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Family Friendly Summer Destinations

Yee-Haw! If your family loves rodeo competitions, chuckwagon races, barrel races and other old-fashioned entertainment you might consider rounding up the troops and moseying into Calgary, Canada this summer.

That’s were you’ll find the legendary Calgary Stampede, which is scheduled to take place from July 4-13 this year.

The event attracts more than a million visitors to the area, not to mention some A-list entertainers. This year the event will host musical performances by James Taylor, Sugarland, The Judds and Kid Rock.

In addition to the rocking nights planned for the stampede, the daylight hours will be filled with family friendly activities such as live animal displays, a children’s petting zoo, interactive farm exhibits and presentations on agriculture dubbed, “Agrium Ag-tivity in the City.”

And you can’t have a stampede without the traditional chuckwagon races, right? This year’s Calgary Stampede is offering a slew of those. The wagons, which originally used to carry food and cooking equipment, are raced around an obstacle course and have become one of the biggest draws at the annual stampede.

Also this year, visitors can tour an Indian Village featuring dance performances, cooking demonstrations and a teepee-raising contest.

If your family is more interested in cops and robbers than cowboys and Indians you might consider spending part of the summer in Washington, D.C.

The city is the new home of the Museum of Crime & Punishment. The much-anticipated multi-million dollar attraction is filled with interactive displays from a high-speed police chase simulator and the bullet-riddled car used in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde to a death penalty exhibit with scale models of a guillotine, a gas chamber and an electric chair responsible for 125 electrocutions.

The $21 million facility, opened in D.C.’s Penn Quarter last week and is already drawing record crowds. The museum traces the history of American crime and the consequences involved in committing heinous acts. It gives visitors background on such varied villains as Wild West outlaws, serial killers and cyber criminals. Museum partner John Walsh, host of the TV series America’s Most Wanted, will tape the show from a museum-based studio about once a month.

Tickets cost $17.95 for adults and $14.95 for kids 5-11.

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This entry was posted in Family Travel and tagged , , , , by Michele Cheplic. Bookmark the permalink.

About Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism. She spent the next ten years as a television anchor and reporter at various stations throughout the country (from the CBS affiliate in Honolulu to the NBC affiliate in Green Bay). She has won numerous honors including an Emmy Award and multiple Edward R. Murrow awards honoring outstanding achievements in broadcast journalism. In addition, she has received awards from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association for her reports on air travel and the Wisconsin Education Association Council for her stories on education. Michele has since left television to concentrate on being a mom and freelance writer.