Things to Do in Mounds View

Bead Basics lavishes jewelers of all skill levels with the necessary equipage and abilities to craft their own bead masterpieces. Instructors string together a monthly calendar of more than 25 classes that teach up to 16 students at a time techniques or specific projects such as Beading Basics, Tila Spiral Bracelet, and Viking Knit. The online catalog's virtual glass cases brim with exquisitely crafted pieces and the requisite tools for shaping bracelets, stringing necklaces, and swapping out the queen's jewels with decoys.

A tall painted portrait, illuminated from above, shows a woman standing barefoot holding a lamb. Follow her glance downwards and sideways, and you'll sight row upon brightly colored row of carefully stacked skeins of yarn from brands such as Blue Sky and Spud & Chloë. Classes teach tender-footed knitters to wield these materials with care, and more advanced offerings cover refined and specialized stitching skills. The shop also carries its own line of all-natural soaps, household cleaners, and moisturizers designed to soften hands toughened by efforts to wrestle needles away from uncooperative porcupines.

Since 1995, the Bunker Park Stable staff and their trusty team of horses have hosted a wide array of equine-based activities including lessons, trail rides, hay rides, and day camps. The stable’s well-appointed facilities reside inside the 1,600-acre Bunker Hills Regional Park and act as a hub for the vast network of trails that passes through the park’s grassy meadows and vast forests of pine and oak. Horse-top visitors may witness native park wildlife such as white-tail deer, sandhill cranes, and hawks and overhear songbirds as they belt out choruses in the hopes of becoming the next superstar discovered in a forest, just like Celine Dion.

For more than 25 years, families have flocked to Goony Golf for family entertainment ranging from curvy putting greens to a video arcade. When fully operational, three 18-hole courses star a cast of colorful creatures, such as a pink kangaroo, Humpty Dumpty, and a bird in a mortarboard and graduation robe. Beyond the 36 holes, guests can rack up points on pinball machines or head to the air-hockey table to re-create Team USA’s miraculous 1980 victory over the Soviet Union’s giant plastic mallet.

Metro Gun Club’s team refines the skills of sportsmen of all levels by overseeing a collection of indoor and outdoor ranges. Its facilities include 14 trap fields, each equipped with Pat-Trap throwers and four outfitted with a wobble option that can oscillate targets both vertically and horizontally. Beyond the trap fields, the outdoor ranges span six skeet fields, four five-stand sporting-clay fields, and a 75-foot duck tower offering five shooting blinds. Range masters also oversee a 14-lane, 50-foot indoor pistol gallery, as well as an archery range run by retired merry men.

To encourage responsible firearms operation, Metro’s weapon experts lead training courses, such as the Permit to Carry classes, and organize league shooting.

Zero Gravity thrills visitors with an arena whose walls and floor are composed of 11,000 square feet of trampolines for flipping and turning airborne somersaults. On the dodge-ball courts—one of which can be rented for private parties—jumpers pelt each other with balls as the trampolines add a vertical component to a classic game. Meanwhile, basketball hoops set at different heights let visitors possessing all types of hops showcase their dunks, and a tot spot separates youngsters from their more mature counterparts. Lockers safeguard valuables during jump visits, and guests can take breaks in the Gravity Lounge, which is outfitted with vending machines and WiFi connectivity.