Credit: Photo by Gerald E. McLeod

The Witte Museum is the center of a full day of Kidcation Week activities in the very kid-friendly town of San Antonio. The city hardly needs a week of special events to be attractive to kids of all ages.

Of course, there’s the Alamo, the River Walk, the zoo, and hundreds of other kid-friendly places, but the north side of Brackenridge Park offers a trifecta of attractions.

First, the Witte Museum, 3801 Broadway, currently has a special show of life-sized animatronic dinosaurs. Be careful among the towering monsters or you might learn something. The same is true at the museum’s H-E-B Science Treehouse, a hands-on playscape of scientific experiments. For those who make it upstairs, there are rooms full of Texas curiosities.

Second, the San Antonio Botanical Garden across Broadway from the museum always offers a chance for kids to explore and touch. Currently, it has the added attraction of an exhibit of scary carnivorous plants.

Third, and this is mainly for the under-four-foot-tall crowd, there is Kiddie Park on Broad­way just southwest of the Witte Museum. Opened in 1925 and renovated in 2009, this is the oldest children’s amusement park in the country. Many of the rides, including a 1918 carousel, are original equipment.

The San Antonio Kidcation Week runs Aug. 12-18. For coupons and events, visit www.kidcationweek.com. It’s just a reminder how kid-friendly the Alamo City is year-round.

1,149th in a series. Collect them all. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of “Day Trips,” is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.

This article appears in August 9 • 2013.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

Gerald E. McLeod joined the Chronicle staff in November 1980 as a graphic designer. In April 1991 he began writing the “Day Trips” column. Besides the weekly travel column, he contributed “101 Swimming Holes,” “Guide to Central Texas Barbecue,” and “Guide to the Texas Hill Country.” His first 200 columns have been published in Day Trips Vol. I and Day Trips Vol. II.