[an error occurred while processing this directive] 10 Great Places to Take Your Kids This Winter

1. Go cross-country skiing or hiking through ancient fields and wooded trails at Appleton Farms Grass Rides in Ipswich, and bring along the family dog.
   For more information, click here.
   
   
2. Go to a show at the North Shore Music Theater in Beverly, one of the oldest regional theaters in the country, or catch a performance at the Firehouse Theater in Newburyport, an award-winning arts center in the heart of downtown.
   For more information, go to nsmt.org or firehousecenter.com.
   
   
3. Sign up for a family workshop at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, or take older kids on a house tour. Leave some time to walk down to the waterfront. Climb on board the Friendship and imagine what it would have been like to be at sea in the winter.
   Please note that while the Phillips Library and the houses of the Peabody Essex Museum are open this winter for programs and tours, the galleries will be closed from February through June 2003. Please call the Peabody Essex Museum at 978-745-9500 if you have questions about their hours.
   For more information, click here or here.
   
   
4. Howl with packs of gray wolves at the Wolf Hollow Sanctuary in Ipswich.
   For more information, go to wolfhollowipswich.org.
   
   
5. Walk through fragrant evergreens at Maudsley State Park in Newburyport, and play hide and seek in the many carefully planned outdoor "rooms" created by world-renowned landscape architects in the 1920Õs. Keep your eyes peeled for the wishing well and the pet cemetery, hidden in the magnificent rhododendron forest.
   For more information, click here.
   
   
6. Tour a restored boarding house at the Lawrence Heritage State Park. Two floors of interactive exhibits tells the tale of Lawrence, one of the nation's first planned industrial cities. Walk along the esplanade of a nineteenth-century canal and through a park created within the walls of an industrial-era building.
   For more information, click here.
   
   
7. Step back into the Middle Ages at Hammond Castle in Gloucester, a 1920Õs home, museum and laboratory in the Mediaeval style built by inventor and collector John Hays Hammond Jr. The Castle boasts original suits of armor, stunning views of Gloucester Harbor, and a magnificent pipe organ Ð the largest in a private residence in the world.
   For more information, go to hammondcastle.org.
   
   
8. Put on your long johns and head to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newbury. Its nearly 5000 acres of beach, dune and marsh are prime ground for bird-watchers year-round, but fox, deer and coyote are particularly active in the winter. Go on a species-spotting treasure hunt and wrap it up with a sunset marshmallow roast on the beach.
   For more information, click here.
   
   
9. Not far from two hectic malls, Brooksby Farms is a 250-acre island of serenity in Peabody. Footpaths and trails wind through ancient houses, huge red barns and 65 acres of orchards. Bring a sled or rent cross-country skis and snowshoes and wander through the rare evergreens of the Woodland Garden.
   For more information, click here.
   
   
10. Play with dolls or send a locomotive flying around the tracks at the Wenham Museum. The permanent collection includes over 5000 dolls and doll accessories, and toy soldiers from the American Revolution through World War II. The Model Train room is a maze of whirring, whistling antique trains and railroad artifacts, and kids are welcome to play conductor. The Play and Learn Room offers a variety of hands-on activities for kids of all ages.
    For more information, click here.

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