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My husband and I are always in the market to find fun, family-friendly activities in our area. When we have a free Saturday morning, you’ll often find us riding our bikes to the beach, our two little boys in tow in a bike trailer, or walking to the park with a soccer ball.
But when our recent deluge of rain (okay, okay, if you’re reading this and you’re not from SoCal, you can stop rolling your eyes now. To us, all the rain we’ve had could just be the start of another great flood) continued on through President’s Day weekend, we needed a different kind of family fun–the INDOOR kind.
So I did what I always do when we’re talking about something. I opened my trusty laptop and searched for “San Diego indoor family fun.” Google never disappoints and we were soon heading 
downtown to the New Children’s Museum, ready for something new.
Once our nearly-three-year-old, Troy, roused from his sleep-induced grumpiness, both he and our one year old, Merritt, were rarin’ to go. We made our first stop in the little people’s room, where the boys crawled through soft hollow logs, swam in foam ponds along with the cloth fish, and climbed on movable boulders.
We filled the next two hours with trips to “Tent City,” where Troy climbed and crawled through fabric tunnels, facing “wind storms” made by a museum worker waving a large square of foam, as well as a few stops in the “Rain House,” a small house with a tin roof where kids laugh at the sound of an indoor rainstorm.
Merritt adored the blackboard wall where we left our names and some scribbles. Although I’m not entirely sure which he was most in love with–his scribbles or the piece of peach chalk he repeatedly tried to consume.
Making our way upstairs, the boys did their best to add on to the igloo made of recycled plastics. Until that is, Troy was told by a young, hip, cool worker that this was a “gentle exhibit” and not to jump around inside. This, just minutes before that same worker turned a blind eye to the three pre-teen boys who decided to commandeer the igloo and turn it into a war zone. But, hey, we had fun 
while the sun was shining… er, while it rained outside… er, while the igloo froze… or something like that.
But the one room Troy would have stayed in all the live-long day was just one big huge dark room filled with projectors displaying pictures and video of sea creatures on the walls, floor and ceiling. The room was crowded for a while with almost all boys–children who had clearly been cooped up for too many rainy days without any Cat in the Hat to keep them company.
When Merritt decided to crouch down and blind himself by staring directly into the projector lamps for the fourth time, I took him out of the big room to practice his walking and see the rest of the sights. On that bottom floor we found a stage made of trees and large stumps, complete with costumes where children can “be” the weather–a snowflake, a leaf, or a raindrop. We also discovered an over sized beanbag pile on which Merritt fell–purposely–a time or two hundred. Nearby the older children were cutting and creating shadow creatures to stage a shadow puppet show on a wall in front of a white light.
Once we finally convinced Troy to take a break from running and laughing and jumping and stomping on every dolphin or scuba diver that appeared on the floor in the projector room, we made our way back up to the top two floors and tried our hand on the… well, I don’t exactly know WHAT they were called. Scooters? Thingamagigs? Wooden contraptions powered by funky wheels? Broken limbs waiting to happen?
All I know is that I desperately wanted to try one. And would have, too, if it hadn’t been for the proper and well manicured English mother beside me encouraging her older son to “be mindful of decorum, dear.”
Actually, I think that particular son was one of the pre-teens from the igloo. Perhaps he should have heard that little talk a bit earlier in the day?
We finished up the day with a visit to the craft area, where Troy decided to make snakes out of a hunk of brown clay. He said he was making them for both of his grandmothers.
I’m just afraid that when I write on the note that Troy made these snakes, the grandmothers are going to think the “snakes” are simply evidence that Troy is indeed potty trained. Ahem.
I’ll also spare you a picture.
Rowdy pre-teens and brown clay aside, the museum was a huge success in our eyes and was the perfect way to fill a rainy President’s Day afternoon. For only $10 per person ($5 for military!), we will definitely be heading back over there in the next few weeks. Even after two hours, we still missed several exhibits and never even walked near the store or the little lunch cafe. I already have plans in the works to take another mama and her active little boy to this completely kid-proof and pro-kid place when he (and she!) needs a little room to move and keep that brain firing.
The real payoff? The two tired boys in the backseat on the way home. I’ll do almost anything these days that will give me that end result.
More info:
The New Children’s Museum
200 West Island Avenue
Downtown San Diego
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