Portland Children's Museum

We go to the children’s museum once a week. Usually we go on Thursday evenings, because that is the one night a week that the museum is open late. I would think the museum would be very popular at that time, but it’s actually very slow and we have lots of rooms to ourselves.


This one of the things we truly love about Portland. The bottom line is that Portland is really small compared to L.A. We got an annual membership for the whole family that is about the same price as one month at Gymboree for one kid. They have free parking that is right next to the front door. The museum is easy to get to (same parking lot as the zoo, right off the freeway). And it’s not crowded. None of those things would be true in L.A. First of all, I just looked at the LA Children’s Museum website and evidently the museum has been closed and, um, is scheduled to be reopened in, um, 2010? So, when the new and improved museum opens (if ever), I can’t imagine what the annual membership would cost. I do see that it’s in downtown LA where just getting there would be a lot longer than our 20 minute drive to Portland, and parking would be a bear, and I can bet that there would not be a single time of day or night when that museum is not overly crowded.

Here are some photos taken over the last few weeks.

This is the water room. Yes, we had it to ourselves, for several minutes.

 
They give you little slickers to wear, but Libby always takes hers off.

Libby playing with all the contraptions.

Hey, I got wet!!

The Vroom Room, where you can drive a bus, an ambulance, and play with the train table.  Libby likes all of those things.
 

The grocery store

One of many light tables

In the Baby Garden, where even Mae can get out and crawl around.

 
Playing on a waterbed in the Baby Garden:
 

Mae had a blast!