Things to Do in Shiloh

At Pottery Hollow, kids and adults alike find inspiration to create ceramic works of art from a fanciful story about a potter in need of an apprentice to help him and his fairy friends adorn ceramic mugs, platters, and knickknacks with colorful paint. Guests enter the potter's enchanted hollow—complete with twisted tree trunks and brightly colored chairs—to work on the unpainted pieces stored deep beneath the forest. While guests create their masterpieces, staffers keep them supplied with paints and brushes and take finished pieces to be baked in the kiln.

In addition to walk-in sessions, Pottery Hollow's three locations host parties and events such as mommy-and-me sessions, bridal showers, and corporate events. And on Friday nights until 9 p.m., ladies can create beautiful works of art while sipping on their favorite BYOB drinks. Staffers also craft custom pieces in less than a week, which can be given as gifts, kept as future heirlooms, or offered as sacrifices to the home-decor gods.

Fun Services has been supplying festivities with crowd-pleasers such as inflatables, slides, and carnival games since 1973, maintaining an impeccable safety record throughout its decades-long run. More than 100,000 people have now delighted in the company's services, which range from ride, tent, table, and chair rentals to aerial advertising, a strategy that guarantees events are well-attended by both locals and hot-air balloonists flying around the world. The Fun Services warehouse welcomes pickups, and staffers can also deliver truckloads of meticulously sanitized party equipment to patrons’ doorsteps.

After a decade getting her hands dirty with clay, artist Donna Schreiter swung open the doors of The Painted Pot in 2001, determined to bring the art of ceramic creation to all ages and skill levels. Inside the open studio, adults, kids, and families dabble raw bisques with glaze-soaked sponges, assemble mosaic works, and shape wet clay on spinning wheels. Kids' classes guide little hands to shape and paint their own pieces, and grown-ups-only evenings throw in margaritas for sipping and instructions for weaving baskets out of old utilities bills.

The astronauts deftly dodge the oncoming trickle of rocks and debris from the meteor shower, and as the rubble clears they see the Moon up ahead. It is at this site that they’ll soon establish the first permanent human base. Though it sounds like science fiction, novice astronauts attempt this feat daily at Challenger Learning Center-St. Louis. Part of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education—a nonprofit founded by the families of the astronauts who died in the 1986 Challenger space-shuttle mission—the center educates visitors in science and teamwork with its space simulators. Whether navigating a spacecraft or abetting astronauts at a Mission Control modeled after NASA’s Johnson Space Center, student, community, and corporate groups must maintain a cooperative spirit while rocketing to Mars, assembling a probe, or stealing one of Saturn’s rings.

Grafton Zipline Adventures' highly trained guides help adventurers safely soar through Grafton's picturesque forests on nine ziplines spanning 1.75 miles. Each run spans between 300 and 2,000 feet and takes an adventurous moniker such as Road Runner, Soaring Eagle, or Teenager Sleeping In. As guests glide past stately trees and lush greenery towards a gentle landing, their guides keep them hydrated with a stash of water. They also escort small children who wish to take the two-hour tour. Mere feet away from Grafton's landing pad, Aerie's Winery invites guests to enjoy overnight lodging and sate appetites worked up by the throes of gravity.

Every design choice of Top Gun Shooting Sports' 18-lane indoor range was made with marksmen's comfort in mind, starting with the roomy booths. At 40 inches wide, each booth can accommodate both a shooter and an instructor, and at 84-inch-tall, the partitions prevent shells from ejecting into a neighbor's lane. While sportsmen enjoy these spacious surrounds and the convenience of automatic target retrieval, a HEPA-filtered ventilation system controls climate while removing up to 99.97% of particle discharge.

Complementing the range, a training center equips instructors to teach classes such as the NRA Basic Pistol Shooting Course and personal home protection through a blend of classroom and live-fire training. In addition to overseeing this training, Top Gun's staff coordinates several levels of membership, such as the Silver membership that grants marksmen privileges such as waived lane fees for a year. The arms experts at the pro shop advise visitors on defense options, and gunsmith Eric Olson repairs, restores, and customizes firearms.