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).

I don't know how they do it

Moms with big families that is.  Last week a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to join her on a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. And while we had a great time I found it but a bit stressful at times too; see we had five kids and one on the way (she is 7 months pregnant) between the 2 of us.  Add in a couple hundred kids on school trips and wow did we have our work cut out for us.  Keeping an eye on 4 kids going in opposite directions can be really tricky and I must say I did not see much of the Aquarium as I was too busy watching out for our little ones.  How do moms with big families do it and I don't mean big families like the Duggers (the older ones watch the younger ones), I mean the families that have more young kids than hands.  I think my stress level would be through the roof and that was with well behaved children.  I think I'll stick with the two I've got, I like to enjoy the attractions we go to and not worry about missing kids.  We were so busy I didn't even have time to take out my camera.

Maryland Science Center

My family has been to Baltimore a few times, we've been to the National Aquarium, Port Discovery, and the Historical Ships in the Inner Harbor but never to the Science Center.  To be honest I had no idea that there was a science center in Baltimore.  I must say that it is one of the best activities we have done in Baltimore, actually one of the best museums we've been to in awhile.

The best part of science museums is how they are able to capture the attention of both the young and old.  The Maryland Science Center has lots of great hands on activities that not only entertain but also educate.  The hands on activities are also not just geared toward kids so adults without kids don't have to feel stupid giving them a try.

One of the highlights of this particular trip was the egg drop.  Tavish (with a bit of our help) made a container in which a staff member dropped an egg off the 4th floor.  

Egg Drop Vessel

Down it goes

Thunk...We were quite surprised that the egg did not get smashed 

as Tavish cracked the egg before we dropped it.

Kyle and I really enjoyed the Newtons Alley which is a huge touch area.

 Touch a Cloud

My boys having fun 

 Pull that rope

Callen checking out the floating orb

Tavish took a bit of coaxing to get on the bed of nails but after mom and dad gave it a try he figured he should too.

There is a great kids area complete with a water table, play ship, construction games and more.

 Callen working out

 Tavish fishing off the ship

 Water table fun

Callen enjoying the Waterfall

While the rest of the museum was great, Tavish loved the Dinosaur exhibit.  This is by far the best dinosaur exhibit that I have ever been to.  Lots of hands on activities including digging for dinosaur bones and measuring dinosaur feet.

 Digging for a bone

 Dino's are eating the buildings

 Hiding in the bones

 More digging

 Better get those bones in order

Dino's have big feet

Callen's turn to hide in the prints

As you can see we had a great time and lunch was good too.  The food in the museum was standard fair with a flare.  While it was pretty much pizza and burgers, they did have 5 or 6 kinds of burgers and they were pretty good.  

We visited this muesum on a weekend in February which helped with crowd control, I can imagine there would be long waits for some of the more popular hands on activities in the summer or when school groups are present.  However, this is a great museum and I would highly recommend it to anyone who will be in the Baltimore area.