Things to Do in Oshkosh
Recommended Things to Do by Groupon Customers
The laughter of children echoes through the dense pine forest and across the sandy beach before breaking on the lake's water like a crystal vase smashed with an inflatable hammer. Each week, new groups of kids explore Camp Lakotah's 126 acres alongside Little Hills Lake, engaging in more than 30 activities within its state-licensed and American Camp Association–accredited facilities. Campers engage in aquatic play, land-based sports, and arts-and-crafts sessions, honing both their physical fitness and creative sensibilities.
Staffers cater to each camper's needs throughout the week, guiding each individual toward activities focused on his or her personal goals and interests. The camp can serve vegetarian and diet-restriction-conscious food, and counselors can sing all campfire songs in the styles of both Bruce Springsteen and Andrea Bocelli.
Communities tend to like places that have good roots. That's one reason why Green Bay Press-Gazette readers voted the locally owned and operated Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley the 2012 Best of the Bay's Best Bowling Alley. For more than three decades, guests have flocked to the facility's 60 lanes to test their ball-rolling and pin-eating skills alongside friends and family. Each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, DJ Rusty Lee's tracks work with black lights and fog machines to create a nightclub-like cosmic bowling experience.
The instructors at Bricks 4 Kidz translate a curriculum molded around science, technology, engineering, and math into kid-friendly language using Legos. They encourage creativity at hands-on classes and parties, where they oversee youngsters in designing and erecting machines, catapults, buildings, and other colorful formations with architecture and physics in mind. By giving their labs whimsical themes, including outer space and roller coasters, they put the kids in an environment where they can work together to master tricky concepts such as friction and scale. Central theories and activities are tailored to groups based on age, ability, and which side of the “Does gravity exist?” debate they support.
Lizz Wright is a gospel-trained contralto, born in Georgia and now based in New York. As Stephen Holden of the New York Times articulates, "Her voice, luminous and smoky and perfectly pitched, is one of the most wondrous rhythm-and-blues instruments of our time." Lizz wrote the majority of her latest album, Orchard and, like her other releases, it's as smooth and mysterious as butter melting over butter. Equally as impressive are her interpretations of classics including Patsy Cline's "Strange," Ike and Tina Turner's "I Idolize You," and Led Zeppelin's Korean Conflict protest ballad, "Thank You." Mitchell Park, which allows Lizz Wright's sultry vocalizations to float to lawn-lounging ears unimpeded, also features sustenance options from Haute Taco, North Star American Bistro, Loaf & Jug, and Bella Caffe.
Resting beneath natural light from the skylights mounted above it, the hulking figure of the 1.2 million-pound Union Pacific Big Boy cloaks visitors in a shadow that stretches for nearly 50 yards. As guests ascend the monstrous cab of this steam locomotive, they enter the centerpiece of the National Railroad Museum, a chamber echoing with more than 150 years of American railroading history.
After exiting Big Boy, guests can view a computer-generated porter that recounts how African-American rail workers formed the nation's first all-black labor union, and another stop invites passengers to view inside a portion of General Eisenhower's WWII command train. Elsewhere in the museum, various collections are housed with more than 15,000 photographs, archives such as maps and engineering drawings, and more than 5,000 artifacts including uniforms and tools.
The National Railroad Museum has over 60 pieces of rolling stock, including diesel, steam, and electric locomotives, and passenger and freight cars. Among these are some of the most influential and unique pieces in railroading history, including a number of items that pertain to the state of Wisconsin.
Other must-sees of the museum include General Motors’ experimental Aerotrain; the streamlined Pennsylvania Railroad No. 4890, a GG-1 electric locomotive; and the Frederick Bauer Drumhead Collection, the largest, single collection of railroad drumheads known to exist in the United States. Most facilities are accessible, except where rolling stock cannot be altered due to their historic nature. The Museum’s train ride is accessible, and a wheelchair lift is available.
A train ride is offered on a daily basis from May through September and guided tours are available from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The Museum also hosts a variety of special events for all ages.
