With the Tour de France starting this weekend, I wrote my annual Top Ten Reasons Geeks Should Love the Tour de France for GeekDad. Go over there and check it out.

In addition to getting back to writing for GeekDad, I’m also trying to continue my quest to visit the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts. How about combining the two?

The Children’s Museum of Easton has been on my list of places to visit for several years and I finally got around to making the trip on a rainy June day. You can read more at GeekDad Visits the Children’s Museum in Easton.

The Museum of Science was kind enough to invite me to Media Family Day and a preview of the Dinosaurs exhibit. Since The Girl has been walking around with a stuffed T. Rex for a few weeks, I assumed she would be thrilled to see more about dinosaurs. Of course, The Boy like dinosaurs.

The trip seemed like a good story for GeekDad so you can read more on Wired: Dinosaurs Walking at Boston’s Museum of Science.

Several GeekDad writers will host a panel at PAX East. The panel, titled “Geek Parenting,” will include Dave Banks, Natania Barron, Matt Blum, Curtis Silver, John Booth, Doug Cornelius (that’s me), Michael Harrison, and Corrina Lawson. We described the session as:

How young is too young for The Hobbit? Why is LEGO Star Wars the best console game for your child? What’s the best way to deal with bullying? How old should your child be before you stop letting/helping them win games against you? As a parent, how do you deal with smart phones, texting and technology in your kids’ lives? These questions and many more will be discussed by writers for GeekDad.com, GeekMom.com, and geek parents in the audience. Come share your stories and advice for how to ensure our kids grow up to be geeks like us! Don’t have kids? Show up and find out what may be in store for you if you ever do!

What is PAX East?

“PAX East is a three-day game festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers. We call it a festival because in addition to dedicated tournaments and freeplay areas we’ve got nerdcore concerts, panel discussions, and an exhibitor hall filled with booths displaying the latest from top game publishers and developers.”

It’s happening March 11th to13th. Our Geek Parenting session is in the Merman Theatre, Saturday the 12th from 1:00pm – 2:30pm.

This year, Pax East will be in the luxurious Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on the South Boston Waterfront.

With all the snow on the ground, I was getting a little snow crazy. So it was back to the list of 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts.

I packed up the kids in the family truckster and we ended up in Worcester at the Higgins Armory Museum.

It had caught my eye, but I have to admit that I was skeptical. I figured it was just some crazy guy’s collection of swords and some beat up armor.

I was wrong. I came away impressed.

The kids had a great time. I had a great time. I figured it would make a decent story for GeekDad, so you can read more about it over there on Wired.com: GeekDad Visits the Higgins Armory Museum.

What really surprised me was that I didn’t know about this place. It had first come to my attention as a comment to my 2009 list of 100 Geeky Places to Take Your Kids this Summer. Higgins has been around for decades and I have been in Massachusetts for decades. So how did I not know about this place?!?!

Now I know and now you know.

My six-year old is already asking how much it will cost. The British Royal Navy has put the the HMS Invincible is up for sale. I wrote about this story on GeekDad: The Perfect Christmas Gift: Your Own Aircraft Carrier.

Here are some of my recent stories published to GeekDad:

• The New Hess Truck is Coming — And We’re Giving One Away!
• Violent Video Games and the Supreme Court
• The Halloween Hangover
• Move Along and Watch Great Migrations

This past weekend, the LEGO KidsFest opened its tour Boston. They offered me a media pass as a GeekDad contributor.

Since I was there for GeekDad, my story about the day was published on Wired: GeekDad Visits Lego KidsFest. You’ll have to head over there to read about it.

For my “friends” I also published some pictures on Facebook of The Boy posing with some of the LEGO creations: LEGO KidsFest Boston 2010.

Did you know there was a great science center for kids in Hartford?

The Connecticut Science Center opened in Downtown Hartford last summer. It’s been on my list to visit ever since. We had an opportunity to swing by on the way back from our visit to the King Tut exhibit.

It was such a great place to visit that I published the story on GeekDad: GeekDad Visits the Connecticut Science Center.

We brought the kids face-to-face with King Tut.

That was part of our road trip to the Discovery Center in Times Square to see the traveling exhibit of King Tut and ancient Egyptian artifacts.

Read more in my latest post in GeekDad: GeekDad Visits King Tut.