Romper Room on the Canadian Prairie

07-26-2011

 Romper Room on the Canadian Prairie: Winnipeg is a top family travel destination with three new attractions

 

-- Manitoba Children’s Museum Makeover

-- Whimsy in the Woods

-- Adrenaline Rush

 

 

 

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Canada -- A family that plays together stays together, and this summer Winnipeg has three new attractions for parents and children to indulge in some serious kidding around. This includes the $10 million-dollar renovation of the Manitoba Children’s Museum, a fantastical Children’s Nature and Adventure Playground at Assiniboine Park and, for the tweens, the newly built Adrenaline Adventures outdoor park and wakeboarding course.

 

Manitoba Children’s Museum Makeover

 

The Children’s Museum celebrated its 25^th birthday this year with the grand opening of a new facility that offers 33,000 square feet of fun-filled exhibit space including 12 exciting ‘discovery learning’ galleries (double the previous number), spruced up educational rooms, and a newly added Welcome Centre.

 

Kiddies will not find ‘do-not-touch’ touch signs here. The 12 new galleries, created by Montreal’s Toboggan Design, are all hands-on. and a series of open-ended cubes, somewhat like interactive play structures meant to both entertain and educate.

 

Upon entering the newly renovated Children’s Museum “the only thing people will recognize is the train, a 1952 diesel locomotive that is the spine of the museum,” says Lisa Dziedzic, Director of Marketing and Communications. That said, even “Junction 9161” has been revamped with a new paint job to the train’s interior, one side of the engine house replaced with Plexiglas, and a new tower inside the locomotive where children can climb up to look out the top and see the entire museum.

 

While the train’s lookout tower is impressive, it’s the Lasagna Lookout that is the biggest hit with the kids. They climb through a five-layered structure that includes a slab Swiss cheese, a spaghetti forest (made of foam noodles) and a rigatoni roller before getting to the top. They’ll really be hungry after this adventure!

 

Other galleries include the Illusion Tunnel that draws children into a giant psychedelic slide and tests their perceptions; the Tumble Zone, a child-friendly construction zone of 5,000 large Lego-like blocks where kids use their hands or a crane to create towering cityscapes; and the Splash Lab complete with an enormous wall of bubbles and tables where young scientists can experiment with water and their imaginations.

 

The Milk Machine, contained within a giant cow cube, is the place to learn all about dairy cows and follow the journey – through a series of air tubes – of how milk moves from the cow to the carton.

 

Over at the Pop M’Art, a “creation station,” kids can “shop” for art supplies and create their own little masterpieces. Children also create their own art at the Mellow Marsh where a touch screen acts like a palette to drop and drag colors into abstract paintings that can be emailed home to the artist. The Marsh also allows youngsters to walk under giant leaves and flowers.

 

And for wee visitors, the Tot Spot is a toddler-exclusive space where little ones can tumble and play in a miniature version of the museum.

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