Things To Do in Lewisville

Boasting more than 26 years in the aviation industry, Breeze Balloons' pilots expertly harness the wind to soar riders over north and east Texas in multihued hot-air vehicles. Pilots helm various sized balloons, which accommodate twosomes or let groups as large as 30 high-five Texan clouds. Pilots also do double duty as safety-training instructors, helping other hot air balloon pilots maintain Breeze Balloons' zero-safety-issue record.

Fanny Kerwich, Lone Star Circus’s founder and current creative director, was born with the circus in her blood. An eighth-generation member of a renowned French circus family, she has been performing since age 6, delighting international audiences at Paris’s Lido and Moulin Rouge, Germany’s Circus Roncalli, and San Francisco’s Teatro ZinZanni.

Fanny’s performing experience and artistic vision now guide the nonprofit Lone Star Circus, which is a two-branched operation. Its performance troupe’s grace and athleticism shine during shows such as the upcoming winter spectacle, Cirque Banquisté. The circus’s school hosts classes for youngsters and adults, teaching them how to swing from trapezes, scale silks, and contort their frames so they can more accurately pantomime what Gumby would look like during a high-speed car chase.

Indoor Safari Park embodies childhood dreams of the Serengeti with a varicolored landscape of tropical murals, plush jungle creatures, and both educational and entertaining activities. Cerebral toys teach little tykes the basics of numbers and colors, and wooden train sets review the basic origins of interstate commerce. Around the facility, mechanical elephants and zebras trot through a safe indoor jungle beneath giggling children, and a kid-size, primary-colored train chugs to life around a palm-flanked track. On an obstacle-flecked mini-golf course, prehistoric creatures guard the borders of each pin and avoid the ball pits that colorfully resemble the meteorites of their ancestors' demise. Age limits become obsolete with a specific play area for toddlers, and a huge retail area generously yields gift ideas to stumped shoppers.

With a BYOB policy, 10” subwoofers, and spacious dance floors, Joe and Toni Watson’s fleet of pontoons were designed with revelry in mind. Licensed party-boat operators often chart routes to Party Cove, though they’ll happily stop anywhere on Lake Lewisville and crank up their vessel’s iPod-outfitted stereos. When parties rage beyond sunset, the boats’ lights flicker on, casting a cool glow on the open deck and any stowaway flying fish.

As part of a premiere PADI five-star National Geographic instructor-development center, International Scuba’s team trains underwater explorers in a variety of courses that range from snorkeling and skin diving to open-water and rescue diving. The heated, indoor salt-water pool accommodates divers from ages 8 and older, and equipment packages ensure all students are outfitted for their dives. Beyond the student level, divers can also earn their master scuba-diver certification, thus becoming teachers themselves.

Students who master any of these levels can then elect a related specialty allowing them to dive under the ice, discover underwater wrecks, snap photographs of marine life, and help protect coral reefs from predatory plastic bags. Students who have completed their desired level of training but want to venture forth with a group can also participate in a trip diving in locations abroad and in 30 rivers, quarries, and beaches in and around Texas.

Big Boar Tactical doesn't train their clientele on a typical gun range with stationary, paper targets. Instead, their trainers—each of whom has more than 12 years of professional armed bodyguard experience—take beginner shooters outdoors, where they move through a series of obstacles and shoot multiple targets set to various heights, distances, and parallel dimensions. Each drill teaches a relevant skill, from learning to draw a gun and move and shoot during the intro to handgun class to honing one-handed accuracy and using cover and concealment during the tactical combat handgun training course. Instructors can also help customers obtain concealed handgun licenses or master the use of various other firearms, including shotguns and rifles.