Just Pretend

“What would you like for lunch?” my apron-clad daughter asked me as I sat in a little booth in a replica train dining car. After I made my selection off of the laminated menu, Lindsay scurried off to the “kitchen” to prepare my “meal.”

The Bucks County Children’s Museum isn’t huge. And a tween-ager might get a little bored there. But the under-ten set can definitely give their imaginations a good workout at this recently opened spot in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Lindsay spent lots of time in the museum’s Town Square section, home to the train car as well as a general store exhibit where kids can shop or play cashier. In the post office area, she carefully sorted postcards into their proper P.O. boxes, begrudgingly handing over the mailbag (and her orderly handiwork) to another little one who wanted to give postal delivery a try.

With shovel and brush in hand, Lindsay dug for “fossils,” uncovering artifacts like a wagon wheel and a conch shell used on the Delaware Canal. After a few trips down the slide at the indoor tree house and a stroll through a small-scale covered bridge, she created her own car using bins of Lego-like blocks, then gave her vehicle a test ride down two hilly tracks.

This is exactly the kind of place I wish I had close to my hometown. With its reasonable general admission prices ($7) and membership rates ($75 a year for a family of four), the museum offers a fun, fantasy-filled, budget-friendly spot at which to spend an afternoon.