Things to Do in Emmaus

Competitors in the Professional Indoor Football League's United Conference since 2011, the Steelhawks prey on the opposition across the 50-yard pitch inside Stabler Arena. With a roster of gridiron stars, many of which were standouts at colleges across the country, the Steelhawks bring a fast-paced style of play to a football-crazed fanbase. The Steelhawks' mascot, Talon, regales fans in the stands during games with signature cheers and seminars on how to build structurally sound nests.

ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks hosts film and performing arts venues on four stories overlooking the dramatically illuminated blast furnaces of the former Bethlehem Steel Plant. On the first floor, the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinema projects independent, foreign, and documentary films on two full-size screens with 100 and 200 stadium-style seats. A full-service bar pours local Yuengling brews and other alcoholic beverages, and onsite chefs craft gourmet eats such as ham-and-brie paninis and beef sliders. Musical acts such as the Psychedelic Furs, Joan Osborne, and Rusted Root perform each weekend at Musikfest Café, where up to 1,000 concertgoers can spread across multiple levels of seating, or form a human pyramid to climb the exposed girders above the stage.

BounceU welcomes kids to descend upon an inflatable, climate-controlled playground where they can bounce and ricochet in safety. Along with birthday parties and group outings, BounceU hosts open-bounce sessions that let sock wearers of all ages imagine they're synchronized leapers in a futuristic moon performance as they carom around the inflatable stadium, expending energy with every leap. Adults are welcome to act like 8-year-olds and join the vivacious youngsters in the playground.

The inflatable arena also opens its buoyant doors to day camps, where boys and girls ages 5–10 spend half their time with brain-bolstering projects such as painting or reprogramming the remote to skip all news channels. After stretching the limits of their imaginations, kids then spend the other half of the day stretching the limits of their limbs on the inflatable playground.

Lehigh Valley Grand Prix's gas-powered Sodi GT5 Proline karts zip around a quarter-mile racetrack with 11 brake-stomping turns. The karts feature air-intake units that trap their exhaust and keep the atmosphere fresh, and the track—constructed from 1,300 used Goodyear tires and the shredded remains of Mario Andretti's learner's permit—is outfitted with three observation platforms for track marshals to regulate each lap and guarantee riders' safety. A full-time mechanic keeps finish lines crowded by calibrating karts to run within three-tenths of a second of one another and hanging hundreds of piñatas from the checkered flag. At the facility's bar, Octane, drivers can refuel with drinks and food while watching stock-car races on the five 42-inch TVs.

Two former Air Force officers with a passion for teaching children put their minds together to create Bricks 4 Kidz. The lab integrates scientific play with LEGO projects that vary by week. Depending on the week's theme, kids might build and program a satellite, model the Empire State Building, or create an alligator whose mouth snaps shut any time mom tries to feed it peas. Each project combines the fundamental principles of science, architecture, technology, and engineering, thereby supplementing what children learn during the school day. When children complete their project, they transition to free play, tapping into their imaginations or imaginary friends to built whatever they want.

Racing past the multilevel arena's black-lit arches, barriers, and pathways, phaser-wielding players navigate their way through a foggy arena in pursuit of opponents. Such battles are the main draw of Lehigh Valley Laser Tag, where participants aged 7 and older compete for victory in three games during each 40-minute laser-tag session. After arrival, a short safety video screened in the staging room explains the game's equipment and confirms there's no need to wait 20 minutes between eating and playing before guests strap on their vests and ready their phasers. The arena hosts regular team-versus-team game play as well as special format rounds, all of which end with reports that compare each player's score to the results of friends and teammates. Afterward, groups reenergize by noshing on fare from the snack bar or playing abundant video games in the arcade.