Rainy Days in Nelson

What to do in Nelson in the summer … “pause” when it rains? : )

Walking to the library with cool bumble bee umbrellas is fun the first day, but when it rains 3 days in a row, it’s time to take the children elsewhere to expend excess energy.

It was pouring non-stop the 2nd day so we drove to Chipmunks. Cecile took the girls there for a good 3 hours. Thanks Cecile! When I went to pick them up they didn’t want to leave. There was a huge inflateable slide they had to climb stairs to get to, and a climbing structure/maze with balls, etc. There was also a fenced off area with tricycles, and wheeled locomotives requiring pedal power. Another area had 3 video game monitors for improving hand-eye coordination. On a rainy day it was crowded, but not so crowded that the girls got trampled on. Since adults weren’t allowed up the slide with them, Maya and PJ watched out for each other and waited for each other at the top of the slide. After 20 minutes of watching them go up and down, I saw that they waited patiently for the crowd to all slide down before they themselves went down. It was good to see several Chipmunk staff wandering around and making sure the children played safe.

Adults are free to come in and watch their children. There is also café food and seating both inside and outside.

We have been going swimming everyday because the children are interested (they really enjoy the hot shower), the public pool is about 3 blocks away (Maya insists on walking to the pool) and swimming gets them very, very tired. At the Riverside Pool, there is a toddler pool about 2 feet deep. The water is on the cool side so kicking and moving around is a must. Maya and PJ love taking turns on the pool’s boogie board because they are able to float on it and kick across the pool. They have gotten very comfortable in the water, so much so that they like to wear their goggles, Maya likes to dunk her face in the water, while PJ likes to blow bubbles.

Another activity to do in Nelson when it rains is go to the Museum.

It's pretty good. Maya and PJ lasted about 1.5 hours in the museum. There was an outside patio where they had snacks, ran around and yelled a lot. There was one big photo puzzle, divided into about 20 squares (24x24") that Maya and PJ had fun putting together.

It stopped raining after the third day. : ) back to riding bikes, trikes, and walking in the sunshine.