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Charlotte, N.C., Chock Full of Family Attractions

By Karon Warren

I’ve been to Charlotte, N.C., on business, on a girlfriend getaway and with my husband, but I’ve never been with my kids. Until now. Although I had heard of many of the city’s family-friendly offerings, I usually spent my time in the city pursuing more grownup interests like exploring the extensive culinary scene and enjoying the resort spas. Recently, though, I had the opportunity to visit Charlotte with my kids in tow, so we took time to check out three of the city’s top family attractions.

Charlotte

 NASCAR Hall of Fame

My husband and I are sports fanatics, with one of my favorites being auto racing. Since my son loves all things cars, I thought the NASCAR Hall of Fame would be a good fit for us both. It turns out I was right. Upon entering, visitors purchase their tickets and then receive a “hard card.” On this card, you record a personal profile. As you proceed through the facility, there will be many opportunities to use your hard card, which records the information.

NASCARHall

For example, you can design your own racecar, input the car set-up information, qualify for a race and even run a race. NOTE: For children 3 and younger, they do not receive an active “hard card,” although they do get one of their own. I let my 3-year-old use my card so he could do the various activities.

During our visit, my kids loved seeing all the racecars and various components that go into making these cars go so fast. Throughout the entire building, there are many interactive exhibits. My kids tried their pit-stop skills by lifting the gas can, jacking up the car and changing a tire.

Tire change

Their favorite, though, was the race simulator. Essentially, this is a video game played from behind the wheel of a mock racecar. First, you qualify for the race using a steering wheel and pedals in front of a TV. Then, you move on to the car. My kids, ages 3 and 7, were too small to ride alone, so my daughter sat in my lap and my son sat with his grandmother. We raced against seven or so other cars.

I knew if we stayed on the track and out of wrecks, we might be OK, so I controlled the steering and my daughter controlled the gas and brake. To our surprise and her delight, we actually won the race! It was a great way to finish our visit.

 Discovery Place

Our next stop was Discovery Place, Charlotte’s interactive children’s museum. The facility features exhibits on three levels grouped by theme. My son’s favorite was KidScience, where children engage in activities that teach math and science. There were water tables (the star attractions!) where kids could shoot water at wheel paddles to make them turn, giant air tubes where they could make music, and oversized building blocks.

Discovery Place

My daughter liked the second level, home of Project Build. Here she could draw a building design and then try to execute it using various materials. She also liked Think It Up, where she crafted a mushroom using aluminum foil and tried to build a shoe prototype using duct tape.

Other themed areas included THEM, a look at bacteria, microbes and parasites in the human body; Cool Stuff, exhibits that require physical interaction to work (for example, sitting in a seat and pulling the seat up using a rope); and World Alive, a look at biodiversity.

Discovery Place

The museum also includes an IMAX Dome Theatre and a Discovery 3D Theatre, although we didn’t have enough time to see those firsthand.

 The Mint Museum

Ever since my first visit to Charlotte, I’ve wanted to visit The Mint Museum. Given that its monthly “Sunday Fun Day” was taking place during our time in the city, I thought this was fate. Again, this proved to be a good fit for both my children and me. For this event, the theme was “America the Beautiful.” My kids’ favorite was the arts and crafts, where they constructed a Hudson River sailboat, painted their own Impressionist seascape and created a Colonial tricorn hat (which they insisted were pirate hats!).

Impressionist paintings

After craft time, we explored the museum’s galleries, which included American art  on the fourth flour.  To keep little ones interested, the museum provided a handout that encouraged kids to find specific paintings in the galleries, an art treasure hunt, if you will. I was quite surprised at my kids’ response to the artwork. Sometimes they loved what they saw, and others they were a bit confused. Overall, they were interested, and that was encouraging to me. I look forward to taking them to more art museums, and, hopefully, helping them nurture an appreciation for various styles of art.

Mint

Although our visit to Charlotte was short, I hope to return soon so we can explore further. One aspect that made this visit so successful was our hotel and its location. We stayed at The Westin Charlotte, which is within walking distance of all the sites we visited plus many dining destinations. It was great to park the car and walk everywhere during our stay, something I highly recommend to everyone coming to Charlotte.

Disclosure: Karon and her family visited Charlotte and these sites and attractions as guests of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.

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Filed Under: Family Travel, Travel, USA Tagged With: Charlotte, Chock Full of Family Attractions, Discovery Place, Karon Warren, N.C., NASCAR Hall of Fame, North Carolina, Paula Schmitt, The Mint Museum, This Girl Travels, Travel

About Karon Warren

A freelance writer for more than 15 years, Karon Warren has covered a variety of topics, most notably travel, weddings and lifestyle. She loves discovering new people, places and experiences that epitomize the amazing wonders found in this world and sharing their stories with her readers. When she is not out exploring, Karon resides in the North Georgia Mountains with her husband and two children. You can learn more about Karon at www.karonwarren.com. Also, catch up with her on Twitter as well as Instagram.

