Driving up from South Dakota up to Fargo, we stopped at Bonanzaville, a pioneer village with 12 acres, 43 historic buildings, 400,000 artifacts, and millions of memories. It is the region’s largest historical attraction. Bonanzaville is kind of a museum whose exhibits are old buildings. We found out that most of these buildings were not here originally but were painstakingly moved here to create this sort of "historic town" We wandered through some old cabins and then a general store, a blacksmith shop and a doctor's office and lots of other places. There was a tin shop where the tinsmith made us a cookie cutter as a souvenir to use at home. One of the more interesting exhibits for my crew was the antique farm equipment in this huge barn/warehouse building. I got some great answers from my kids trying to find out what most of those machines were used for. Playing guessing games can be a great way to keep kids engaged. They also have a telephone museum which really brought back some memories for me. I saw the same avocado colored rotary phone we had in our house when I was a kid in the 70's and my beloved "Princess" phone I had in my room when I got a summer job and could afford to pay for my own number. I gabbed and gabbed all night and sometimes left the phone off the hook while I slept and then when I woke up checked to see if my buddy was still on the line. Today kids communicate in a whole different way. My kids have ichat parties in their rooms with 10 kids on their screen in little bubbles all at one time. No doubt everyone's favorite stop was the general store where I let each of the kids pick out an old time candy stick, you know the ones that have swirly stripey colors and come in a ton of flavors. Ahhh the simple pleasures....
