Summer Activities for the Family

   Summer break is finally here! But it always seems to go by so fast.. This summer, with my husband, a 7-year-old boy, and a 1-year-old girl in tow, I want to make the most of it. It's not always easy to find healthy, wholesome, God-honoring fun. So I decided to put together a reference list of places and things in our area to do over the summer. Our budget is minimal (read: we are broke) so all of these ideas are very affordable, which means these are great for those of us living on minimum wage, a single parent, those trying to save, or the just plain thrifty.

By no means is my list exhaustive, so please feel free to suggest other ideas I can add. These are things that my family enjoys, and I hope your family can find something to enjoy as well. If you want to get an early start on planning, or on things to do throughout the year, I would suggest checking out the book store. Go to the kids or parenting section and find a thick book. Usually, they have titles like 1,444 Fun Things To Do With Kids, and contain a wealth of creative ideas that often cost pennies.

Summer To-Do List

• Fun Fest - The first activity I think of when contemplating fun in the summer is, of course, Fun Fest. This may not be available all summer, but it does provide Kingsport a wide variety of family-friendly activities all day for over a week straight. This year, Fun Fest will last from July 12th through July 20th. Keep checking their website for a list of this years activities and events. We never miss out on the free admission to Bays Mountain Park, trash barrel painting contest, the hot air balloons, Taste of the Tri-Cities, concerts, and the Splash Dance. Once this year's itinerary goes up, I'll try to do a feature on some other note-worthy events during Fun Fest.
• Bays Mountain Park and Planetarium - This park always has so much going on, we could go every week and never get bored. You can see both local and exotic wildlife here, up-close and personal, including deer, racoons, bobcats, river otters, reptiles in the herpetarium, birds of prey in the raptor center, and lots of different local fish in the watershed room. My favorite animal exhibit to visit, though, would be the wolves.  On many Wednesdays and Saturdays, you can watch the pack of wolves eat a carcass of roadkill, which smells nasty, but it's fascinating! By checking the calendar on the Bays Mountain website, you can attend a wolf howl. One of the trained staff will come out and coax the wolves into a symphony, which is one of the most beautiful and eerie things I've ever heard, and I think this is especially enjoyable if you attend one of the night programs. These last two activities are free, as are several other programs that are featured at animal enclosures. Others, like the planetarium programs, cost a small fee but are absolutely worth it. The planetarium is great for kids because it feels like a movie theatre, but more personal, and more educational. Check the schedule on the website when you plan a trip so you can be sure to catch their daily show in the planetarium. Barge rides are also a favorite of mine, especially during the fall. The ride consists of a guided tour along the lake by a knowledgeable staff member, who always has interesting information to offer. For instance, did you know about the freshwater jellyfish?  Be sure and buy tickets for the barge ride when you first arrive at the park, because they sell out quickly. If you prefer to explore the park on your own, they have an overlook, farmstead, and lake-side trails to explore. If you have the endurance to hike uphill, I suggest checking out the fire tower, which is off the lake trail. A new addition to the park is the adventure course and zipline. Though I can't speak from experience, the price of the zipline seems outrageously thrifty at only $10. Be sure and read about the adventure course elements online; they advertise the low ropes course elements as being free and open to the public, but for only $5 per person, you can plan a guided group session. The high ropes course is off limits to the public due to the fact that it's 40 feet off the ground. Guided group sessions are only $25, which might seem like a lot, but when harnesses and helmets are involved, more expensive means safer to me. And all that is only the tip of the ice berg. Check out their website for lots more to do, like summer camp and astronomy club.
• Get Wet! - There are several options in the area if you want to get wet. One of my son's favorite places is Splashpad in downtown Kingsport. 
  
  The area isn't very large, but it is located directly beside a playground, and it is absolutely free! Splashpad is made up of a variety of different waterworks, including dumping buckets, squirt guns, and geysers. Two shelters are available for reservation, which would be great for birthday parties, or even just a get-together, at a very reasonable price--$10 for three hours, if you're a city resident (or $17 if you're not.) The water turns on at 10 a.m. and goes off at 8 p.m. and is in constant flux throughout the day between these times. I would recommend Splashpad for all ages, even babies. My daughter is 1, and my son is 7, so it's often hard to accomadate them both when planning activities, but at Splashpad, the wild waterworks entertain my older one, and as the water pumps, a small pool forms all over the pad, so my younger one can play in the shallow puddles. For more information, you can look at this website.
  
