9 family-friendly Weekend Plans for Jan. 13-14, 2018

No plans this weekend? Here’s what’s happening on the weekend family fun front. As always, check WRAL.com’s Out & About calendar for more activities.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday. We listed five ways for families to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. in an earlier post, including some events this weekend and opportunities to prepare for special events on Monday, including holding your own book drive.

In downtown Raleigh, Marbles Kids Museum hosts a Family Science Olympiad from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday. Build rockets and pasta bridges, investigate the eclipse, explore matter and learn about earthquakes and volcanoes. There will be a variety of hands-on activities. It’s free with museum admission, which is $7 per person.

Kids can try curling for free during the Triangle Curling Club’s youth open house from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, at the club’s home in Durham. You’ll get to meet instructors and learn a bit about the sport (which we will be hearing a lot about during the Olympics next month). Kids also can play. (Kids ages 5 to 8 should come with a helmet. A bike helmet is fine).

Starting this month, the City of Raleigh Museum is offering weekly Fayetteville Street Walking Tours at 2 p.m., Saturday. The one-hour, one-mile walking tours will begin and end at the museum every Saturday in 2018 and highlight the people, places, architecture and political movements that make up Raleigh’s more than 200-year history. Tickets, which are available on the day of the tour, are $10 for adults; $4 for kids ages 7 to 17 and free for kids 6 and under. Space is limited.

The N.C. Museum of Art’s weekly family-friendly tours are 10:30 a.m., Saturday and Sunday, at the west Raleigh museum. These are free and offered on a first come, first served basis. Best for ages 5 to 11 and their adults.

Get a Canes Fam Pack to see the 3 p.m., Sunday, Carolina Hurricanes game vs. Calgary. For $60, get a set of two tickets, two hot dogs, two popcorns, two sodas and $10 off entrees at Gonza Tacos y Tequilla. If you go, know that you will need to purchase your tickets in advance. You can do that online.

Transactors Improv offers a family show, great for grade schoolers and middle schoolers, at 6 p.m., Saturday, at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro. Tickets are between $6 and $10. Performers will take suggestions from the audience as they come up with hilarious skits on the fly.

The North Carolina Reptile & Exotic Animal Show is Saturday and Sunday at the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. Two-day tickets are $5 for kids ages 5 to 12 and $12 for ages 13 and up.

And, finally, this is the final weekend for the Chinese Lantern Festival at Cary’s Booth Amphitheatre. The show, which opened in November and features handcrafted lanterns and Chinese cultural performances, closes for the season on Sunday.