, renting a pavilion in the park is a great idea, but if you are a family out for an afternoon picnic complete with barbecuing and playing ball in the grass, this may not be the place for you. All of the picnic tables with grills are mixed into the crowded trees and dirt patches. There is a playground at the front of the park that's walking distance from the picnic area but there is nowhere to play around the picnic area in the back of the park. There are no picnic tables close to the beautiful lake and this is mind-boggling to me. So, what we ended up doing is using a picnic table and grill in the trees for lunch, but then quickly packed up and headed out to the grassy areas by the lake to spend the rest of the afternoon. The kids took their shoes off and put their feet in the lake while trying to catch minnows (who knew this could occupy them for hours?!), the dads played bocce ball in the grass, and the moms relaxed and watched the fun.

So, if you don't mind paying a little extra for your peaceful afternoon and you're not planning on grilling your meal, I suggest you pack a basket filled with ready-made food, pitch a blanket on the grass by the lake, lay back and enjoy the sunshine!

By the way, this park is a trash free park, which means there are no garbage cans so please be sure to bring something to take your trash home with you. It's a beautiful park so let's all do our part for the environment.

Kids View: "The playground was cool because it was big and made from tires and recycled stuff. The best part was trying to catch the minnows in the lake....but then we saw a snake by the edge of the water and that was really scary."

Seneca Creek State Park:  http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/central/seneca.asp

Capitol River Cruises - Boat Ride on the Potomac River

I'm a huge fan of Groupon, Living Social, and any other site that offers me discounts for things to do so naturally when I saw a boat cruise on the Potomac for only $6 a person, I couldn't pass it up. (The regular price is $14/person.) Not only did I buy the deal but I talked my in-laws into buying the deal as well. We bought it at the beginning of the summer and here it was, the end of September with the coupon expiring at the end of the week and we hadn't gone yet.

Every weekend for the past two months we've tried to get our husbands to go on this boat ride and every weekend they found an excuse not to go, saying we should just go with the kids. Well they got their wish....and maybe that was a good thing. There was no school today and the kids were bored (well, not really but we needed to use the coupons) and it was a beautiful day so off we went.

The cruise left from the dock in Georgetown, a beautiful area in itself, full of shops and restaurants. The boats run every hour on the hour and the tour lasts about 50 minutes.  It cruises the Potomac passing the Watergate Hotel, The Kennedy Center, the National Monument, the Lincoln, Jefferson, and LBJ monuments, Roosevelt Island, and a couple other memorial sites. It ends at Ronald Reagan/National Airport then the boat does a U-turn and heads back in to dock. The boat itself is not luxurious by any means, but it is clean, has tables and chairs, and has a snack bar complete with alcohol (not top shelf, or probably even bottom shelf but there was Heineken, my husband's beer of choice). As we cruised along, we couldn't help thinking it was a good thing the men didn't come along but if they did, at least there was a bar to keep them from complaining. There were others on the boat who had purchased the cruise as part of their "jump on and off" package through the city and I don't know what they paid but what we got for our money was a nice outing, sitting in the shade with a breeze getting a different view of the sites we've seen so many times before on land. I don't know if I would pay more than that though or that I'd do it again but it was worth the $6.

Kid's View: "I think it was okay because we got to go out but it wouldn't be my choice of things to do. The boat was clean, which was good, but it was really boring just hearing about the monuments. The best part was getting Haagen Dazs ice-cream afterwards!"

Attraction: Capitol River Cruises  http://capitolrivercruises.com/