What almost everyone in Greater Boston and much of New England really wants this week may be a vacation far, far away from the endless snow and soaring snowbanks.
But if a “staycation” is what you’re getting this school vacation week, we went out in search of a few affordable ideas for you to make it feel like an actual break – including one very likely to put some bounce back in your step. Literally.
Cowabunga’s has just opened for business in North Reading, Massachusetts, in a strip mall on Route 28. It’s a collection of 16 inflatable bounce houses and slides in a former 9,000-square-foot Sears store space that owner Matt Pearson and his wife, Kelly, have turned into a palace of rambunctiousness.
“School vacation week is a big deal for us,” Pearson said. “We've got the opportunity to take in all these kids out of school. They need something to do. They get a little bit of cabin fever, for February vacation especially.”
Admission is $10 for kids over age two. Non-walking babies and adults get in free. There’s no time limit – you can stay as long as you want per day and come and go during the course of the day – and you’re allowed to bring in your own peanut-free food or buy snacks and drinks at the location. Besides lots and lots of bouncing opportunities, there’s an indoor tricycle-motocross space, big games like pails to stack and topple, and even a hurricane simulator.
Down the way in Somerville at Assembly Row, the nine-month-old LegoLand Discovery Center Boston is ready for its first February break, and manager David Gilmore said, “We’re really happy that this is going to be our first school vacation that we really get to experience with the kids."
The main display of Boston landmarks made with hundreds of thousands of Lego bricks has just been updated to add New England Patriots players on duckboats parading down their version of Boylston and Tremont Streets, the Boston Red Sox truck outside Fenway Park preparing to drive down to Fort Myers, and a replica of the Lombardi Trophy made of over 2,000 Lego bricks inside their version of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
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Gilmore said the venue is extending its hours during the school vacation week to be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. each weeknight, with the last admission at 7 p.m. Admission is $18.50 for kids and $23 for adults –- children must be accompanied by their parents or an adult mentor –- and during school vacation week there’s a free Master Model Building Academy, a roughly 30-minute class where kids get ideas and guidance on building ever more elaborate Lego displays.
Totally free for kids under 17 this week is admission to the extraordinary Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston, including access to its 1930s “Mapparium,” an experience like being inside a giant globe looking at the world from inside the world. The library is offering several free art and workshop programs from Tuesday through Friday in the library’s grand spaces designed for kids from kindergarten through sixth grade, including presentations and programs about kids “making a difference” in their home communities. In the 3-hour daily arts and crafts program, library educational programs coordinator Marie Palladino said, “They’re making art, or pictures for children, in the Children's Hospital in Boston to decorate the wing.”
With videographer John J. Hammann and video editor Lauren Kleciak.
