Tame the Concrete Jungles
Big-Time Fun in Kid-Scale Cities
Monday, June 5, 2006; 1:40 PM
When it comes to long weekends, summer's hard to beat, with two on each end and one in the middle. When you can't take a full week off, these city-based, weekends-plus-a-day trips can take you far.
As people head for the mountains or beaches, cities generally clear out in the summer, meaning emptier sidewalks and lower-cost rooms.
  A stunning arch with usable space connects old and new exhibit areas at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. (Tim Thompson - Seattle CVB) Family Adventure Travel The family that travels together, stays together. Find trip ideas that will bind the nuclear family without causing a blowup. |
The three cities chosen are clean, safe, not too steamy in July and August and -- most importantly -- kid-friendly.
Boston's short twisting streets with hundreds of historical buildings play home to the Children's Museum. Built in 1913, the museum is the second oldest of its kind in the world and is housed inside a former wool warehouse. Kids can pad through a Japanese house, crawl through a tube maze and climb aboard a life-size fishing boat. This summer, the museum starts construction on a 23,000-square-foot addition. A large window will allow kids to watch all the hammering and sawing as it goes up. (Open every day, the museum charges adults $9 and children ages two to 15 cost $7.)
The Big Dig highway project has given Boston new public spaces downtown. It has also created some new public land called Spectacle Island, on the site of a former landfill. With three million cubic feet of new dirt courtesy of the Ted Williams Tunnel project, the island will open to visitors this summer and offer sweeping skyline views.
Boston's top colleges are rivaled only by its storied sports franchises. One of them is unquestionably the Red Sox and Fenway Park, a national landmark built in 1912. Tickets for tours of Fenway, which take place every day, cost $12 for adults and $10 for children and include a walk along the menacing outfield wall affectionately known as the "Green Monster."
The sport of baseball also factors prominently in Louisville, which has churned out wooden bats named "Sluggers" since 1884. Located along the beautifully preserved riverside downtown, families can tour the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum and score a free bat. To get in the swing of things, visitors can face off against a pitching machine, armed with a replica of the bat used by Babe Ruth. (Open every day; tickets $9 for adults, $4 for kids age six to 12.)
If you're still in a sports mood (it's only for the weekend, remember?), drop by the home of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs. Horses race daily until July 16 and the adjacent museum has a simulated ride for wannabe jockeys. (Open every day; tickets are $9 for adults, $4 for children age five to 11.)
For a more aesthetic experience, try Louisville's Speed Art Museum, which balances its serious art for adults -- Rembrandt, van Ruisdael, and Rubens -- with interactive exhibits for kids, courtesy of the Art Sparks gallery. There, children can be the star of a video or learn the way others see them using a "true" mirror. (Closed Mondays; a $4 donation is suggested per person; $3.50 ticket charge for Art Sparks.)
Rumor has it that Seattle locals exaggerate the amount of rain that falls in their city to keep visitors at bay, so don't let the stories affect your travel plans. Seattle is hospitable outdoors and in and its gorgeous natural setting is part of the charm.
To get a bird's eye view and see what the fuss is all about, families might head to the top of the Space Needle. The Jet Age monument, whose 520-foot observation deck is reachable by a glass-walled elevator, provides stunning city views of Puget Sound. (Open every day; tickets are $14 for adults, $7 for kids age four to 13.)
Another way to see Seattle is by floating on Puget Sound, just like the ancient mariners did. State ferries allow kids to feed seagulls from the top deck on a 30-minute ride to Bainbridge Island, where adults can pick antiques in the village of Winslow. On the way back, enjoy Seattle's silvery skyline dramatically framed against the emerald backdrop of the Cascade Mountains. (One-way ferry fares are $6.50 for adults, $5.20 for kids.)
When it does rain (and it will, eventually), the Pacific Science Center, might be a good place to weather the storm. An animatronic stegosaurus stomping through a forest might catch the fancy of children or they might prefer the tropical butterfly house with the delicately winged insects flapping around. Also, a 100-square-foot scale model of a Puget Sound saltwater tidal pool encourages children to wade in and pick up a starfish. (Adult tickets cost $10, kids age three to 12 cost $7.)
