I am fortunate enough to live in Florida, where there's always something to do... but I am still constantly trying to take the boy out and expose him to the world... and for the past couple of weeks I have found a few ways to do it on the cheap! I don't know if you'll care but it's amazing what impresses a kid.

* We went to the fire station and asked permission to see the trucks. They actually popped on the lights and sirens, let him (and me) climb into the ladder truck, and they have red plastic giveaway fireman hats (like the wings they give out on planes). He wore the hat for DAYS afterward!
* We did the same thing at the police station. We got to sit in a police car, got to pet the bomb dog and the drug dog, got to sit down and have lunch with the SWAT team.
* A different city police force near us practices their motorcycle drills at the mall parking lot, 20 uniformed cops on bikes whizzing around the course, popping off lights and sirens for the kids, is very loud and very cool!
* We rode a city bus. Yeah yeah, so what, right? But he LOVED it.
* We rode on the tri rail. Our area's version of an El train. Mass transit. Again, boring for me, but he's sitting 2 seats behind the conductor yelling "faster, faster"... it was priceless.
* We went to the Humane society and walked around looking at the doggies.
* We have a large aquarium store near us that has shark and turtle feedings for their larger tanks.
* We have a pet store near us that let's you buy a mouse for a dollar and watch them feed it to a snake.
* We went to the airport and paid 2 dollars to get in the park and ride lot, then spent a couple hours watching planes take off and land.
* We went to a construction site at lunch time and the guys let him put on a hard hat and sit in a bulldozer.

None of this stuff costs more than gas to get there and a soda while you're hanging out but the kids eat it up...