Outings?

[mrissa]

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.

Comments

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Museums, art galleries, a crafting workshop, movies, lunch at a nice restaurant...these are the ones that jump immediately to mind

[sethb.livejournal.com]

I'd call them "our friends". "Favorite" implies you have to compare them to somebody else; why? It's actually a lessening, to my way of thinking ("of this group of people we don't generally care for, they're the best").

[txanne.livejournal.com]

My favorite outings have always involved food. And my word, does your city have a wealth of choices....

[ksumnersmith.livejournal.com]

I'm not certain if this is Minneapolis-impossible suggestion or not, but what about a butterfly conservatory?

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Go to a cultural thing (art gallery or open air exhibit or something) and then have a picnic in a park or meadow or something... take active games, balls, kites or whatever, so they can run around after and you can watch them (which i hope doesn't sound a cruel thing, just watching energetic kids have fun really makes me smile even when I'm not up to moving around much myself :) )

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Okay, but "our friends" could mean a great many people, and all the shorthands we have for their household apply to the whole thing, not just the three girls.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

There are butterfly tents at both the Minnesota Zoo and the Como Zoo/Conservatory. So no, not impossible at all. I don't think. The one at the Minnesota Zoo may be way at the top of an incline, though; we'll think on that.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Might be nice to take them somewhere they don't go all the time, though.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

How about "our young friends"? Saying they're part of your set of friends, and characterizing them by age, isn't demeaning. Or (if I'm guessing at the family setup correctly) "the girls", since you're just looking for a collective noun.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

As long as their moms don't object to being excluded, the latter will probably work; we have young friends in enough other age/gender combinations that "our young friends" is probably not specific enough.

Part of the problem here is the psychological shift from them being very much little girls in their behavior to being a great deal more mature. We saw them after their dance recital, still wearing their stage makeup, and even last year my default reaction if I didn't know them would have been "oh, those kids must have been in a performance." Now they look old enough that my default reaction if I didn't know them would have been, "Wow, that's a little young for such heavy makeup!"

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Given their ages, I'd guess their moms aren't old enough to call themselves "girls". Or you could use "daughters", which will remain accurate past the age they don't want to be called "girls".

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

This is probably everyday for them, but when I was in Minneapolis a long time ago someone took me to an ice cream parlor where you could build your own sundae--and the whipped cream came in crazy colors. The ice cream there is so fantastic, and it was altogether a nifty experience. But that might be . . . . oh, like a day at the beach here.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Awesome ice cream might very well end up going with another activity, but I actually have no idea where the crazy colors of whipped cream might be available. But you're right, by itself good ice cream is not a special outing here, at least not for me. If one of the girls said she wanted her outing to be ice cream, I'd say, "Okay, and what else?"

(Last night I had passion fruit ice cream. Not sorbet. Ice cream. Oh so very good.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I have no idea why the food icon got put on that previous comment. I have no intention of eating the butterflies. I promise.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm....(daughter and I just decided to swing by Baskin Robbins before going to see WALL E. That's what made me think of it, and remember with longing that the ice cream I had in your city was so very much better than anything here. Except maybe Coldstone's.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I sometimes go to the Cold Stone near us with the girls and the rest of their family, but it's pretty much the lower end of the ice cream I'm willing to eat, and yes, it was the upper end of ice cream we knew about in California, except for the gelato place in downtown Berkeley. I mean, it's fine. Tasty enough. But I don't have to settle for tasty enough! This is Minnesota! I can go straight to awesome with Pumphouse Creamery or Sebastian Joe's! I can have the childhood nostalgia trip with Bridgeman's sundaes! And then there are the second-tier awesomes that I would have killed for when we were in the Bay Area, Sonny's and that one on France Ave. in Edina and like that.

Oh, I love this place. I feel like some kind of Princess Kay anthem ought to be playing while a state flag gently waves behind me.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

There were many good ones, but the one I got taken to that just made my knees go weak, the ice cream was so good, was a small place that had determinedly kept its fifties decor. I mean it's totally fifties--just like memory--except it didn't stink like cigarettes, as every place did in those days. Wow, that ice cream!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If you ever come back to visit, I have a couple of guesses of where that might have been.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

The only image I retain besides the booths where I sat (I was there twice, and their home made soup was also terrific; they do hamburgers, but I'm not into those) is that it was on a fairly large street.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid that doesn't narrow my guesses, but if you ever do come back, we can have fun trying to figure it out!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm road trip! Ice cream test run!

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

"The sisters"? That's the collective noun for my mother and her sisters-- 'the aunts' is the next generation up, 'the cousins' is mine, one down. That family ended up an inadvertent matriarchy as it aged. Yes, there are uncles, but the aunts are the ones who host the sisters, and the sisters bring the party.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

The Minneapolis sculpture garden is wonderful. I don't know if they rent wheelchairs, but it's all accessible. I think.

Every Tuesday night, the Minnesota History Center has free music of different types. Very kid-friendly, and you sit on a lawn and eat and listen:

http://www.mnhs.org/historycenter/programs/9nights/

[jenett]

The Minnesota Zoo one is up at the top of the exit path for the tropics area: you can get there up the long ramp up to the top, or maybe an elevator? Regardless, they have scooters.

I don't know if the color and/or scent would be too much for you, but the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum was really surprisingly cool. I did not see scooters, but would not be surprised if they had them: some areas would be inaccessible for them, but a lot of the closer gardens have paved paths.