If your plan is to make a day of it in Stillwater with kids, make sure to include a stop at Teddy Bear Park. I did just that not long ago, expecting the park to appeal mainly to my preschooler. And yes, she very much liked the train car play equipment and the climbing structure made to resemble the Stillwater Lift Bridge. She also got as cuddly as one can get with a giant granite teddy bear.

The pleasant surprise was how much my 5 and 7-year-old daughters enjoyed the engineered wall of cliffs that forms the southern boundary of the park. They loved the scooped-out little seats, tiny stairs built into the rocks, and, of course, flinging themselves off the cliffs into the sand more times than I could count. My two ground rules: no jumping off anything higher than Mom’s head, and no sprained ankles before the Minnesota State Fair!

Find this sweet little park at 216 4th St N, Stillwater, Minnesota.

Hours: 8am – 8pm daily, mid-April through mid-October