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Things like having a children's museum with a view like this make it easy to leave your heart in San Francisco. Photo courtesy of the Bay Area Discovery Museum
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The Outdoor Play Plaza at Greensboro Children's Museum in North Carolina.
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Suncatcher_Liz Baill @creativishmom
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This Week: 10 Brand-New NYC Spots, Perfect Weekend Trips, Best of Rockaway

7/16/15 - By Raven Snook

What's new in NYC? A lot, actually. This week we focused on a slew of fresh family attractions, including a new interactive exhibit, a FREE new children's musical and 10 new NYC destinations with options to please a variety of ages and interests. (That's my kid in the pic, enjoying the new Whitney Museum.)

Not that we're knocking the old—sometimes the best summer adventures are experiences that are just new to you. If you're looking for family day trip ideas, our New Jersey site has an awesome roundup of old-school activities you can't do in the city, like drive-ins, historic villages and swimming holes. Or maybe you want to check out a quaint and walkable NJ town, or connect with nature in Hudson Valley or romp around an outdoor museum on Long Island? Our tri-state area sites are overflowing with getaway inspiration.

For those looking to go further afield, our Travel site has a lovely slide show of the Skyline Drive in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, which is close enough to NYC to be doable on a weekend.

Here's what else we covered on the NYC site this week:

OUR LATEST VIDEOS

Attention Hunger Games fans of all ages (yes, mom and dad, you too): Don't miss Discovery Times Square's brand-new immersive exhibition based on the blockbuster movies and books.

Kids too young for dystopian epics? Theatreworks USA's new Skippyjon Jones musical, inspired by the popular picture book series of the same name, is probably more their speed. It's just an hour and FREE to boot!

Summer is the season for outdoor adventures, and you don't need to leave the city to go on one. We rounded up 25 alfresco activities for families in NYC, from laid-back to heart-pumping.

How many of these 10 new-in-NYC destinations have you been to? (So far, my family's only hit three—we've got to get moving!)

Rockaway, Queens is our neighborhood of the month, and we kicked off our coverage with a list of 25 things to do in this beachfront neighborhood, which is a superb NYC staycation spot.

Our weekly links roundup included info on new playground renovations, an opening date for the long-awaited SeaGlass Carousel and (hallelujah!) Pearson getting dumped as New York State's standardized test maker.

Best bets for the weekend include the citywide City of Water Day, Come Out & Play Family Day on Governors Island and SummerStage Queens Family Day in Long Island City.