Help me turn a boring Saturday into something fun

[TheChosenTwo]

Just DS (11) and I tomorrow, dd is at work and dh is doing some stuff in the house. Don’t get me wrong, I quite like a boring Saturday but I don’t like wasting my weekends! I know I could lure ds out somewhere for a nice lunch but the few things I thought I might book for us to do (local clip and climb wall and laser run) are booked up, we need to avoid swimming for a while (recurrent ear infections), nothing on at the cinema that he fancies and he’s been to quite a few trampolining parties recently.
Inspire me, have any of you got exciting plans tomorrow?

Do some cooking/baking at home - my teenage son enjoys making pizza so often do that with him, and might make a banana loaf.
Karting? Escape room? Trip to a museum or art gallery? Could any of his friends join you for an activity?

Could you download one of those scavenger hunts for your town? I keep seeing one pop up for ours on Facebook and I quite fancy it. You get a map and have to go and find all the codes

Yeah he does like baking and is making dinner with his dad tomorrow night. We could make a cake or something.
Our local karting closed during Covid and never reopened sadly. Mind you we went before and it cost over £200 for our family to have something like 10 minutes on the track, it was bonkers!
Can you do escape rooms with 2 people? Never really considered it! Dd2 has done them before and really enjoyed them.
I have to be honest, art gallery or museum is not that appealing to either of us but I appreciate your suggestions! We aren’t near any that he would be keen to try anyway, we’ve been to some cool interactive hands on ones before that he’s tolerated.
Not seen a scavenger hunt for our local area, could have a look.
Thanks for the suggestions 😊

We're going to the beach.
Do you have a local arcade with 2p slot machines?
Geocaching? We've not done it yet, but it sounds fun.

Bowling? Lunch before or after and play on the arcades?

Any castles/ruins/historical places to visit
zoo/farm
arcade
bowling
pottery painting
something sporty - badminton/squash etc
any local ish theme parks

Crazy golf? My teenage sons and I went through a stage of trying to do as many crazy golf courses as we could.

Oh yeah we love crazy golf! Great idea - I’ll ask him after he’s out of the shower.
Only arcades are at the bowling alley, I think if the weather allows I’d probably prefer to be outside but he does enjoy the arcades. 2p machines are my fave.
We have promised to save pottery painting until his big sister comes back from uni in a couple of weeks, she is going to take him one day when I’m at work!

And I love the beach and could happily spend all day literally sitting there listening to the waves crashing, in good weather and bad. We probably go once a month, it’s about an hour away to our nearest beach, we have a walk along the front, arcade, lunch, crazy golf, rides etc and ice cream if the weather allows it.
But not enough time with me just sitting watching the sea for my liking 😂

Geocaching is really fun if the weather isn’t too bad. If you download the app you can see if there are any circular cache walks in your area. My two love doing it and it gets them away from screens for a few hours.

I tried this a few years ago when I just had the 2 dds, we never really got into it despite giving it a few goes. Not sure if there just wasn’t much about in our local(ish) area, we never found any of the hidden items either! It’s a great idea in principle and I think it’s something ds could potentially be interested in fleetingly.

Eventbrite is my go-to website, and events-in. You can pick events in your community, or online. In a rural area, it is a real lifeline for my 11 year old.

Do you have a cat cafe nearby? They’re a bit different

My eldest is 12 and loves things like junkyard golf, the 80s style arcades where you just pay an entry fee, the cinema, nandos, bowling, escape room (but usually take a friend or 2 of hers to make it more fun). She also is into a trip to a dessert shop, laser quest, or a nerf place, or an indoor waterpark she also loves.

We are probably doing a potter around charity shops and a treasure trail spy hunt in our local town. We started it ages ago but the children weren't old enough to be properly interested but I think we are now there. You have to follow the directions and find clues/answer questions relating to what you can see in order to reveal a code.

My son is still quite into table tennis at 19 - have you got any of those outdoor table tennis tables around? Though not if it's still windy!

VR centre
Bowling
Invite a friend over
Lord of the rings mammoth session on TV with cinema food all day
Nerf gun challenge
Lego masters building session