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Posts Tagged ‘Chicago’

  1. Science Expedition

    December 14, 2014 by admin

    IMG_2549For Bluey’s birthday expedition this year, we surprised him with a trip to the Museum of Science & Industry (MSI) in Chicago.  It was quite a day and a great trip!

    We don’t often go on day trips of this magnitude (a 3 hour drive each way!) – but a special occasion calls for a special event!  We told Bluey and Plum about the trip a few days in advance so they’d both have time to prepare and get excited.  And it worked!  Our whole fam was stoked about this adventure.  None of us had ever been to MSI before, so we didn’t know exactly what to expect.  But everyone was ready!

    A few well chosen stops along the way fueled our spirits and we arrived at the Hyde Park neighborhood museum just a  few minutes after it opened. We were surprised that MSI was already getting quite full of visitors so early in the morning.

    Tip1:  MSI offers parking in an underground lot for $20 a day.  There is NO reason to pay this fee.  We found free street parking within a stone’s throw of MSI.  Just read the street signs carefully.

    IMG_9118We typically visit museums on the weekend, so we were a bit thrown by the number of school groups.  The nice thing about dealing with school groups is that the students are supposed to stay with their leader.  So in a museum this large, we found it fairly successful to blitz past the students and find other sections of the museum to explore.

    And boy, is there a lot to experience!

    Tip2: We spent a long time at the Museum and probably only saw about half of it.  We recommend taking time before your visit to map out exhibits that are important to you.  Then come back a second time to explore the areas you missed.IMG_2541

    We began at the ToyMaker3000– an automated toy machine that will create a personalized gyro-top souvenir for $5.  We figured this would become quite crowded later in the day and we thoroughly enjoyed having it to ourselves first thing in the morning.  The  assembly of the gyro-top was fascinating to watch and it was even more fun to play with the toy later that day.

    Tip3:  We absolutely recommend you get a free map from one of the information kiosks!  There is a ridiculous amount to experience, spread out over 4 levels.  You’ll need a map to guide you from one exhibit to another.

    We took a break midday for a meal from the MSI food cafe.  The choices were plentiful but pricey.  We highly recommend you pack your own food.  In good weather, you can eat on the lovely lawns surrounding the museum.

    After lunch, we saw a few more exhibits.  We also visited the gift shop.  There are not a ton of lower price point items and in retrospect, we recommend purchasing the gyro-top and skipping the gift shop.  We then we headed home, exhausted but happy.


  2. Take to the Field: Field Museum, Chicago

    May 22, 2012 by admin

    We looped a pickup at Union Station in Chicago into a trip to the Field Museum.  It is a great museum and worth the trip—but plan well!

    Admission to the Field Museum is $15 for adults and $10 for kids 3 and up.   This means our family would pay $50 to get in for the day.  Yikes!

    But this didn’t bother us because our admission was free using our Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) Membership.  It cost us $75 to get an annual family membership at the MPM.  We just saved 2/3 of the cost of our membership on one visit to the Field.  Did we mention that a Membership is worth it (see Moohlah Tips)?

    Parking was a bit of a guessing game for us.  We haven’t been to the Field often, so following all the signs wasn’t always the easiest.  But with patience we got onto the right access road and up to the parking level.   Here we were flummoxed for a bit when it seemed like there wasn’t any parking left.  Then we took a chance and followed another car that seemed to be heading into a different section that wasn’t obviously related to the Field Museum.  The section was empty.  It was legal.  We were parked!  A few minutes later, we were climbing the marble steps to the Field.  Parking is a steep fee:  $19 the first 4 hours and $22 for up to 12 hours.  We are not aware of any alternative if you drive into town as there didn’t appear to be the option for street parking near the museum.

    Knowing how expensive museum meals tend to be, we packed a picnic basket.  We left our cooler in the car and when we were ready for lunch, Daddy-O ran out to the car and used his stamped hand to get back in—Easy Cheesy!  We ate in the designated basement food area and paused for a minute for Daddy-O to run the picnic stuff back to car before resuming our tour.  There are plenty of cafeteria style tables in the basement level for your use.  If you choose to purchase museum food, there is a McDonalds in the basement along with plenty of snack machines.  The main level has a Museum café.

    The Field is Huge.  We can’t even imagine adults without kids seeing it all in one day.  We highly recommend picking a few choice sections and limiting your visit to these areas.  Save the rest of the Museum for your next trip out.  There are a lot of stairs at the Field and elevators are not easy to find.  As we watched parents hauling strollers up the stone stairwells, we were very glad that we no longer had children that young.

    Overall, we don’t recommend the Field for kids under 5 years of age.  In addition to the stroller troubles, the exhibits are really geared toward older kids.  Our 3 year old had fun but we could tell he experienced it much differently than visits to other museums.  He was very easily distracted and just cruised by exhibit after exhibit.  At our favorite MPM, he stops, observes, engages, and lingers.  The Field was too much for him.

    Although we appreciate the efforts of the Field to update displays and to try to remain ‘current’, we found they went overboard with the use of video terminals.  We were repeatedly dragging our youngest away from the video screens and struggling to get him to look at the actual dinosaur bones that were our focus.  In the Field’s effort to be ‘modern,’ they actually decreased the interactivity with the video displays.

    There are at least four gift shops in the Field.  We recommend picking one that looks good and just doing your shopping there.  Or you could spend all day following your kids from one shop to the next.

    We loved the Field and we look forward to going back!