While rain during your free time can be a bummer, there are a nice variety of indoor experiences to explore in Southern PA, whether you’re looking for education, movement, or just plain fun.
Visit the Turkey Hill Experience
This is a great experience for a rainy day. There are three different ticket types to choose from – the museum alone, the museum plus the ice cream taste lab and the museum plus the taste lab and the ice tea experience. We went for the museum and ice cream, and did the lab first. They give you a LOT of ice cream! It took about 45 minutes – everyone washes their hands (it really is like a lab) and takes a seat, and you hear a bit of info about Turkey Hill. Then you can go ahead and start adding your flavors! They guide you with how many drops of concentrated flavoring to put in, and of course, you can taste test spoonfuls of your ice cream with the different flavors, which was my personal favorite part. There are toppings all around the walls to add in as the next step. The final step is adding in syrups – they show you how you can create a ripple effect with the way you stir them in, and again there are numerous flavors to choose from or combine.
So after eating more ice cream than we should have, we set off to explore the museum. We spent about an hour or so, and probably could have stayed even longer had we not had a sleepy three-year-old with us. There are lots of interactive things to do, including slides, touchscreen activities, short videos, mechanical cow milking and you can even record your own turkey hill commercial for your own invented flavor. Plus, free samples galore! Definitely a fun place and a good way to spend a rainy afternoon.
Visit a Historic Furnace
There are several historic furnaces in PA, but we visited the Cornwall Furnace, built in 1742 by Peter Grubb, and operated continuously until 1883. It is very well preserved and we were able to take a tour with a wonderful guide who was excellent with our kids, letting them touch and feel pieces of iron ore, slag and limestone, which they were then able to identify throughout the rest of the tour. It was definitely interesting to consider how much work went into an operation like that, and also how many raw materials had to be used in production.
The cost was around $30 for the six of us, and we stayed for about an hour and half of so. If you like educational historic experiences, this is definitely a good one.
Go Shopping at a mall, a Cabela’s, or a Bass Pro
Going to a mall can be another way to spend time on a rainy day, but we mention these hunting/fishing stores specifically because they tend to have really impressive displays that are interesting to kids. The Bass Pro Shop of Harrisburg, PA is the one pictured here – it is HUGE and filled with an array of taxidermy fit for a first-class nature center. Plus, a gigantic indoor fish tank and water fall. Impressive! We wandered around there for almost a good hour.
Visit a Philadelphia Museum
The Benjamin Franklin Museum always has a new exhibit to check out (our favorite temporary exhibit so far was Harry Potter), and it also has lots of permanent exhibits that are always fun to explore. These include a giant model heart/play area, a huge climbable spider web, and even an area where you can a nice little electric shock (also a huge hit with my children. Kids are weird.) You can easily spend a whole day there, going from exhibit to exhibit. Some other great museums in Philadelphia include the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University.
Tour the Capitol Building in Harrisburg
West of Philadelphia, you’ll find the capital city of Harrisburg. The PA Capital is one of the most impressive capital buildings in the country, both on the inside and outside. The architecture is stunning and even young children will enjoy it. You can walk around on your own, but if you join a tour it’s only about 30 minutes, so not too long for little ones.
Try an Indoor Trampoline Park
If it’s just too cold or icy to play outside and you want to move your body, a trampoline park is so much fun. If you’re looking for a great trampoline park, you’re likely to find Sky Zone. With locations all over the mid-Atlantic region, there’s likely one near your home or hotel, or on your route if you’re taking a road trip, and there is one in Lancaster. They are often found near major highways (well played, Sky Zone.) In addition to giant trampolines, they have foam pits, climbing walls, swings from which to jump into foam pits, and enormous foam arms that spin around and wipe out your children hilariously. Not surprisingly, they also have a waiver that you must sign before playing. Tickets are in the neighborhood of $25-$30. There is a designated area for toddlers, and food like pizza and slushies.
Try an Indoor Water Park
An indoor water park works in any weather, and if you’ve been missing your summertime pool, heading to a resort like Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos can be a wonderful respite. Great Wolf has a host of activities and it’s a really fun place to stay, but there are tons of options throughout the mid-Atlantic area that, like Great Wolf, have lazy rivers, wave pools, hot tubs, and giant water slides to allow the whole family to find something they enjoy. A few other options are Kalahari, Camelback, and DreamWorks.