Comments

  1. wanderingeducators says

    August 26, 2013 at 12:15 pm

    What a fun place! I especially love those paintings. Anything to keep kids interested!

    • Paula says

      August 26, 2013 at 2:50 pm

      I totally agree!

  2. Cat of Sunshine and Siestas says

    August 26, 2013 at 12:44 pm

    Even my father would love the NASCAR Hall of Fame! He’s always up for the kid-friendly things to do (by the way, we’re now 28 and 25 years old…)

  3. Leigh Powell Hines @Hinessightblog says

    August 26, 2013 at 3:39 pm

    We love Charlotte.

  4. Bernetta says

    August 27, 2013 at 9:16 am

    I have been to NC a few times but only passing through. I might have spent one night there but haven’t been able to site see. Thanks for the information!! Next time I stay for an extended period I will consider these! (GSMM!)

  5. Reena - Wanderplex says

    August 27, 2013 at 9:36 am

    Looks like a really fun place. I loved those interactive science museums as a kid (and let’s face it, some of them are pretty cool as adults too!)

    • Paula says

      August 27, 2013 at 12:48 pm

      I love them as an adult as well!

  6. Sarah Ebner says

    August 27, 2013 at 9:41 am

    I really enjoyed this post – such great things to do (mine would LOVE designing the car). Hope we can make it to Charlotte one day from London!

    • Paula says

      August 27, 2013 at 12:48 pm

      We hope you can, too!

  7. Jennifer says

    August 27, 2013 at 12:44 pm

    I’ve never been to Charlotte, but I’d love to. One of my husband’s old college roommates lives there and is always posting fun photos of his daily life on Facebook.

  8. sue says

    August 27, 2013 at 9:33 pm

    Now I want to go to the NASCAR museum!

  9. Gabi (The Nomadic Family) says

    August 28, 2013 at 4:48 am

    Karon, your photos inspire me to spend more time seeing how others see the world. i like [picture number 3,5,6] because it feels special. like something quiet is going on there. i like that. thank you, gabi

    • Karon says

      August 28, 2013 at 7:30 am

      Thanks, Gabi! I appreciate the kind words!

  10. Adam says

    August 28, 2013 at 7:00 am

    What is the “Mint Museum”? At first I thought maybe it had to do with currency/money, but seems like it’s an art museum – but with an unusual name. I imagine Charlotte’s culinary scene is good – that’s definitely something I’d like to experience!

    • Karon says

      August 28, 2013 at 7:32 am

      Hi, Adam. The Mint Museum is an art museum. It is so named because it originally was housed in what was the original branch of the United States Mint.

  11. Terry at Overnight New York says

    August 28, 2013 at 6:35 pm

    Didn’t know Charlotte was so kid friendly. What a great line-up of smart, fun activities.

  12. Jennifer Miller says

    August 28, 2013 at 7:37 pm

    I’ve been to Charlotte several times (with kids) and have managed to miss ALL of these! Thanks for sharing, we’ll check these out next time!

  13. Lesli Peterson says

    August 28, 2013 at 9:57 pm

    Oh wow! I live so close and never knew how much fun was only a daytrip away! Adding this to the bucket list for sure. Looks like so much fun!

  14. Melissa says

    August 29, 2013 at 8:56 am

    So many fun things to do, and all in one trip! Awesome!

  15. Mary @ Green Global Travel says

    August 29, 2013 at 3:38 pm

    North Carolina has so much to offer. Thanks for highlighting Charlotte. We recently brought the kiddo with us to Asheville and the Outer Banks. I’m glad to learn that there are kid-friendly activities in Charlotte too.

    • Paula says

      August 30, 2013 at 11:32 am

      I recently moved from Boston to Asheville and we love it here! Making plans to visit the Outer Banks soon as well! We have visited Charlotte too since living here and it is a wonderful city!

  16. Marina K. Villatoro says

    August 29, 2013 at 9:10 pm

    Wow, I didn’t realize there’s so much to do in Charlotte! NC is the only state on the East Coast I have never been too. Now that my parents have a house in Florida, it’s not too far away for a road trip.

  17. Dale says

    August 30, 2013 at 7:13 am

    The Mint museum is definatly my kind of thing, more so than the Nascar Hall of Fame, but I guess that’s because of being a Brit and lover of Formula One 🙂 There’s always that rivalry in place.

  18. Katherine G says

    August 30, 2013 at 2:28 pm

    North Carolina sounds like a great place. We have been thinking about going there but didn’t know of anything to do. This helps out a lot.

  19. Demetra says

    August 31, 2013 at 4:59 pm

    I had no idea Charlotte, NC had so much family fun to offer. I haven’t been , but Charlotte is now on my list of place for the family to visit

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