Allegan Event
439 River StreetAlright….back to some Southwest Michigan blogs. Pretty sure I say that every time I travel. Travel blogs are fun for me and since it’s my blog, I blog about what I like.
I got home from New York pretty late Friday evening. I got to see everyone before bed time which is what I was shooting for so that’s good. I was exhausted though and J let me sleep in pretty late Saturday morning.
I had expected to spend Saturday with my family after being gone for four days…but of course, someone called in sick and no one else ever answers their phones. I got called in to work Saturday despite the fact I already had 50 hours for the week.
Sunday I was determined to do something fun with the kids. L has been asking to go to Allegan Event for a while. It’s been a few years since we’ve been there and B doesn’t even remember it. I told to J promise her we’d take them on Sunday while I was at work Saturday night.
Allegan Event is such a cool place. If you’ve ever seen the ropes courses (there’s one at Airway Lanes), it’s likely been built by the company that owns Allegan Event. They have four locations of their own with this one in Allegan on River Street near their manufacturing facitily.
The building is really just a big metal barn. There are a couple levels of parking and we were pretty surprised to see it almost full late on a Sunday afternoon. We realized there were a couple of birthday parties going on once we got inside which accounted for most of the people.
We bought our tickets online so we just had to check in when we got there. L was ready to go. We have been there three times in the past so she knew what to do. B was a little more hesitant. He had been there but never on the grown up play structure. He had always been in the smaller kid area and he doesn’t even remember it. It had to have been early in 2019 since the last time we had actually been there which would have made him 4. I had always climbed with the kids in the past to help them but I’m having issues with my knees and I’m pretty close to the weight limit…not over it…but close enough I didn’t want to make some poor high school kid ask me my weight and have that whole awkward conversation so we let the kids go by themselves.
J got the kids checked in and helped the employees put them in harnesses. We asked L to stay with B until he got the hang of it but she was so excited she just took off. B very quickly figured out that you have to guide the rope through the intersections to get it to the direction you want to go. After that, no fear.
The Sky Trail structure is huge. There’s a lot to do. There are a couple of zip lines and a number of different obstacles. B is a climber and loves to be challenged. He would tell anyone that listened that the rolling log was really hard but we looked up more than once to see him going back to and making his way across. There are a lot of rope bridges and moving platforms. It’s not a walk in the park. There are a lot of hard obstacles but as long as you trust that the harness won’t let you fall, nothing is impossible to get through.
I mentioned earlier that B had never been in the main structure. He was just a few inches over the height requirement this time or else we wouldn’t have went. The Sky Tykes area is great for little kids but he’s not a little kid anymore. Parents can walk through this area with the little ones and help them through. There’s even a little zip line for them which B loved the last time we were there.
There’s also a Clip and Climb which is a separate attraction. You can bundle it together with the Sky Trail but we chose not to. Surprisingly, neither kid asked to try it. I thought for sure B would have thrown a fit about it. He loves showing off and I’m pretty confident he would have made it all the way to the top.
There have definitely been some big changes since the last time we were at Allegan Event in 2019. There’s a food (and drinks) area that wasn’t there in the past. We noticed that on the website and just decided we would eat there instead of stopping for fast food along the way.
There are QR codes to order from your phone but that wasn’t working so J just went up to order. She got herself and me a drink then put in orders for waffle fries and a pepperoni pizza. There’s a decent sized dining area with metal chairs and wobbly tables. J noticed a table open when she went to get the kids hooked up. She told me to grab it before anyone else saw it so I did.
J brought the drinks back to the table right away and our food order was called out a few minutes later.
I asked her to get me an Oberon but I meant to say Two Hearted. They don’t have Oberon and were out of Two Hearted so she got me the All Day IPA instead. Not the Two Hearted I’m used to but still a really tasty beer.
She got herself the Winterberry Cocktail which is one of the drink specials. This drink is Cinnamon syrup, cranberry juice, Sprite, apple juice and a cherry. You can get it just like that or you can add vodka. She added the vodka.
A few minutes after we sat down, J heard her name called for the Waffle Fries. I thought she was getting the loaded waffle fries but she did not. She just got the regular waffle fries for her and I to munch on while we waited for the pizza.
The pizza came out about 10 minutes later. This time, an employee just brought it out the table. They must have recognized her from picking up the fries. The pizza is a 14″ “hand rolled” (whatever that means) pizza topped with marinara, mozzarella, and pepperoni. I grabbed some red pepper flakes when I went back for napkins to add to my slices. It’s a pretty simple pizza but it’s also pretty tasty. The crust is very doughy and pretty soft. It’s easy to bite through but it’s pretty flimsy. I had just gotten home from New York and I caught myself folding the slice over to eat it. J asked me to go grab a knife and fork for her because she found it easier to just cut it up. It was a decent tasting pizza and we had no complaints. We saved a couple of slices for when the kids’ hour was up. They were super hungry when they got done and were happy to have a tasty pizza waiting for them.
Of course we couldn’t leave a place like this without playing some video games. This was also something that wasn’t here last time we went to Allegan Event.
There aren’t a lot of video games but there is still an opportunity to collect tickets for the cheap little trinket prizes. L and I played a couple rounds of pop a shot and skee ball while B was putting a lot of his effort into letting some other boys play games with his card while he collected the tickets….a strategy he has used at other arcades to rack up a lot of tickets on games he isn’t good at.
We let each kid have $15. Once done, we headed back to the counter where they got little prizes and candy for the ride home. Nothing spectacular but something they always enjoy.
The kids have asked to have their birthday parties at Allegan Event more than once and it’s too bad it’s so far away. Their birthday’s are both during snowy months and we wouldn’t ask other people to drive to Allegan if it’s snowing.
Allegan Event is such a unique place. It’s a great place for indoor activities on crappy days but it’s also a place you could go to any day just because it offers something you can’t get anywhere else. We’ve been a few times and the kids love it every time. Now that there is food (and drinks) it gives J and I something to do while the kids are off having a blast.
SW Michigan Dining 