Remember our summer learning plan? How I had penciled in several museum-type activities that I thought would be fun and educational, both? Well, we were off this past Saturday afternoon to have some fun family time and discovered a hidden treasure–while making a little lemonade from some summertime lemons.

Can anyone explain to me why it is that things like museums, farm parks, and the like still open at 9am and close at 5 or 6 pm in the summer when it’s light out from 6 am-9 pm? I’m sorry, but in July, I don’t consider 9am-6 pm “extended summer hours.”

Especially when the coolest part of the day is from 6-9 am and 6-9 pm and none of these places let you bring in food or drinks.

So at some point you either visit before or after lunch and only get a few hours there for your admission price, or your spending a lot of money on lunch, or you pack lunch and eat it outside by your car in the middle of the hottest part of the day.

But that’s just my short motherhood rant about how most things labeled “family friendly” really aren’t. We just have to creatively work around it.

And this time it led to our discovery of last weekend–the Virginia War Museum.

Our first afternoon adventure had ended (at 5 pm) and a bottle of water later, our kids were still raring to go with several hours of daylight ahead of us.

We decided (in that front-seat-parent-discussion-so-the-kids-don’t-hear-in-case-it-falls-through whisper we all know so well!) to see how crazy one of our local, really awesome, public playgrounds was.

Madness. Pure and simple. No parking to be seen. (Although one bright little backseat fellow thought “the truck can handle the curb just fine, Daddy, please!”)

But there were all these awesome tank and artillery displays spread out around the nearby Virginia War Museum. BINGO!

The museum itself had closed at 5 pm (of course, right?). But the outside displays were awesome! All the moving parts had been welded and painted so nothing moved or opened. Not a wiggle. (Believe me, the kids tried every wheel, knob, and screw!)

I still would have hesitated to let them get too close, but Mr. Fix-It pointed out that there were no “DO NOT TOUCH” or “PLEASE NO CLIMBING” signs, or ropes, flags, or barriers or anything. Believe me, we looked. Parents of small children are very familiar with those signs! {smile} And having displayed livestock a time or two, we know they are serious!

Besides, it was a tank. A real tank. What could two little pre-school boys actually do to it?

It was a little boy’s paradise!

We spent over an hour out there (and yes, it was still 100 degrees!) just looking at every piece and letting the kids explore them and pretend play. It was awesome! They loved it! They wrote two pages in their summer journals about it, having their Daddy help them draw tanks and “aircraft” (a new vocabulary word!) and anti-aircraft guns.

All this and we didn’t even get inside!

When we got home I looked it up online and found out that it’s run by the City and the admission prices are very reasonable! Only $6 per adult, $4 for children, and the boys would be free. We will definitely be going back to go inside. And I know my sister’s kiddos would love it too. They also offer some cool looking summer kid camps for 8-12-year-olds that I’ll definitely be looking at again when our boys are a bit older.

Did I ever mention how I almost passed out when I looked up the cost to take the family to the aquarium while making our summer plans? Yeah, $117 for the 5 of us–just for the day! It didn’t make our list. That’s definitely a “special event.” That’s half the budget for our whole summer of adventures–and our budget includes 2 annual memberships!

I’m so excited to have found this little gem just across the river from us (about 15 miles from home!). It’s got history, machines, and heroes–what more could you ask for in summer learning fun? If you’re in the Hampton Roads or Richmond area–definitely look it up. It’s actually part of a 60-acre public park complex run by the City of Newport News and there’s also that awesome public playground right there, a small public beach and boat ramp, a rose garden, and a little fishing pier to keep you busy for the day.

Have you found any great local treasures for your family this year?

Do you have any family annual memberships–where?