101 Fun Things To Do: How to find fun for the whole family

21. Held July 15 at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau, the Southeast Missourian Jr.'s annual Park and Rec Day is a free day of fun just for kids. The event has fun games, activities and prizes.

22. Kentucky Dam Village is one of three state resort parks near Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, a 170,000-acre wooded peninsula bound by Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Special events held there include a spring craft festival and a car show in August.

23. Annual July 4th celebrations include everything from 5K runs to musical performances. The day culminates with fireworks after dark.

24. About two hours north of Cape Girardeau on Interstate 55, St. Louis is home to the Gateway Arch, St. Louis Science Center, Muny Opera and much, much more entertainment for all ages.

25. Taum Sauk Mountain State Park, southwest of Ironton, Mo., in Iron and Reynolds counties, provides 7,448 acres of solitude amid unspoiled land with a wilderness quality hard to find in today's world. Located in the St. Francois Mountains, Taum Sauk Mountain is the highest point in Missouri. Mina Saul Falls is the tallest wet weather waterfall in Missouri.

26. Silly Saturday is an event at Cape Girardeau's Discovery Playhouse. The event offers great hands-on, messy and free activities for children. This year's event will be Saturday, April 16, from 8 a.m. to noon.

27. Cape Girardeau Parks Department summer programs offer a variety of fun activities and classes to keep children of all ages happy, busy and learning throughout the summer.

28. Cape Girardeau Public Library, 711 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau. Construction on a new facility was completed in 2009, offering local book lovers a state-of-the-art place to gather. The library offers youth summer reading programs, preschool and toddler story times and hands-on programs. Check out a special teens' area with computers, game systems and cafe seating.

29. Bootheel youth Museum in Malden, Mo., features family-focused events and activities for children of all ages, including an antigravity mirror, crawl-in camera and other exhibits.

30. A replica 1870s Old West town, Black Forest Village in Cape Girardeau, offers two special craft shows, held annually, and ghost town tours in October.

31. Water parks in Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff and Farmington, Mo., offer summer fun for families, including water slides, lazy rivers and more.

32. Giant City Park at 235 Giant City Road, Makanda, Ill. Nestled in the Shawnee National Forest, just minutes south of Carbondale, the area was named for the impressions made by its massive sandstone structures. Eons of geological faulting and folding have molded a landscape like none other, which is now clothed in lush garments of fern, moss, large flowering mints, hundreds of species of wildflowers and 75-plus varieties of towering trees.

33. Elephant Rocks State Park in Graniteville, Mo. Giant granite rocks standing end-to-end like a train of circus elephants make up this unique natural wonder. About 1.5 billion years ago, hot magma cooled and formed coarsely crystalline red granite, which later weathered into huge, rounded boulders. Standing atop a granite outcrop, one of the largest elephant rocks, Dumbo, tops the scales at a whopping 680 tons.

34. GARDEN OF THE GODS recreation area. Explore the Shawnee National Forest on horseback or grab a backpack and hike the 160-mile river to river trail. Rock climbing and rappelling are permitted in several designated areas. Twelve campsites are outfitted with fire pits, picnic tables, toilets and drinking water.

35. Municipal band concerts at Capaha Park and "Rock in the Rock Garden" concerts at Jackson City Park are held on summer evenings in beautiful outdoor settings.

36. Mississippi River tales mural in downtown Cape Girardeau. The city's history is depicted in 24 artistic panels along the city side of the floodwall. Covering nearly 18,000 square feet, the 1,100-foot-long mural spans the length of the downtown shopping area.

37. CROWN RIDGE TIGER SANCTUARY, at 19620 State Route B near Ste. Genevieve, Mo., is a 55-acre estate with a restaurant, lodging and, of course, tigers! The sanctuary's mission is to provide a permanent home for exotic cats that have endured neglect, abuse or other undesirable conditions. Feeding tours are now available.

38. Since the inaugural mission, Rendezvous with a Comet in 2002, the Challenger Learning Center in Paducah Ky., has flown more than 1,200 missions and added summer camps, scouting workshops, e-Missions and professional development for area teachers.

39. Clearwater Dam in Piedmont, Mo., was built in 1942 for flood control purposes. Today, it's one of the largest tourist attractions in Southeast Missouri, drawing more than a million people a year for camping, boating, fishing and swimming.

40. Discovery Playhouse Children's Museum at 502 Broadway, Cape Girardeau. The fun, hands-on learning and play center opened in April 2010 and has exhibits for children of all ages.