Things To Do In Fremont

Don your most elegant Elizabethan-era gown and experience a fun-filled day of circa 16th-century delights. The outdoor festival promises to amuse with reenactments of Renaissance-era entertainment, and as fair-goers nosh on a hand-held turkey leg or sip homemade root beer, there is a good chance of an encounter with traveling gypsy hordes, a jester, or a juggling magician romping through the fairgrounds. Other entertainment includes live jousting and live shopping. Peruse the festival’s diverse selection of merchants and stock up on swords and leather goods, or purchase a feather-plumed hat for future acts of forest heroism. Enjoy a day of being immersed in costumed folks walking to the charming sounds of traveling bands of merry minstrels.

Since 1925, the Dundee Theatre’s gold curtains have been parting for generations of rapt audiences. Originally a vaudeville theater, the venue was transformed into a movie house during the Great Depression as a cost-cutting measure. For the next half century it traded hands, sometimes screening art films, sometimes featuring family fare, and once showing a 118-week run of The Sound of Music, which was eventually halted by a town statute banning raindrops on roses.

In 1980, current owner Denny Moran stepped in and renovated the theater to recapture some of the splendor of its early days. The old vaudevillian stage and dressing rooms still lurk behind the silver screen, counterbalanced by a state-of-the-art Dolby Digital EX sound system and Cyrano de Bergerac smell system. Under Moran's watch, the Dundee Theatre now screens an eclectic mix of art and independent films, cinema classics, and cult favorites.

The seasoned outdoors enthusiasts at Oak Creek Sporting Club shepherd guests through enjoyable outings of clay shooting on scenic courses, well-equipped stands, and stunning heartland-prairie vistas. The meticulously groomed grounds and more than 20 automated shooting stations in the sporting-clay course replicate countless natural shots encountered in the field, from migrating geese gracefully landing in a pond, to ceramic dishes haphazardly frisbeed into the sunset. During a two-person two-hour outing, a guide with more than five years of shooting experience carts visitors through the beautiful upland fields and ponds of Oak Creek, helping patrons lock on to soaring targets at shooting stations at the course or stands. The 5-stand challenges shotgunning skills with new computerized Promatic target machines, which hurl disks in a variety of shots, including outgoing, incoming, springing teal, left crossing, right crossing, and teleporting.

Thanks to 20 hard-working snow-making machines, skiers and snowboarders of all levels can zip down nine different runs reaching up to 2,000 feet, and also enjoy night skiing at this western-Iowa resort. Although gravity will pull patrons inexorably toward the bottom of the slopes, two chairlifts return as many as 3,600 snow surfers to the top each hour, where they can take in views of the ski area's 50 acres, test their mettle on trails such as the challenging Double Trouble Chute, or make a snow-sculpted diorama of the entire cast of Happy Days. Afterward, skiers can warm their toes in the newly renovated two-story lodge and replenish their bodies with a drink from the Mountain Cafe & Bar. Guests can also rent skis and snowboards, take lessons, or conquer the slopes on an office chair.

Two-year-olds in HappyFeet soccer training sing “Roll, roll, roll your ball” to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” The program’s graduates, though, often go on to more sophisticated activities—such as collegiate and professional soccer careers and jobs kicking computers that won’t work right. Founded by Andy Barney, the HappyFeet franchise encompasses two programs: one for tots aged 2–6 and Legends soccer for older youths. HappyFeet’s coaches focus on childhood development while hosting onsite classes at preschools. Their curriculum fuses soccer drills with kid-friendly characters such as Gus the Gorilla. Meanwhile, the Legends program takes a more grownup approach, emphasizing the arts of dribbling, scoring, and evading opposing players with deft footwork.