Family Fun on Just a Tank
By McKimmie, Kathy
WHEREVER YOU LIVE IN Indiana, there’s family fun and adventure within easy reach of a tank of gas. You can return to an old favorite, like Amish Acres, or try something new like Holiday World’s new water-slide attraction.
Northern Indiana
Amish Acres, Nappanee, has enthralled young and old alike since it opened in 1970. As a destination for visitors from the Midwest and beyond, all of Elkhart County’s Amish attractions have benefited from its lure. The 80-acre farmstead is the only Amish farm listed in the National Register of Historic Places and offers all the sights and sounds of a working farm, complete with hens and livestock, gardens and an apple orchard. You can stay for the day, enjoying a family-style Amish Threshers dinner before you go, or plan to spend the night at The Inn at Amish Acres and catch a show at The Round Barn Theatre. Three musicals are set for this summer including the 22-year-running Plain and Fancy-about New Yorkers who discover life on an Amish farm, Music Man, and Carousel.
If it’s arts and crafts you seek, Amish Acres’ annual festival is ranked 7th Best Classic and Contemporary Craft Show in the country for 2008 by Sunshine Artist Magazine, and as a Top 100 Event in North America by the American Bus Association. The July 31 through August 3 event showcases the work of 350 artists and crafters from around the country, and provides live entertainment on three stages.
While in the Elkhart County, see if your tank will stretch for the 90-mile, self-guided audio driving tour on the Heritage Trail, winding through the area’s quaint towns with familiar names: Shipshewana, Middlebury, Bristol. The audio and map can be downloaded at amishcountry.org. One of the best stops along the way has to be Das Dutchman Essenhaus, Middlebury, serving Amish-and Mennonite-style food since 1971. Back then it sat 120; now it can hold 1,100 diners and is considered the largest family restaurant in Indiana. Save room for the pie – 29 varieties, or buy a whole one in the adjoining bakery and take it home. You won’t be idle if you have to wait for a table; there are walking paths and several shops on the grounds to keep you occupied.
It couldn’t be easier to plan a trip to Fort Wayne. Just call the Fort Wayne/Allen County Visitors Center and have the community concierge build your Family Fun Package with one of the 14 participating hotels and tickets to favorite attractions, including a Fort Wayne Wizards baseball game, the Zoo and Science Central.
Child magazine ranked the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo one of the country’s “Ten Best Zoos for Kids.” In addition to its wild animals, it features a family farm area, pony rides, a Zoo Train, River Ride and a new Sky Safari ride, which takes you over the African Safari area that will open in 2009.
The Kids Central exhibit at Science Central is especially for 2 to 7-year-olds, where they can make a bubble as big as they are or play with their shadow like Peter Pan. In the Mind’s Eye Gallery kids of all ages can experience optical illusions and master mind- bending puzzles.
Bird watching, hiking, camping and swimming are some of the favorite things families have been doing at Indiana Dunes State Park in Porter County since it opened in 1925. Flora and fauna abound in the more than 2,100 acres of primitive landscape with dunes, marshes, swamps, woodlands and three miles of beach on Lake Michigan. Sixteen miles of hiking trails serve both the beginner and seasoned hiker, and picnic areas dot the park. Make it an overnight by reserving one of the 140 campsites with nearby restroom and shower facilities. One Saturday a month there’s a special event at the park; on July 12 it’s the 11th annual Sand Sculpture Contest.
Completely surrounding the state park is the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, covering 15,000 acres with 15 miles of beach. Authorized in 1966, it ranks seventh among national parks for native plant life diversity. Start your visit there with a trip to the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center in Porter on Highway 49 between U.S. 20 and I-94, to get the lay of the land for both the state and national parks. And you might end your trip by taking a trek up Mount Baldy on the eastern edge of the park, 126 feet above Lake Michigan.
Southern Indiana
Go spelunking in the caves at Squire Boone Caverns & Village located in Mauckport near Corydon, and take in the awesome underground waterfalls. The spectacular caverns, discovered by brothers Squire and Daniel Boone in 1790, are open year-round and maintain a constant 54 degree temperature – so bring a jacket even on a hot summer day.
