I think these sorts of experiences burn out -- somebody has got to do a huge amount of work to create one and then how many times do you want to do it?

For instance, some people set up an indoor mini golf course with blacklights in a storefront at the mall near my town. My 9 year old and I went there maybe three times -- it was a cool idea but we weren't going to do it every weekend. They didn't quite last a year.

Similarly, a ski area that's a three hour drive from here set up a "ropes course" where you can put on a harness and climb up into thre trees. We had to pay for gas and a hotel stay plus the ticket and then my kid had a panic attack in the treetops and had to be talked down. Cool experience, but not something I can do every week.

The experiences which work out the best are the ones that we create for ourselves with a low budget -- like the frozen pond we discovered in a nearby state forest that we've been skating on or the radio transmitter club that a local amateur radio club is organizing this weekend.