Need more Vacation Advice - MA to IN road trip

[3boymthr]

A couple of weeks ago I posted that DH wanted to go to the outerbanks, but after talking to his aunt on the phone tonight he's decided he wants drive to IN to go visit his 90 yo Grandmother.

The drive takes about 19 hours and generally we take about two days to get there but in order to make this a more enjoyable trip for the kids I've proposed that we drive out at a slower pace stopping along the way to visit one or two sites, visit with his grandmother then turn around and head home again stopping at a couple of sites along the way. Having endured the pleasure of our very bored and whiny children when going to IN before, DH thought this was a good idea as long as we could come up with some places to stop.

We've already visited the Statue of Liberty and the Neil Armstrong Museum so those are out. Off the top of my head I suggested the Rock N Roll hall of fame in Cleveland, which DH thought was a good idea, but I have no other ideas and DH had no ideas at all.

Can anyone make suggestions of places to visit along the way? I'm looking for places that will take about 1/2 day or a little more to visit and that are within a 1/2 hour or so drive of a major highway, but that won't take all day so we can get some driving in. We can drive out and return via a variety of routes. We live in southeastern MA and they live in central IN on the Ohio Border so places in NY, PA, NJ, OH, WV.

TIA

 

[FireDancer]

Right next to the RnR HOF is the Great Lakes Science Center. I am not sure if your kids would be into it or not, but I was a science geek as a kid and I would have loved it.

If you are coming through in the late spring or summer and your kids are into thrill rides Cedar Point has some of the best roller coasters in the world. If they are into baseball check out an Indians Game.

I'm not sure the route you would take but if they are in central IN and you will be heading down 71 through Columbus there is the COSI museum. Again, like the Science Center, it will depend on what your kids are into. There is an MLS soccer team in Columbus, the Crew, so if they are more into soccer than baseball that might be worth a shot.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head at the moment.

 

[jen0610]

If you have NFL lovers, there is the Football Hall of Fame in Canton OH. South of Cleveland on 77.

I would 2nd FireDancers suggestion of Cedar Point, if you have roller coaster lovers. And these are BIG coasters. If you have thrill junkies, they would love the coasters at CP.

Depending on the age of your kids and their interest, the RoR HOF could be hit or miss. We know of 2 different families that did Cleveland weekends. One had teenaged kids, 1 really into music and the other was cool with looking at the stuff, so it was a good option for them. The other family, 2 teens and 3 under 10. They had to divide up, the younger kids lost interest after an hour.

Don't know how close to Indy you will be, but they have a great Childrens Museum and The Zoo is pretty nice too.

 

[damren]

We drive from Maine to Kentucky and always go to Niagra. It's definelty closer to you then us but it is pretty amazing there.

 

[FireDancer]

If you have NFL lovers, there is the Football Hall of Fame in Canton OH. South of Cleveland on 77.

I would 2nd FireDancers suggestion of Cedar Point, if you have roller coaster lovers. And these are BIG coasters. If you have thrill junkies, they would love the coasters at CP.

Depending on the age of your kids and their interest, the RoR HOF could be hit or miss. We know of 2 different families that did Cleveland weekends. One had teenaged kids, 1 really into music and the other was cool with looking at the stuff, so it was a good option for them. The other family, 2 teens and 3 under 10. They had to divide up, the younger kids lost interest after an hour.

Don't know how close to Indy you will be, but they have a great Childrens Museum and The Zoo is pretty nice too.

I forgot to even mention the Football HoF. As for zoo's, Cleveland, Akron, and Columbus all have zoos and while I love ours here in Cleveland Columbus is the best of the 3.

 

[dawson5]

If you are going in the summer, check at the Ohio tourism site to see if they are still offering the rock & roller coaster deal. Definitely a savings for CP & RRHoF.

Depending on which way you drive to get there, Toledo Zoo used to be awesome. The Cleveland MetroParks are great also, pretty drive in from what I remember. Downtown Cleveland has the mall, possibly take in a Tribe game if it's that time of year and they are in town. Vermilion, Huron and Oberlin are small towns along the way if you are going to Cedar Point. Vermilion offers the Great Lake Maritime Museum and a lot of little shops downtown, you can rent boats west of town. I want to say Cranberry Creek Marina offered parasailing too. Oberlin is a college town (well known liberal arts college), small shops and an art museum. Huron, just don't get caught speeding through there (if you are going to Sandusky for Cedar Point/Kalahari). There is an outlet mall on the Indiana/Ohio line, I think it's the first exit in at Angola, IN. Little further west I know there is a drive in theater, but I think that might take you a bit out of your way. There is also Shipshewana in Indiana. Not sure how far you want to go out of your way. It's an Amish town, has a flea market two days a week and lot of little shops all around town, can take buggy rides, plenty of great food. Das Essenhaus http://www.essenhaus.com/ is great.

 

[PlutoPony]

Wright Patterson AFB near Dayton has a good museum with planes, etc.

Good zoo in Columbus, also see about catching a Columbus Crew pro soccer game. Also the Ohio State Fair might be interesting if you've never done a big agricultural state fair (think it's late July-early August)

Consider a day trip over to Indianapolis.... get a tour of the Speedway, and we loved downtown Indy and White River State Park

If you take the northern route , there's Greenfield Village / Henry Ford Museum in Detroit.

 

[BalooTheBear]

I have used AAA Internet Trip Tik before to map out road trips and they incorporate places along the route to eat, visit, stay. etc....

The Attractions tab can give you a good list of places to see on your trip. Go to AAA.COM and click on Internet Trip Tik (it's a free route planner).

 

[3boymthr]

How much is admission to Cedar Point? That sounds like fun, but I don't want to spend a fortune if we'll only be able to spend part of a day there.

My kids love music and they definitely inherited their love - 4 of my cousins, my aunt and my late grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather are/were all professional musicians - although the music gene skipped me - I'm tone deaf . So I think we'll try for that.

Unfortunately we've already visited Niagra - it was pouring rain and they had a tornado that day but we still had a great visit.

We may check out Wright Patterson my kids are definitely into airplanes.

I'll have to check out the trip tik. I have an AAA membership so I might also contact my TA there to see if she has any suggestions.

ETA - My DH's family is in a little town right on the OH border. We drive to Richmond, IN, get off the highway and head due south for quite a while.

Keep the suggestions coming...

 

[dawson5]

http://tickets.cedarpoint.com/shop/shopping_general_admission.cfm

I think I might be doing this. I think we paid $45/ticket in the summer. You can pre-buy 4 passes for $35/ticket. That is not a bad deal at all.