it was a perfect place for my daughters second birthday! she was very nice and helpful and very…read moreunderstandin! the kids loved it and there was a perfect space for her younger sister who's 7 months old to roam!

This is a wonderful place for young children to play, explore, and learn. The owner and staff work…read morehard to keep the environment clean, organized, and welcoming, and their efforts are consistently noticeable. The space offers a variety of engaging activities that encourage children to practice sharing, interact with others, and experience new things in a safe and supportive setting. It's a well‑maintained, family‑friendly environment that promotes positive social experiences and developmental growth for little ones.

The hours are one thing on Facebook and different on their website. Very upsetting to plan on going…read moreand your kids are upset when you get there and they are closed. According to the Facebook hours they are never open after school which I would think would be a busier time. And now we can't even take in a thermos of water. I would rather not buy a bottle of water that she will take 3 sips out of.

Great place for water exercise and drumming. Two excellent instructors for these classes and more…read more Facility is clean and efficient. It is open to all ages.

This is a nice place to swim. It's clean and though it's not "high end" it has small town charm…read more The staff is friendly and other patrons are friendly too. I'm highly impressed.

This pool is amazing! We come pretty far, from near Peoria to get there because I have a son with…read moremental disabilities & the pool we went to closer to us didn't treat him very well. But anyway, I love this pool...my grandkids can't swim yet but they can go really far out & still touch bottom! I can literally sit down in the shallow end & play with them & relax. My son doesn't get in the water much, he just walks around talking to himself. No one's bothered him or anything. I also LOVE that they're open until 7 pm! I don't have to worry about getting them too early. We get there about 1:00 pm or so & have sooo much time! I'm sad that swimming season is almost over!

Second time in under a week that slides were closed due to lack of help. Pretty disappointing! Also…read morecharge for people have disabilities who need assistance - I don't think the person assisting should have to pay if the disabled person can't attend alone.

The Bowling and Billiards Center is conveniently located behind Bone Student Center of Illinois…read moreState University, making it accessible and central in Normal. Although it entertains the ISU community, it also opens to the general public. The price for both bowling and poll is really cheap. And it's usually not busy at all, even during weekend time. Highly recommend for a relaxing and fun night!

A fine place but a bit small. However I'm not sure why when I spend money to bowl And I ask to have…read morethe bumper up I get the response "no you're to old." That seems a bit rude, I was only trying to help out my girlfriend who is to shy to ask and who has never bowled before.

The hour open gym was a fun retreat for the grandchildren. Just realized they may have this…read moreperiodically. We will be back.

I grew up here playing popcorn on the trampoline. Highly recommend the youth classes for kids just…read moreto get them exposed to flexibility and endurance at a young age. Small, few staff, not much equipment, but still worth it. Not a venue to which you would take a hard-core gymnast, but good family fun.

Talk about a smaller zoo punching above its weight! We loved our time here, even if it was…read moreunplanned and last minute. We were anxious to head up to the beaches in Michigan, but some very intense Canadian wildfire smoke had the air quality so bad we decided to stay back as long as we could.. should we commit a full day to the Children's Museum? Nah. Go for a walk? Too hot and unfamiliar. What about this fun zoo? Score! It's extremely walkable here, shady in most parts, and very fair prices. Side note, they do zoo reciprocity and as Friends of the Zoo members in KC we got half price entrance. The animals are so close here! It's amazing. Right when we walked out it's like, 'that's the closest I've ever been to a flamingo!" and on it went like that. I enjoyed chatting with an honorary zoo keeper, who I assume was a high schooler. He told me it was his first day, and he was eager to teach me about wallabies and the like. Very cool program where kids get training and hands on experience with animals, customer service, etc. The highlight for me was hard to nail down to one, so we'll go in order: Anteater! What a cool, weird, unique animal. Not sure I'd ever seen one and loved it. And, the obvious choice.. a freaking snow leopard! I've read a book about the elusive snow leopard, aptly titled, "The Snow Leopard." It gave me such an appreciation for these insanely beautiful cats, and to see one here, in Normal IL on a random weekday in July blew my mind. I read more about it and a zoologist at this zoo was very successful with helping breed and support these cats, so it's a good story and not one who was just snatched out of a mountain in Nepal someday. Again, a nice pivot for us and I loved this zoo.

