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Take a spin around the lazy river at Mandalay Bay.
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Revel in the dirty hands! Outdoor activities help kids sleep better and jumpstarts their imaginations.
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These funny jokes for kids will have them laughing in no time!
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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: Great Ways to Get Wet in NYC & Beyond, Cool Day Trips

7/9/15 - By Raven Snook

Water, water everywhere! Fun ways for families to get wet was the theme across all of our sites this week. From play fountains in NYC to the top public pools in the Hamptons, exceptional splash pads in New Jersey to Splish Splash Water Park on Long Island, plus a new video game-style waterslide at Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos, we've got the scoop on the best places to cool down this summer in the tri-state area.

If you're looking for day trip inspiration, be sure to peruse our regional sites. Just this week, NJ rounded up pick-your-own fruit farms, Connecticut spotlighted outdoor museums, Westchester profiled Hil-Mar Lodge and, of course, there's always the Hamptons and the Jersey Shore.

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

OUR LATEST VIDEOS

We added two new posts to our Water Fun Guide: a roundup of immersive play fountains for kids and the scoop on how to snag FREE boat rides at the upcoming City of Water Day.

Looking for a truly immersive water experience? Hit Long Island's attraction-filled Splish Splash Water Park, which is less than 90 minutes from Manhattan by car.

In honor of the Supreme Court's recent ruling in favor of marriage equality, we rounded up 10 children's books that help explain inclusive ways to define family.

For the first time in years, the Woolworth Building is offering public tours filled with fascinating tidbits for history and architecture-loving families.

Introduce the kids to the Bard at these five FREE, alfresco, family-friendly Shakespeare shows, no tickets required!

Brooklyn has more drop-in indoor play spaces than any other borough, and now there's one more: Recess d.u.m.b.o., which was just opened by two local moms.

Our news post has a fresh, streamlined style, plus info on the newly opened section of the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, a new public school holiday and more.

Best bets for the weekend include lots of FREE fun like a Bastille Day celebration on the Upper East Side, the entertainment-packed SummerStage Bronx Family Day and a kids' dance lesson at Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing.