Teaching Little Ones How to Bowl at Merrimack Ten Pin

It was cold this morning.  Brrrr.  Definitely one of those days when you need an inside adventure… which of course made me think about fun indoor adventures we’ve gone on.  A few months ago, my mother-in-law took my daughter bowling and so L had been asking to go since then.  So, one Sunday morning, I googled “bowling alleys,” found one that was open, and off we went to Merrimack Ten Pin.  When we walked in, I realized that I really hadn’t paid attention to the website because it was ten pin bowling… you know, the kind with the big heavy balls and crazy scoring.  Now, I am a New England girl – meaning I grew up with candlepin bowling – so I just assumed that’s where we were going.  Ha.  Well, we were looking for an adventure!  I had been ten pin bowling once, maybe twice, before in my life, so I knew I wouldn’t be too much help to the littles; it ended up that that was not a problem at all!!

The facility is huge and has many, many lanes.  We were easily able to get a lane and luckily, we were right next to another family who had clearly bowled before (phew!).  After instructing my daughter how to roll the ball, I saw our neighbor’s child use this great ramp thing to give the ball momentum.  Huh.  Well that’s cool… we quickly found one and started using that!

Even the not quite 2 year old was able to use it (with a little help from big sister).

You just line up the ramp with the pins and the kids hit pins! That, along with the ability to put up bumpers made for a grand old time!

I may or may not have had no shame and just left up the bumpers for my turns.  After going twice and throwing two gutter balls, I thought, what the heck… I might as well just enjoy this rather than be frustrated! So, yes, that adult in lane 2 bowling with the bumpers up? Yup. That was me! And. I . Still. Lost.  To a five year old….

Did I mention that they have these super cool computer systems with big screens? It automatically tracks your score, so you don’t have to enter anything once you’ve put in your names and bumper preference. 🙂 It was definitely an amazing feature for us since I have absolutely no idea how to score ten pin.  It was not so amazing that the whole world got to see that I got my butt kicked by a 5 year old.. ha.

After bowling, we went over to the small arcade section and played a few games.  L won a couple of tickets so we were able to leave with a few trinkets to remind us of our adventure! If you’re up for some kid-friendly bowling fun, I definitely recommend Merrimack Ten Pin.  I hope that you enjoy this adventure as much as my family did!