The Experience: Some area kid spots are good for summer, some for winter, and some year ‘round. The Little Gym in Lake Oswego is one of the latter.

The Little Gym is perhaps best known for its broad curriculum of gymnastics, sports, dance and karate classes for ages 4 months to 12 years. More…

The Experience: Where can you find rock stars, Chinese acrobats, dog tricks, fruit pies and baby pigs all in one place? The State Fair, of course! Starting Friday, this annual event will More…

The Experience: If ever there were a place to burn off kid energy, Sky High Sports in Tigard is it. Imagine a giant space with nearly wall-to-wall trampolines, where kids can literally bounce off the walls – because they’re trampolines, too.

This isn’t the super scary, More…

The Experience:
There’s a month of Sundays (and Saturdays) left of summer vacation – seize the great weather and the weekend with a whitewater rafting trip on the Deschutes River from the tiny town of Maupin.

Maupin is about two hours from Portland, 90 minutes from Bend and an hour from Hood River. Most of the year, it’s a sleepy little town with about 500 residents. But in summer, it explodes with More…

The experience: Calling all families – it’s time to grab your bikes and tour your city’s neighborhoods with Sunday Parkways. For three more weekends this summer, the City of Portland will close routes around the city to cars and other motorized traffic, reserving streets exclusively for bikers, walkers, runners, skaters and anyone else who wants to move (including those on mobility devices).

Based on a program that began in More…

The Experience: When our grandparents and parents were little, they may have spent summer days catching frogs, digging in the dirt and playing outside using little more than their imaginations and whatever they found on the ground. They didn’t need skateboards, TV, or sidewalk chalk. They got sunshine and fresh air, they reinforced their More…

The Experience: The best thing about Sunriver, other than 300 sunny days a year on average, is that there’s so much to do for all tastes and styles. It’s one-stop outdoorsy vacationing. Low-key sorts could while away days just relaxing in a hot tub, exploring the Village and playing games in the evening. But if you’re looking for family-friendly action, you have loads of choices:

* Frolic in one of three swimming pools, one with a 50-foot slide. (A new outdoor aquatic center and amphitheatre will open in 2012.)
* Rent a canoe, kayak raft or stand-up paddle-board at the marina and spend the day playing on some of the Deschutes’ mellower waters.
* Sign up for mini tennis clinics ($12-$15 per kid; $35 adults) and then have a family tournament on one of the many public courts ($20/hour).
* If tennis is too highbrow, rent pickleball equipment at Fort Rock Park or reserve the park’s sand volleyball, basketball, softball horseshoe, bocce ball or picnic facilities. The park also has a large playground.
* Walk, run or bike 35 miles of paths that weave throughout Sunriver. (Most rental homes include bikes; Bike Barn rents them.)
* Hoof it over to Sunriver Stables for trail rides (7 and up) or pony rides.
* Sign your kids up for weekly summer camps (ages 3-12) that include tennis or swimming instruction, playtime at the South swimming pool, weekly field trips and other enrichment.

Inside information: Lodging ranges from rooms and suites at Sunriver Resort Lodge to condos or homes you can rent from the resort or directly from owners. Check Sunriver-resort.com, VRBO.com or any number of other sites available if you Google “inexpensive Sunriver lodging.” You can also camp nearby; a private campground called Thousand Trails rents campsites, yurts and cabins only 4 miles from Sunriver. One note: if you’re planning on swimming, check that your lodging includes free passes to the pools (which aren’t cheap).

The 411

Seasons: Sunriver is open year-round. In winter, you can ski at nearby Mt. Bachelor, snowshoe, go ice-skating or even enjoy sleigh rides. Check Sunriver’s online calendar of events. Cost: Rates for a stay in Sunriver range from the low hundreds to several hundreds for either a lodge room or a rental home. Check for lodging specials. Camping or sharing a larger home with friends is often the most economical way to stay. Location: About 15 miles south of Bend on Highway 97.
Contact information: 800-801-8765, sunriver-resort.com.

— Sarah Pagliasotti

The Experience: Even though we’ve been begging for sun for months, how quickly we Portlanders overheat when it comes! My grandmother, an Alabama transplant, will still be wearing a cardigan deep into July, but once the mercury creeps above 80 degrees we Northwesterners melt quickly. When it gets too hot, cool off at one of Portland Parks and Recreation’s lively outdoor swimming pools: More…

The Experience: If you’ve ever wondered what Harry and Sally were singing about during that impromptu karaoke version of “The Surrey With the Fringe on Top,” you’re in for a treat. Next sunny day, take your family down to Kerr Bikes near Salmon Street Springs Fountain in Waterfront Park, and rent yourself your very own surrey. Kerr offers two-person or four-person, pedal-powered surreys, plus scooters, recumbent-bike-like vehicles, and regular adult and kid bikes. If you’re on the waterfront with your own wheels, Kerr has a new U-Fix-It Bike Station where you can pump your tires and give your bike a quick tune-up for free.

