Outings?

So. We have three friends, girls aged 11, 12, and 13. (They've been "our little girls" or "our favorite little girls" for awhile now, and we really need to come up with some other collective noun for them, because they're definitely not little girls any more, but "our favorite adolescents" sounds weird, and the eldest of them is over the line so they can't be "our favorite tweens" or something like that.) They're in the same household, so we often see them as a group, and while that's very nice, I like dealing with my friends as individuals, no matter how old they are, and it's very hard to do that when there are three of them plus their younger brother and parents and whoever else is around.

Before we knew how long PT was going to take, I proposed that this summer we should take them each on an individual outing, so that I could have an afternoon to hang out and not divide my attention and not have to try to be fair and listen to people in turns and like that. And I still want to do that. It's just that there are things I can't put on the possibilities list when I go to schedule this with the girls and their parents.

So I'm looking for suggestions for outings one could do with a vertiginous person. The Minnesota Zoo, for example, would be fine, because we could get me a wheelchair. Hiking from Minnehaha Falls down to the River and back again: not so much.

I'm throwing this question open to everyone rather than filtering it to Minnesotans because there are some activities that are not all that city-specific: going out for high tea with little cakes and sandwiches and all that, for example, is something someone could have thought of in Seattle or San Leandro and would not have to be in the Twin Cities to know about. But we are not taking the girls to Chicago, or even down to Northfield, so while it doesn't have to be a Minneapolis-specific set of suggestions, it shouldn't be a Minneapolis-impossible set of suggestions.

If you're not sure whether something would be possible with my vertigo, please suggest it anyway; I can call and find out whether they have wheelchairs to rent or borrow, or I can determine whether it would be too much moving visuals, or whatever.

These girls are extremely broad-minded about all sorts of things, and gender is one of them: they are interested in "traditionally girl" things and "traditionally boy" things as well as "gender neutral" things. We'll also be asking them for ideas, of course, but it seems like it'd be good to have some suggestions rather than demanding that they know what their city has to offer at this age.

Fiction recommendations.

I've been going through the fiction on my library list at an alarming rate, because I'm not interspersing it with nonfiction at the moment. Don't know when I'll get my ability to read nonfiction back, but it doesn't seem to go well with the vertigo. So in the meantime: what fiction should I read? Recommend something, or more than one something. If I've already read it, that's okay; I'll tell you, and you can recommend something else, or not, as you like.

I read books aimed at any age of person. The main genre constraint I have is that I tend to bounce hard off genre romance, and horror and traditional westerns are not generally my cup of tea.

In other news, Ista is really not at all thrilled with this entire holiday, and she's alternating between running around wanting to figure out what those noises are and trying to stay hidden and safe behind the living room couch.

I watched the first half of Good Night and Good Luck with today's workout. Seemed appropriate. Happy Independence Day, all those of you who celebrate it today.