  If your kids are a little older, and know how to swim, Wetlands Water Park might be a better option. Much larger than Splashpad, Wetlands is also located in Jonesborough, and is somewhat pricey by my standards. Adult admission (ages 13+) is $12 and children 4 and up and seniors 55 and older are $9, as well. Younger children are free. Season passes are available, $80 for adults, and $60 for children and seniors, which equals out to about 6 visits. So, if you plan on going at least 7 times over the summer, get a season pass! If we lived closer, my family would probably invest in one, because Wetlands has so much to offer. Their main pool begins as a zero depth wading area and connects with the lazy river, which is my favorite part. The flume slides empty into the deep end of the pool. Smaller slides designed for young children and toddlers are off to the sides of the main pool, making it easy for you to keep up with the little ones while keeping an eye on the big kids. A 'rain tree' is located near the small slide, as well as geysers and buckets. Beach-style chairs are available at the water's edge, and tables and chairs are also located in the shade of shelters, as well as in the cafe area. Off to one side is also a grassy hill perfect for laying out a beach towel and enjoying the sun, conveniently close to the sand volley ball court. Inner tubes are available for rent, and a variety of water related merchandise is sold there, such as goggles, swim diapers, and floaties, and sunscreen, so if you forget something, the whole trip isn't ruined. If your kids haven't yet learned to swim, Wetlands also offers lessons four times throughout the summer for only $60. Wetlands is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays. To check out their menu, find out more about swimming lessons, or any other information, just check their very informative website here. If Wetlands weren't 30 minutes away from Kingsport, we might visit it more often, but recently a new option has come to fruition that I am very anxious to try out: the Kingsport YMCA and Aquatic Center. The Aquatic Center is located just over the hill from our house, right next to Meadowview. I drove by to see how it looked today, and the parking lot was so full, people had to park down the road at Meadowview and catch the shuttle that was going back and forth. I didn't get a great look at it, but from what I could tell, it was smaller than Wetlands, but about the same par. One big plus with the Aquatic Center is that they have an indoor pool with slide open year-round! The outdoor portion has 2 slides and a lazy river, but other than that, I know very little about it, since I haven't had the opportunity to go myself. For more information, here is their website. Their hours of operation are a little eratic, so I will link you directly there, rather than typing them all up again -- Aquatic Center hours. I'd like to point out that if you decide to join the YMCA next door, you recieve free admission to the Aquatic Center, and the YMCA has an adventure play area for children 6-12, so it may very well be worth it, especially since financial assistance is offered for the membership fee.
• Museums and Zoos - Museums may not sounds like the most fun thing to do this summer, but I have to say, the Gray Fossil Site and Natural History Museum has a pretty cool set of exhibits. Not only is it educational, but many exhibits are interactive, and you can go as fast or as slow through it all as you'd like. Take a walk through Basler Hall for close-up casts of real fossils of saber-tooth cats, tapirs, alligators, elephants, rhinos, and red pandas. All along the hall are interactive virtual exhibits, offering children games to learn through. At one point, you can even dig up fossil casts in a large pit of 'dirt' (don't worry, the kids won't get dirty, the dig is made up of chips of rubber.) All of this, combined with touring the actual dig site, makes for a very educational trip. Separate from the permanent exhibit is one that changes on a regular basis and always has something new and exciting. On our last trip, the alternate exhibit was on germs, and had so many fascinating, interactive activities. I believe that adults and kids alike can enjoy this museum. And in the summer, the site has a camp, where kids really get involved, and get to do lots of hands-on things like digging for fossils and casting bones. If you've got younger children though, they may not enjoy the less-than-living. And if you don't have the time, patience, or gas to drive out to Chatanooga or Knoxville, the Creation Kingdom Zoo may be the perfect outing.
  
  Many people I've spoken with didn't even know it, but just outside of Gate City is a small but colorful zoo. A quaint collection of animals, including tigers, zebras, porcupines, jaguars, and lemurs, is presented in a way that allows you and your children to see these animals up close in a way that may not be possible with larger zoos. Often, its also possible to see the animals with their offspring! With admission only a fraction of the price of larger zoos, $10 admission for those 2+ is a great deal for all you get to see. Monday through Saturday, the zoo is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. For a sneak peak at all the different creatures, check out their website, with all the amazing photography.

 Later, I'll add other activities and events to this list.. Until then, I hope you have the opportunity to get out there and enjoy some of these ideas!