But go for the surrey! It’s a hoot and surprisingly easy to pedal. Plop little ones in the front basket – they love it! – and make bigger kids carry their own weight by helping propel. Head north to More…

The Experience: Glimpses of sun and the rapidly waning school year are getting locals riled up for summer. What better way to officially ring in the season than to pick a flat of ripe, sun-kissed berries and make jam? Or you might eat most of them on the way home and enjoy the last morsels in a pie or with a dollop of whipped cream. Yum. Kids love traipsing through the fields to find ripe berries, and somehow what you could buy at the store or farmer’s market is even sweeter when you’ve spent a summer day harvesting them yourself. More…

The Experience: The Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel has teamed up with Lloyd Center to create Legacy Funland, a small indoor play area on the ground floor of the mall. The unsupervised play area, which is designed for toddlers and preschool age children, features several climbing structures in health-related shapes, like the Band-Aid arch and the celery slide, a soft carpet for tumbling (Funland is a shoe-free zone), and comfy benches for the adults. More…

The Experience: Imagine – a place where you can sit and enjoy a bite to eat with friends, not distracted by the dust bunnies/crumbs/cobwebs gathering in your house, as your child blissfully plays just a few feet away.

This piece of heaven is available to parents – and grandparents, nannies and other caretakers – seven days a week at Vancouver’s popular Cafe Sip-n-Play. More…

The Experience: Does the rain have you down? Feeling like you can’t bake another cookie or create another cutesy craft, and if you subject your kids to one more Disney video, their brains will turn to mush?

Thank goodness for PlayDate PDX. More…

The Experience: Looking for ways to get your kids outside and active during the rainy days of winter? Mt. Hood Skibowl is the place to go, with enough options to please everyone in the family. The closest ski area to Portland, Skibowl also features two hills dedicated to snow tubing and a kids’ snowmobile track. More…

The Experience: The North Clackamas Aquatic Center has taken to calling themselves “the other Oregon Coast” and we can see why! With a wave pool, two long slides, a diving board, spray area and kiddie pool, not to mention a lap swim area and whirlpool for adults, you might just want to stay for the weekend. More…

First operated in 1914, the Canby Ferry takes you on a short trip across the Willamette between Canby and Wilsonville .
Canby; 503-650-3030; www.clackamas.us/transportation/transit/ferry.htm.

This authentic replica of a turn-of-the-century sternwheeler plies the Columbia and Willamette. Operated by the Portland Spirit.
503-224-3900; .

fun-center.com. Attractions include go-carts, miniature golf, batting cages and video arcade.
29111 SW Town Center Loop W, Wilsonville; 503-685-5000;

Video and pinball arcade.
511 NW Couch St.; 503-796-9364; www.groundkontrol.com.

Laser tag, video arcade and restaurant.
6540 SW Fallbrook Place, Beaverton; 503-526-9501; www.laserportofbeaverton.com.

9405 SW Cascade Ave., Beaverton; 503-641-8122; www.maliburaceway.com.

Thrill rides, kiddie rides and indoor roller skating. Activities include preschool mornings for children 6 and under during summer months.
7805 SE Oaks Park Way; 503-233-5777; www.oakspark.com.

Cruises on the Willamette and Columbia rivers.
Portland; 503-224-3900; www.portlandspirit.com.

Hosts bike rides tailored for families and novice riders. Kids must be accompanied by an adult. Ride schedule available at many area bike shops.
503-257-PWTC (ride schedule hotline); 503-666-5796 (information hotline); www.pwtc.com.

Pop-in play times on giant inflatable play structures for ages 2 to 6 and 7 to 10.
9665 SW Allen Blvd., Suite 110, Beaverton and Pump It Up Jr., 16205 NW Bethany Ct., Suite 120, Beaverton; 503-644-6488; 25749 SW Canyon Creek Rd., Ste. 700, Wilsonville; 503-582-1331; www.pumpitupparty.com.

Laser tag and video arcade.
16074 SE McLoughlin Blvd., Milwaukie; 503-652-1122; www.ultrazoneportland.com.

One- and two-hour boat tours on the Willamette. Dress to get wet!
1945 SE Water Ave.; 503-231-1532, 888-JETBOAT (538-2628); www.willamettejet.com.

Operated by the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society, offers a journey along the Willamette River in an antique trolley car. Special trains run on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and Christmas Ships Parade runs feature views of the traditional holiday spectacle.
311 State St., Lake Oswego; 503-697-7436; oerhs.org/wst/index.htm.

Avalon Theater and Arcade, 3451 SE Belmont St, 503- 238-1617; Gateway Arcade, 10306 NE Halsey St, 503-255-7333; Beaverton Arcade, 4070 Ceder Hills Blvd, Beaverton, 503-626-1665; Milwaukie Cinemas and Arcade, 11011 SE Main St., Milwaukie, 503-653-2222; www.wunderlandgames.com.

Indoor archery range.
11945 SW Pacific Highway, Ste. 121;503-639-3553; www.archersafield.com.