Get a feel for the pioneer life in Squire Boone Village, open only in the summer months. Try your hand at dipping candles, watch lye soap being made, or visit the Grist Mill to see grain being ground. A special 1700s Rendezvous event, where period clothing isworn, is scheduled for June 28 and 29.
Check your time zone before visiting popular Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus – they’re on Central Daylight Time, the same as Evansville and Chicago. You get into both parks for one price every day through August 17, then it switches to a weekend schedule. Its water rides run the gamut from lazy rides on a tube to chilling drops from six or seven stories. New this year is Kima Bay, a monkey-themed attraction with seven water slides.
Holiday World boasts three of the world’s top wooden roller coasters, including The Voyage, the No. 1 wooden roller coaster in 2007, per a vote of roller coaster enthusiasts. With one of the steepest drops in the world, Voyage’s “air-time,” when riders experience a feeling of weightlessness, lasts 24.2 seconds. It’s 1.2 miles long and has three sections of 90-degree banking.
Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari have always kept an eye out and an ear to the ground to determine visitor wants and needs. Several years ago they included free unlimited soft drinks in the price of admission, and they give free sunscreen in Spashin’ Safari. This year they responded to parent’s concerns by adding prepackaged food items that are free of the eight most common food allergens, including wheat, peanuts and milk. They also heard the repeated visitor requests for a carousel and added one this year in the 4th of July section.
Central Indiana
The Indianapolis Zoo, located in White River State Park downtown, has a lot lined up for the summer vacation season. After all, this month it’s celebrating its 20th anniversary at its current location. Now welcoming more than a million visitors a year, it’s the only attraction accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the American Association of Museums as a zoo, an aquarium and a botanical garden all rolled up in one.
The zoo has about 360 different species of animals, including 14 endangered and three threatened species. Some of the must-see favorites are the elephants, lions, giraffes, rhinos, bears, penguins, monkeys and tortoises. And you won’t want to miss the two tree-hugging koalas from the San Diego Zoo visiting through Labor Day.
For a once-in-a-lifetime zoo experience, get your feet wet, literally, with the 90-minute Dolphin In-Water Adventure Program. You’ll start with a short classroom session, change into light wetsuits, and have 35 minutes in waist-deep water with trainers and dolphins. Height and age restrictions apply, but even six-year-olds with a family member can participate nearby as observers.
Conner Prairie, a living history museum on 800 acres just north of Indianapolis in Fishers, takes visitors back to the 19th century with its educational programs. It features four historic areas: Lenape Indian Camp, 1836 Prairietown and 1886 Liberty Corner and the Conner Homestead. Costumed interpreters speak in the first person as residents of the historic villages. There’s also a large and modern museum center.
Conner Prairie is a great place to expose the kids to some good music in a relaxed atmosphere. The Marsh Symphony on the Prairie series returns again this year for eleven weekend evenings starting June 20, featuring the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
The covered bridge capital of the world is located right here in Indiana in Parke County. There’s a covered bridge festival every October, but with the map on parkecounty.com you can do a self-tour any time following the five different trails that flow out of Rockville like spokes on a wheel. While in Rockville, you’ll want to visit Billie Creek Village with its restored historic buildings and general store, as well as its restaurants, antique shops and cooperative art gallery downtown.
You can pick up the trails at several locations, like Turkey Run State Park or Bridgetown, where two trails meet and folks stop to see the old Bridgetown Mill in operation. There are 31 covered bridges in Parke County built between the mid-1800s and the early 1900s, spanning from 43 feet to 315 feet long. The sturdy structures took between six months and a year to build and are said to take an arsonist, an act of God or deliberate demolition to destroy. And by the way, if you see a sign that says “Cross the Bridge at a Walk,” it was originally meant for horses, not you.
Copyright Curtis Magazine Group, Inc. Jun 2008
(c) 2008 Indiana Business Magazine. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.