Visiting Children’s Museums on our Journey

Most of our time is spent camping, hiking and biking in state and national parks, but we regularly stay in or near large cities on our travels. When we do, one of the activities that we, especially the kids, enjoy is spending a day at a children’s museum.

Today, I’m writing this post from the lobby of the Boonshoft Children’s Museum in Dayton, OH. It’s a rainy day, so we’ll spend the whole day exploring the museum here. We’ve found that the museums give Jane and Wilson a nice break from life in the outdoors, giving them access to all sorts of stimulating activities and time with other kids.

So far we’ve visited Children’s museums in Portland, OR, Denver, CO, Bozeman, MT, Spokane, WA, Lincoln, NE, and West Jefferson, MO. Probably another here or there. They all have their similarities and differences, but each is also unique, representing the unique qualities of the area. The Nebraska museum had a corn combine that the kids could drive, and the Denver museum had mining and energy activities.

A nice bonus, since we have a family membership to our Children’s museum in Raleigh, NC, we get 50% off or free admission at most Children’s museums and science centers in the country.