Please Touch Museum - Lunch and Wonderland

Lunch time can be hit or miss in a museum.  Sometimes the food is great and worth the price; other times the food is disgusting and over priced.  The food here was pretty good, I like having choices; more than just burgers and greasy cheese pizza.  While they do have pizza it's made in a wood burning oven, they also have yummy baked sandwiches.  It was not the cheapest food but not over priced like other museums.  We did have a hard time finding a place to sit but as it turns out there is more seating by the Carousel (should have read the signs).

After lunch Tavish wanted to ride the Carousel (an extra $3), Tavish loves merry-go-rounds so he had a great time.  It was not the most spectacular merry-go-round he's been on but it's in the top 5 (he's been on a lot).

 Round and Round and Round we go

  We switched gender rolls

I must admit by this time of the day (11:30) my husband and I were having pretty much all we could handle at this museum.  While it's great for kids, it was not designed acoustically for hundreds of screaming children, so the deafening sound was getting to us.  That being said, we are not the people to leave a museum half done (especially if we have no plans on going back) so we pressed on.  The next exhibit to investigate was the  Access/Ability.  This is one area of the museum which targets older kids (5+) and teaches them what life is like living with a special need and how people over come these challenges.  My husband and I found it very interesting but Tavish was not that into it.

Before we heading back down stairs to the Wonderland exhibit, Tavish found a piano which he had lots of fun playing and they also have a giant walk on piano (like from the movie Big).

 

Playing Mozart at 2 (okay not really)

Now I must fully admit we did not do the Wonderland area justice, as Kyle and I were both getting a head ache from the noise down there.  Tavish was also a bit scared of some of the features in this exhibit (he would not go into the hall of mirrors but can we really blame him).  He did have a great time playing with the cars that go down this ramp (not sure what it had to do with Wonderland) but he did have an issue sharing them.  I could tell by the increasing number of meltdowns that is was time for us to go.

Overall I think we had a pretty good time but not sure that we'll go back.  I personally like the Children's museum in Baltimore (Port Discovery) better for a number of reasons:

• better security - children can only leave the building with the adult them came with
• better acoustics - a combination of 3 floors and exhibits in closed rooms makes for much less noise
• play gym - the giant gym in the middle of the museum is just fun

I think in a July we'll be checking out a Children's Museum in Richmond, VA so we'll have to see how it compares. 

Quick Tip about the Please Touch Museum: at least during the weekend and in February there was lots of free parking near the museum if you arrived before 10 (not sure how much parking there is after that).