Things to Do in Hutchinson

For 53 years, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has engaged eardrums with a vast repertoire of classical masterpieces and 128 newly commissioned works, earning 15 ASCAP awards for its adventurous programming. This season, the distinguished troupe hosts a quintet of internationally acclaimed artistic partners, a group that consists of visiting conductors, singers, fog horns, and musicians whose varied styles diversify the orchestra's huge selection of performances. During a marathon concert season, the orchestra's nimble bows and lusty horns leap and dash through the notes of Mendelssohn, Schubert, Haydn, and Mozart in dozens of concert dates. Awe strikes audiences during a rousing performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 (November 25–27), and Dawn Upshaw—recipient of a rare MacArthur Genius Award—sings sweetly in "Upshaw Sings Ravel and Debussy" (February 16 and 18). Many Friday and Saturday performances also include free preconcert discussions, which bring scholars, guest artists, conductors, and musicians to chat with audiences about the upcoming performance and their favorite mac 'n' cheese recipes.

Maxx Putt Fun Zone takes the rigors of an outdoor ground game and translates them into a phosphorescent indoor experience that's fun for all ages. The 18-hole course travels the glowing, blacklit globe with holes in Venice, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Great Wall of China. Once 36 hallucinogenic holes have been successfully sunk in stellar style, you and up to seven friends and/or samurai currently protecting your village can enter a four-vs.-four war in the Balladium stadium. The Balladium ball blaster system is a fast-paced shooting battle, as well as a legally acceptable method for settling intellectual property disputes in Australia's Thunderdome-based judicial system. During each five-minute game, each player uses a cannon to launch foam balls toward targets, plus any opposing players, in order to score points and win the game.

An abundant number of recreational activities fill the space at Purple Planet 3-D Mini Golf. With black lights illuminating patches of neon paints, the indoor and always air-conditioned cooled mini-golf course bends the mind with challenging greens and mind-bending visuals such as aliens and floating satellites. As they navigate the course’s vortex tunnel and fog-filled corridors, golfers wear 3-D glasses, making obstacles appear to pop out and transforming every hole into an even deeper hole. Purple Planet visitors can also hone their billiards skills with games of pool or try their hand at the games at an on-site arcade.

Fog floods the 6,000-square-foot arena as youngsters race behind glowing crates and walls to escape lasers, thus fulfilling the business's Active Play Active Kids philosophy of getting wee ones on their feet and keeping them moving. At the nine-hole indoor golf course, glow-in-the-dark games take place with the aid of illumined putters and firefly caddies. The laser maze's 30 crisscrossing beams put participants' coordination to the test as they navigate through, and the glowing Lightspace Play Floor accommodates up to four players trying to copy each others' dance moves. At the snack station, kids can recharge with pizza and nachos before challenging friends to air-hockey bouts in an arcade with more than 35 games.

Zap Zone's seven locations in Michigan and two locations in Canada each feature a unique combination of attractions—anything from bumper cars to the Jump Zone's cushioned obstacle course—but each one involves dodging laser blasts. In the laser-tag arena, both kids and adults demonstrate their teamwork skills by outscoring opponents in fast-paced games that take place inside black-lit mazes of neon-tinged hallways. Arcades also round out every location’s attractions, tempting passersby to drop a few tokens on racing games and skee-ball, or a lot of tokens on the claw game filled with Fabergé eggs.

At AirMaxx, age really does become just a number. Here, adults and teens giggle and frolic alongside their kid counterparts, channeling the unbridled energy stores from their youth years. The indoor facility houses multiple lanes of trampolines, which each incline into a slope at their trail's end, waiting to propel bouncers into spectacular flips and aerial tricks. The staff members readily teach jumpers a host of impressive moves, educating them in both awesomeness and safety. In addition to family-friendly open-bounce times, the facility dedicates late Saturday nights to teen dates, filling the space with lower lights, louder music, and more regrettable haircuts. They also host an Extreme Dodgeball league during which competitors face off on the bouncy surfaces and avoid blazing tosses with impressive aerial stunts. During Maxxercise classes, the trampolines transform into workout havens as instructors lead sessions that combine aerobics moves with high-flying fun.