Plan a day trip to Hopkins, Minnesota!

For our Christmas experience gift this year, we got tickets for Beauty and the Beast at Stages Theatre Company. Since I was a little girl, I’ve gone to tons of plays at Stages. I’ve loved every single one, as an adult and as a child. I’ve wanted to pass this love down to my kids. My oldest child had gone to plays at Stages, but it had been awhile. This was the first time taking either of my daughters. At first, we considered not bringing our 1.5 year old. In hindsight, I’m so glad we decided to take a chance and try. She adored the play and spent the majority of the time with her eyes glued to the stage. Around an hour into the play, I did have to take out some stickers and paper for her to play with. Yet, she was able to stay in the theater for all 75 minutes of the play. This is a solid indicator of just how amazing Stages is at getting everyone, kids and adults, engaged into the performance. 

Besides the acting, Stages also does a tremendous job of making sure the theater experience is special for everyone. Staff working are always incredibly nice and go out of their way to ensure you are taken care of. The theater provides boosters for kids, if they would like, to ensure that all kids can see. Also, lap seats are available for kids four and under for $5 with an adult ticket. This saves you money and allows your kid to sit comfortably with you during the performance if they are nervous. There are performances for younger kids as well that are more interactive. A few years ago, we went to one about trains. My son loved it. He got a conductor hat and part of the play experience included playing with trains, as well as singing and dancing for all participants who wanted to join. Again, Stages goes out of their way to ensure that every person has an enjoyable theater experience and leaving each person excited to come back for more plays. I’d highly recommend attending a play here! 

If you know me well, you know I can’t just go to a town to do one thing. So, I planned a half day out of going to the play. After, the play was done, we walked down the street to Amy’s Cupcake Shoppe. I recommend walking down the street from Stages anyway, as their downtown is adorable. At Amy’s, we got several cupcakes and a cookie sandwich with frosting in the middle. Each sweet was delicious and my kids loved the cute designs on the top of the cupcakes My husband got a coffee drink and was equally pleased with that. 

As we enjoyed our treats, we walked back and took a slight detour to see the World’s Largest Raspberry! Yes, this is a thing! I was surprised how cool my kids thought this was, as they asked me to take several pictures of them with it. Definitely a unique experience that you can’t say you can do everyday! 

Despite it being December when we visited Hopkins, the weather was nice. So, I decided to go to a few parks and let the kids run off their energy after sitting for the play. We started at a park called Maetzold Field. Known for its baseball fields, there is a park area that looked fun to me for my kids. This is one of those parks I would call a “big kid park” because it’s a lot of climbing. Yet, there are swings for little ones. My kids loved this park as it is set up like an obstacle course and they took turns trying to do the course faster than their last time. 

Our last stop in Hopkins was to Cottageville Park. I would definitely add this park to your list to stop at. My kids loved that there was a large wooden castle looking spot attached to the park. They also, loved the unique aspects of the park. These included a large web of rope to climb with nets in between to jump on, a large climbing structure with various obstacles off the sides of it, swings, an assortment of slides, a hammock to swing on, a merry-go-round, and these acorn seats that one of my daughters thought were so cool. Definitely a park I would stop at again as my kids spent a while exploring here. 

Overall, we had a great day adventuring around Hopkins. I’d highly recommend taking a visit and spending a few hours exploring the town. We will definitely be attending a play again in the near future and look forward to finding even more fun spots around. 

Until my next adventure,

Allie