Good place to explore with children in Bloomington. It turns out to be a bigger place than it…read morelooks. Miller Park Zoo is the highlight of this big public park and one of the best things about the city as well. Bad thing is there's an admission price. This is worth it for looking around once, and you can also get a membership if planning to come more times. Even though it's kind of small, it feels there's a lot inside and you can be here awhile. It's got an interesting history. The beginnings of the zoo started when a circus lion cub was found on this site around 1900, and the city named him Big Jim. After he died in 1912, funds were raised to open the Koetthoefer Animal Building. The zoo began lots more expansion in 1960 with the building that became the Tropical Rainforest Exhibit, and pools were built for sea lions and otters. A lot of animals have come and gone. There's currently flamingos at the entrance, monkeys, the Koetthoefer Animal Building has gibbons, langurs, and snow leopards, giant anteaters, lots of birds including bald eagles, the ZooLab has frogs and insects, several tortoises and there's wolves. It's about $9 admission for adults. They have a program called Junior Zoo Keeper that students can start in 5th grade, and they volunteer to learn and train. Good experience. This is an opportunity for local students. Have to say it's a good zoo for the city. It's located in the middle of the park. This is particularly a good one for young children, but it's open for everyone, so it's also okay for adults or whoever.

Our family has been riding at Breezy Bluff for over 10 years. The owners and instructors emphasize…read morethe safety of horse and riders. Horses are well cared for and live long lives. Learning to groom and saddle your horse is an important part of the riding experience. Riders progress at a pace appropriate for each individual but are encouraged to expand their skills. The owners are accommodating regarding schedule needs when those needs are politely communicated well ahead of time.

Short version: Some very nice horses, a good instructor named Cherri, okay for beginners, but…read morethere are definitely better options with better facilities and more well-cared for horses. Long version: My first impression of Breezy Bluff was very negative. Horses all wear halters 24/7 in outdoor pastures standing in a few inches of their own muck and mud. That was in January. I saw a horse with an open abrasion from the halter rubbing it's nose and many with bald patches. The mule (sweetest thing in the world, by the way) had an open cyst just above the back of her front hoof. I brought these to the attention of the people there. One response was that it was good it was open to drain....well maybe, but not in the dirty conditions it was living in at the time. Apparently the surgery to remove it was too expensive or too inconvenient for them. I honestly should have just left and gone elsewhere at that point. My questions about not having any stalls or shelters for the horses was met with the explanation that Betty prefers her animals to live out their lives as the natural herd animals they were created to be. That sounds good, except that natural herd animals roam over many miles/acres of land...not in a fenced area where most of their time is spent standing in manure. Another client took her granddaughter out to another stable due in part to the place being a "dump" in her words. I wouldn't necessarily go that far, but it is obviously just too much for the owners to maintain very well. It did get cleaned up a little and looks much better now that nicer weather came. I did go to 12 lessons and two days of horse camp...my daughter and I did not once see any hooves picked. I was taught it was basic horse care to regularly clean hooves, yet apparently not here. The ironic part is that the Bible verse about a righteous man caring for his animals is her signature line. :-/ Enough of the care (or lack thereof) of horses...on to the lessons. On two occasions they "forgot" that I had already made payments for my services, then found them. The lessons always start late and spend more time letting the kids struggle to groom and tack the horses without any formal teaching on this aspect than they spend riding. One response to this was, if they want to ride more, they should tack faster....what??? They don't even know how yet.... In the lessons we took there were several times that communication was lost between the "instructors" and different people were covering for these miscommunications. The first 10 lessons were only my oldest. I decided to let two of my younger children try. The first of their lessons I showed up and the first three people I talked to didn't even know they were coming, then one young instructor said she had gotten an email that they were scheduled. The instructor had a back problem, so they were covering for her that day. The next week I showed up and was told their lesson would be an hour later...there was a horse camp that day, so I assumed it was to allow for that event. All my emails showed my lesson at the agreed upon time. The next week I showed up for our lesson and was told they had been moved an hour later...I was never informed of this time, and frankly it didn't work with our schedule, so I said I would not be back and expected a refund for the lessons I wasn't taking. It was the company's error, so I feel I should have been refunded the full amounts...however, I was informed that I could not be refunded since I didn't cancel 48 hours in advance, and that since they didn't complete another set of 10 lessons, the cost was higher. I did get a "refund" for about 1/5 of the amount it should have been had they been honest and shown integrity. I never cancelled a lesson, they changed without communication. I would say there were three good, well organized classes out of the 14 we took. There is more I could say, but this should suffice. All in all, this business is not a well-oiled machine and your money is better spent (and safer) elsewhere.