One of my favorite things about Texas is that there are so many places to explore.  Since it is such a large state you can visit a small town 30 minutes away or a big city 4 hours away and everything in between.  When we are looking for new towns to visit the first thing we look for is if they have activities for our kids. As we all know every trip goes at least a little bit smoother if you work in some fun for the kids.  My husband was the planner of our most recent day trip and he picked the town of Schulenburg, TX.  Neither one of us had heard of this town before, but it was only 1.5 hours away (so totally doable in one day) and they have a model airplane museum there which we thought the kids would enjoy so that secured our pick!

Our first stop in Schulenburg was the Historical Museum on Main Street. This was a small two room museum, but it was full of interesting artifacts. Wanda was working there that day and was very friendly and gave us a lot of great information about the town and the surrounding area.  She even gave our eight year old a little tour of the museum and let him try out a few of the old machines. We felt like we got a nice overview of the city as well as some great suggestions for other places to visit on this trip or future trips!  It was a perfect start to our day and this museum is totally free! Since it was a very cold day, after our stop at the Historical Museum we went two doors down to grab a coffee (and hot chocolate for our kiddos) at Tillie’s Café. This was a nice café where you can get breakfast, lunch or even a glass of wine! The people inside were very friendly and it was a good place to sit and relax.

After our coffee stop we were off to the Stanzel Model Aircraft Museum.  When we arrived the woman who checked us in was very helpful (just like everyone else we had met so far in the town!) and she gave us a brief overview of the museum. She also gave each kid a little goodie bag to take home.  They normally have a small fee for admission, however due to Covid they were not charging when we visited.  This was very generous and makes it so anyone can go and check out the museum.  They did have an opportunity to donate to the museum so we were happy to do that because we really enjoyed our visit.   

There are three parts to the museum and the first section is the Main Museum which has interactive exhibits and static displays.  You can start your visit by watching a short video that goes over some of the history of how Joseph and Victor Stanzel started their work with model airplanes.  Then there are plenty of great displays to see and read about.  They even have some exhibits that are interactive for the kids.  Our eight year old enjoyed showing us how the propeller works and our two year old liked the buttons he was able to push.  After you are done with the Main Museum you can head over to The Ancestral Home which is the historic home of Victor and Joe Stanzel’s grandparents.  It has been restored and displayed as it would have looked in the late 1800’s.  This portion of the visit does not take too long to explore, but I always enjoy getting a visual of how people lived during that time and it is a good visual history lesson for the kids.  The last section we visited was The Factory Museum which walks you through the development and manufacturing of the model airplanes. I would say this museum caters more to older children and adults because there are not a lot of interactive elements.  However, our two year old did enjoy exploring for a bit and seeing some of the airplanes.  Overall it took us about an hour to explore the entire museum and we really learned a lot! 

Our last stop of the day was actually in a town close to Schulenburg called Flatonia and we were going to see the Central Texas Rail History Museum.  This was just one of the fun places that was recommended to us by the lovely lady at the Historical Museum in Schulenburg.  This train museum was definitely the highlight of the day for both of our kids.  Our two year old was mesmerized by the model trains going around the tracks and our eight year old was looking at every little detail.  These model trains are pretty incredible.  It is not just a train going around a track, but people have also created entire scenes that surround the train.  There were mountains, forests, and towns.  Each one designed to the last detail.  For example there was a small wooden saloon in one of the displays complete with lights, music and tons of miniature people to complete the scene.  The gentleman at the train museum was nice enough to turn each train on for us and show us all of the details.  They even had a mini train table for little ones to play with their own toy trains.  Even though this model train museum was small you can easily spend an hour just admiring all of the decorations and watching the trains.

The Central Texas Rail History Museum was our last stop of the day and we really enjoyed this day trip to Schulenburg, TX.  To top off the successful day there was even a Buc-ee’s right on the way home where we were able to stop and get some snacks to finish off our day!  If you like to see different parts of Texas I definitely recommend a trip to Schulenburg.  The people were incredibly friendly and there were interesting places to see.  Who knows where our next adventure will be!

A few important items to note if you would like to take a trip to Schulenburg, TX:

-I highly recommend checking the hours of operation for the museums prior to your visit.  Since this is a smaller town most of the places are not open every day or open for long hours.  You can find the hours for each of the places we visited by clicking on the links below:

Schulenburg Historical Museum: https://schulenburghistoricalmuseum.com/

Stanzel Model Aircraft Museum: http://www.stanzelmuseum.org/ 

Central Texas Rail History Museum: https://tinyurl.com/mrxz8zmb

-I definitely recommend packing games, snacks and drinks for the trip.  Since it is a bit of a drive it is always good to be prepared if a little one gets hungry or bored.  There are plenty of places to stop along the way to get a snack (including Buc-ee’s; we love the brisket sandwich!) but I always like to have extra snacks in the car just in case!

-Even though these museums are great and really interesting they may not be entertaining for all kids.  For example, our two year old would be entertained for the first 20 minutes or so and then my husband or I would take him for a walk outside while the other one of us stayed with our 8 year old and continued to enjoy the museum.  These museums are not totally interactive where you can touch everything which sometimes can be difficult for the little ones.