The past few days has been crazy busy around here with all the back to school prep, filling out some last minute forms and doctor visits,etc. I have hardly had time to log into my blog to write a new post.So, now that all things are at place I am sitting down to write about our visit to the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Francisco.
It is the most talked about and hyped up place and also appears to be one of the highlighted attraction in most of the things to do in San Francisco lists i.e if you are traveling with kids.
We had a Groupon deal, so decided to take advantage of it and visit the museum.I was really looking forward to this visit and to see how my daughter would enjoy with all the activities they offer. Well, she kind of did enjoy the place but we were slightly disappointed with the number of exhibits they had.
First and foremost let’s talk about the location.The museum is set out on a beautiful location by the ocean overlooking the Golden gate Bridge which is so exciting and ahh!!, what a view?!!! Amazing!!! But being so close to the waters means you always have to experience the blowing winds.It was a cloudy day and the chilly winds made my daughter feel really uncomfortable.We had our jackets on but it wasn’t fall/winter to pull out the winter hats and scarfs yet, so we just had to try getting used to that. It felt good when the sun came up and that was when my lil one actually started enjoying.
We were hoping , there would be lot of indoor activities but there wasn’t many either. We first went to the baby/toddler play area which is called the tot spot(Only for children under 42inches).It was really nice! There was this stream of water at the toddler level and lots of toy frogs/fishes/sharks for the little ones to play in the water. The cool thing was they had aprons for the children to use so as not to get their clothes wet.My daughter spent the most time here and loved making the toys swim in the splashing water.The indoor area with water beds were neat and clean and are a perfect set up for crawling babies and young toddlers. My daughter jumped around a bit and then decided it was too babyish for her so we had to move on.
The imagination playground which was an outdoor activity was something interesting and innovative.The giant bright blue foam blocks were fun to move around. Even though my daughter is not old enough to build something out of it she had fun doing her own thing with those blocks.
The art studio was just okay.The painting area was too small which could only accommodate 3-4 kids without getting in each others space.There was only one tactile table and we had to wait for quite a while to get our turn.At first, I thought it was play dough but then when I touched it felt so different.Tactile is not soft like play dough ,so it is difficult for younger kids to work with it.Book nook was nice but not something we would be interested in doing when we have spent the time and money to get there. They did have wooden blocks and felt cutout outs to play with but our daughter didn’t care for those.
Magic tree house exhibit was nice and informative and the older kids would benefit a lot from these. Look out cove was another favorite with all different kinds of outdoor fun located at a single location.Our favorite was the golden gate bridge,ship wreck and the gravel pit.It was fun to watch these littles pretending to be look outs and construction workers.
They did have a few musical instruments laid out outside and lots of hula hoops and chalks for the kids to have fun. Since, we are not really good at using a hula hoop , the little one decide to do something different. She began arranging everything in a line and began hopping from one to another.It feels so good to see your child thinking of something on their own and actually having fun doing it.I had a little aww!! moment there.
Well, to sum it up we did have have a nice time but there was not enough exhibits that made us spend the whole day at the museum. Considering the drive and the admission ticket prices we felt it was not a must do thing (luckily we had a Groupon). It works best for families who live in San Francisco and would take up the membership. I am not sure which age group the museum is best suited for as there are not too many activities for a particular age group.It has a little bit for everybody. So,if I have to pick an age group, I would say 2-5 year olds might be the best fit.If you are visiting San Francisco and you have plenty of time then it’s nice to give it a try but on a time crunch I would rather skip this one.
They do have a small cafe and an awesome gift shop.I really like the variety of things they had out there.Lots of different books,stickers,games, puzzles that you could buy.Coin fountain towards the exit is a bonus attraction for little ones .
Finally, you cannot forget the spectacular view of the Golden gate bridge. It’s a perfect location for taking pictures.