61. The Children’S Theatre Company
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 874-0400
Address: 2400 Third Ave. South
Description: Since 1965 the Tony Award–winning Children’s Theatre Company and its cast of incredibly talented children and professional adult actors have been putting on performances at its two-stage theater in south Minneapolis. Most of the performances are based on children’s stories and fairy tales, such as Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, but there’s a healthy dose of impressive original works as well.
62. In The Heart Of The Beast Puppet And Mask Theatre
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 721-2535
Address: 1500 East Lake St.
Description: Unusual masks and large, fantastical puppets teach themes of natural and cultural understanding here. Outside of regular original performances and the much-lauded MayDay parade, Heart of the Beast offers kids’ performances every Saturday morning for $3, with a $2 discount if you’re from the neighborhood.
63. Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 375-7577
Address: 725 Vineland Place
Description: Located across the street from the Walker Art Center, this beautiful collection of large sculptures made by local and internationally known artists is a great place to take kids because it’s outside, it’s interesting, and it’s free. The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden features one of the most photographed spots in Minnesota: the gigantic Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, conveniently placed for pictures of the sculpture against the Minneapolis skyline. In all, more than 40 works of art spread out on the lawns of the sculpture garden. Right across another street is Loring Park, with restrooms, a wading pool, a playground, and lots of sunny spots for a relaxing summer picnic.
64. Minnesota Center For Book Arts
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 215-2520
Address: 1011 Washington Ave. South, Suite 100
Description: The Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the largest independent book arts facility in the nation, offers classes to children, teens, families, and adults on making paper, binding books, and working in a printing-press studio. Kids can take their literary creations to the next level by making a beautiful cover out of found objects and binding their books using traditional methods, or they can create their own newspapers in the letterpress studio using both modern and antiquated letterpress equipment.
65. Youth Performance Company
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 623-9080
Address: 3338 University Ave. SE
Description: Though the Youth Performance Company (YPC) works with kids of all ages, it’s especially strong as a venue for teens, who take an active role in creating stage productions and films for an audience of their peers. While YPC can tell a fairy tale well when it wants to, it also takes on tough social issues including race, sex, and family turmoil. It’s theater to talk about.
66. The Bakken Library And Museum
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 926-3878
Address: 3537 Zenith Ave. South
Description: It starts in the lobby, where kids dive into the shocker machine, thought a cure-all in the 1920s, while parents read about the museum’s founder, Earl E. Bakken, inventor of the first portable pacemaker. The rest of the electricity-related thingamajigs throughout this Tudor-style mansion are often hands-on—adults tend to hog the theremin, that instrument that makes B-movie UFO sounds, and kids really like the crack and spark that comes from cranking out 60,000 volts. Nine informational exhibits include the popular “Frankenstein: Mary Shelley’s Dream.” Recommended for ages six and above.
67. Bell Museum Of Natural History
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 624-7083
Description: The Bell Museum is designed to preserve the past, protect the future, and bring people closer to nature. Taxidermied animals may creep you out, but how else is your kid going to get the chance to pet a Kodiak bear? The Touch and See Room lets children handle history, such as a 10,000-year-old woolly mammoth tusk; various fossils, bones, and rocks; and live animals including lizards and turtles. The museum has two floors of diorama-style exhibits featuring North American mammals and birds, with an emphasis on Minnesota wildlife, including a bald eagle, moose, and squirrels. There’s also a rain-forest plant exhibit and a hall for traveling exhibits and artwork. The museum hosts many classes and activities for children.
68. Fort Snelling
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 726-1171
Description: Established on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers in 1819, Fort Snelling was once the last American outpost in the mostly unexplored wilds of the north and was the center of frontier commerce and government on the upper Mississippi. Themed tours provide insight into what life was like at the fort, with costumed guides reenacting scenes from military, civilian, and American Indian life of the 1800s. Kids can join in the fun by taking up a musket and pretending to be a soldier, scraping hides with fur traders, or “working” in the laundry or kitchen of the fort. Programming includes day camps and kids’ activities.
69. Mill City Museum
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 341-7555
Address: 704 South Second St.
Description: Lots of hands-on, kid-friendly exhibits here make Minneapolis’s flour-milling saga intriguing for both child and adult. Seeing the building itself is worth the trip. A fire nearly destroyed the mill, and the museum was built around the ruins.
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
71. Harriet Island Regional Park
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (651) 292-7010
Description: In the shadow of St. Paul sits the largest urban river park in North America. Seems there’s always an event going on at Harriet Island, such as the summer children’s concert series and the Taste of Minnesota, the state’s popular annual Independence Day celebration (both of which are free, by the way). The Padelford Packet Boat Company launches riverboat tours from here. And you’ll find, among other things, a riverboat-themed playground, the floating River Boat Grill, and big, wide steps that head right down into the Mississippi.
72. Lake Calhoun
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 230-6400
Address: 3000 Calhoun Pkwy.
Description: Lake Calhoun is part of Minneapolis’s inner-city chain of lakes, which are immensely popular year-round, especially with families. This particular lake has a little bit of everything, including sandy beaches, a fishing dock, picnic areas, walking and biking paths, and a tot lot. You can rent canoes, kayaks, and paddleboats at the Lake Calhoun Pavilion on the east side of the lake. The waterside pavilion houses a restaurant called Tin Fish, with all kinds of seafood, snacks, and kid-friendly items such as hot dogs, grilled cheese, fish and chips, and root-beer floats. While you’re walking around the lake, be on the lookout for the treehole home of “Mr. Little Guy,” for whom you can leave notes and return to find tiny little responses.
73. Cupcake
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 378-4818
Address: 3338 University Ave. SE
Description: It’s all about the cupcakes. The cafe/coffeehouse rotates randomly through about 50 tried-and-true cupcake recipes, and you’ll find up to 12 varieties offered on any given day. One kid favorite is the Betty Crocker, if solely for its swirly pink frosting and pretty pastel sprinkles, but look for Boston Crème, Red Velvet, Lemon Sunshine, S’More, and Coco Loco as well. The menu holds soups, sandwiches, pizzas, PB&J, and egg salad, too.
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 2917 Lyndale Ave. South
75. Pop! A Neighborhood Restaurant
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (612) 788-0455
Address: 2859 Johnson Ave. NE
Description: Pop! possesses hard-to-find qualities in a restaurant: a casually upscale atmosphere that welcomes children, gourmet food at reasonable prices, and a drink menu that holds both a solid wine list and an even bigger selection of pop, the preferred word for sweet, carbonated beverages here in Minnesota. The name also refers to the 1960s art movement, which informs the venue’s decor. There’s more than a hint of Latin America in the menu, where tamales and empanadas exist alongside pasta and burgers, and where smoked jalapeño mayo and avocado find their way onto the chicken sandwich. Try to save room for dessert. (The recently opened second location, in St. Paul, is technically known as Pop!! See the difference?)