Fireworks over Lake Grapevine
Fireworks over Lake Grapevine

By Eileen Ogintz

Wow!

In one place you can time travel back on a historic train, fly down water slides or a light up slide, explore a mysterious cave or shop till you drop with irresistible bargains.

And that’s just the beginning of the fun waiting for families at Grapevine, TX SUMMERBLAST all summer long—from Memorial Day thru Labor Day with day-night activities (even Friday night Fireworks!) and plenty of hotel deals.   For the uninitiated, Grapevine, the wine capitol of Texas and  right in  between Fort Worth and Dallas and just five minutes from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

In summer, Grapevine goes all out to welcome families with indoor waterparks, interactive exhibits, outdoor experiences and more. The city is also home to two terrific family resorts—The Gaylord Texan and Great Wolf Lodge.

The Gaylord Texan Resort will celebrate its 14th annual SummerFest with plenty of family-friendly activities and Gaylord’s Paradise Springs, a waterpark reserved for local guests. The kids won’t want to leave the western themed 10-acr resort pool and lazy river complex. They’ll love the play space anchored in the water, the huge family lagoon with a 27-foot-tall waterslide an zip line!  Parents with toddlers will love the toddler pool and water play area

No worries about the weather at Great Wolf Lodge with its 80,000 square foot indoor water park—the only indoor water park in North Texas complete with slides, rides, lazy river,  and   Fort Mackenzie , a fort tree house with  a massive tipping water bucket, Slap Tail Pond wave pool, River Canyon run family raft ride , thrill slides and kid-activated splash features.  Whooping Hollow is designed for the littlest water lovers with mini slides. And Cub Paw Pool has zero-depth entry for toddlers. They’ll love the water cannons!   Check out Scooops, a spa for kids, the themed suites  (How about a Wolf Den with a cave-themed sleeping area for the kids?) and entertainment including the brand’s exclusive MagiQuest, live action adventure game where players  follow clues and use interactive magic wands to discover relics and defeat villainous dragons and goblins.

This summer marks the return of Grapevine’s Friday Night Fireworks over Lake Grapevine at 9:30 p.m from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend. Download the music at www.GrapevineTexasUSA.com

If you’re ready to time travel, hop aboard the Grapevine Vintage Railroad which follows the historic Cotton Belt Route between Grapevine and the Fort Worth Stockyards on Fridays-Sundays. The train is pulled by either a steam engine (the oldest continuously operating one in the South) or a vintage diesel locomotive while passengers experience train travel as it was in the 1920s when the west was rapidly expanding and you’ll have the chance to visit the Stockyards National Historic District.

SEA LIFE Grapevine Aquarium Ultimate Octonauts Experience enables visitors to explore a mysterious cave with Captain Barnacles where amazing creatures live. Help Peso cleanup the coral reef and join on a thrilling chase to rescue treasure and a runaway crab.

Grapevine's LEGOLAND Discovery Center
Grapevine’s LEGOLAND Discovery Center

LEGOLAND Discovery Center has just opened a new play area-LEGO Ninjago City Adventure with more than 20 interactives, including a light up slide, horizontal climbing wall and a color crush game. Adjacent to this area is LEGO Friends Heartlake City where kids and adults can add on their own creations to Heartlake City. Pirate Beach is the outdoor water playground.

The teens and tweens will shop till they drop—at the more than 80 locally-owned shops in Historic Downtown Grapevine (mom and dad will enjoy the winery tasting rooms)  and you’ll save big at Grapevine Mills, the  1.8 million square foot outlet mall. (Don’t forget to pick up your coupon book!)  But this is more than an outlet mall and the first place to divide and conquer with the AMC Grapevine Mills 30 Dine-In Theatres, the indoor LEGOLAND® Discovery Center, SEA LIFE Grapevine Aquarium, Round 1 Bowling and Entertainment and Rainforest Café.

The only hard part: Deciding what to do first!

This post sponsored by Visit Grapevine TX