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conuly
Took Elise with me to help out, went to the CMOM. I'd wanted to see their new exhibit for a while.
That is one crowded museum. Oh, I knew it would be, on a Sunday, but still! Wow. We only went to the one exhibit, because I really, really, really didn't want to troop us all up and down the museum.
And it's a good little exhibit. I may go more often. Just... not on a weekend. Certainly not on a weekend without another adult. Elise was a huge help, but all the same - an adult and a teenager for three kids? NOT ENOUGH. I know that now.
1. It's far more expensive than either other museum. I have my card, but still.
2. Unlike the SICM, they don't seem to have many inexpensive items in the gift shop. I know in the SICM, Pam at the front desk is very careful to have a large supply of toys under $2 so that kids on school trips aren't stuck buying overpriced pencils - and she also has a lot of other toys that are under $5. Very little in the gift shop is over $15. That's not the case at the ight. It's a day out, right?
But our server (and it was him, it didn't look to be the restaurant as a whole) was... I don't know. Like, the other customers who didn't have him got their food, we didn't. We didn't until we asked where it was, then it showed up immediately - and cooled down. Clearly,CMOM, from what I saw. It's better stocked, but the stuff costs more.
3. Much more crowded than the SICM. Not a place to bring a large family of small children unless you have plenty of older help!
4. I did like their PlaySpace (whatever it's called) area for kids under - what, 5? Very well designed. It was easy to see most every location in it without running all around, the separate areas of the place were clearly delineated, and it had enough to keep a little kid occupied for weeks.
5. However, there weren't really any books that I saw. For a space that everything seemed to have a point of encouraging reading, this seemed odd. At the SICM, there's a huge stack of books in every single exhibit. Here... I saw three or four. And it didn't make any sense! For example, in one area you "feed" letters to a dragon and she tells you the letter's name and what it stands for (and, for the record, J should NOT stand for jalapeno. Bad choice there). It would have been so easy to have the board book of "Eating the Alphabet" there, and maybe a few other ABC books. Or in the area that's for younger babies, they could have had a few simple one-word books. Where they had the firetruck and bus, they could have had books about the city. That sort of thing. And I didn't see it.
6. You can't eat in the museum. This sucks. There ought to be a place you can sit and have a snack. There also aren't enough bathrooms and water fountains. (But then, there never are!)
7. Their elevators are nice and fast!
8. You are not allowed to bring strollers into the building unless your child has a valid disability. This is due to fire codes. It makes sense. Now, for me, this is totally not a problem. And I suggest that more people wear their babies and give up on strollers in this city! But it's certainly worth noting, yeah?
9. The museum continues to strike me as more overstimulating than the SICM. Maybe the lights are too bright, maybe the exhibits are too interactive (meaning computerized and talking, generally), maybe... I don't know. But after a day, the kids were all three of them (four of them! Five of us, because I felt the same way!) very exhausted and meltdowny and snappish. I know they don't get like that after an average day at the SICM, and even in this whole overcrowded week, nuthin' like this bad. I suspect *part* of the problem was the whole week, and *part* of the problem was the unfamiliar surroundings - but some of it seems to be the museum itself. Maybe it was the crowds. I don't know.
10. There's this part of the exhibit where you can make a video of yourself, and email it home - but at home we only got a picture and the voice recording. I feel cheated.
All in all, it's a nice museum. If you're in the area, I really reccommend it. But I don't plan on making the trip all that often at the moment.
We went to lunch at Homer's Malt Shop, because it was pretty inexpensive. Of course, considering that Elise and I ordered burgers instead of hot dogs, and we had three orders of fries between us, and we each got a dessert, it added up anyway, but that was all. But our server was... I don't know. Like, other people got their food, but not us or the people on either side of us (who had him as their waiter). And we got ours only when we asked for it, then we got it right away - cold. Clearly, it had been made, and he never brought it to the table. I *did* leave a tip, but only because I'd like to go back there at some point in the future - not because his lazy ass deserved it. I certainly didn't tip as much as I would do as a default.
That is one crowded museum. Oh, I knew it would be, on a Sunday, but still! Wow. We only went to the one exhibit, because I really, really, really didn't want to troop us all up and down the museum.
And it's a good little exhibit. I may go more often. Just... not on a weekend. Certainly not on a weekend without another adult. Elise was a huge help, but all the same - an adult and a teenager for three kids? NOT ENOUGH. I know that now.
1. It's far more expensive than either other museum. I have my card, but still.
2. Unlike the SICM, they don't seem to have many inexpensive items in the gift shop. I know in the SICM, Pam at the front desk is very careful to have a large supply of toys under $2 so that kids on school trips aren't stuck buying overpriced pencils - and she also has a lot of other toys that are under $5. Very little in the gift shop is over $15. That's not the case at the ight. It's a day out, right?
But our server (and it was him, it didn't look to be the restaurant as a whole) was... I don't know. Like, the other customers who didn't have him got their food, we didn't. We didn't until we asked where it was, then it showed up immediately - and cooled down. Clearly,CMOM, from what I saw. It's better stocked, but the stuff costs more.
3. Much more crowded than the SICM. Not a place to bring a large family of small children unless you have plenty of older help!
4. I did like their PlaySpace (whatever it's called) area for kids under - what, 5? Very well designed. It was easy to see most every location in it without running all around, the separate areas of the place were clearly delineated, and it had enough to keep a little kid occupied for weeks.
5. However, there weren't really any books that I saw. For a space that everything seemed to have a point of encouraging reading, this seemed odd. At the SICM, there's a huge stack of books in every single exhibit. Here... I saw three or four. And it didn't make any sense! For example, in one area you "feed" letters to a dragon and she tells you the letter's name and what it stands for (and, for the record, J should NOT stand for jalapeno. Bad choice there). It would have been so easy to have the board book of "Eating the Alphabet" there, and maybe a few other ABC books. Or in the area that's for younger babies, they could have had a few simple one-word books. Where they had the firetruck and bus, they could have had books about the city. That sort of thing. And I didn't see it.
6. You can't eat in the museum. This sucks. There ought to be a place you can sit and have a snack. There also aren't enough bathrooms and water fountains. (But then, there never are!)
7. Their elevators are nice and fast!
8. You are not allowed to bring strollers into the building unless your child has a valid disability. This is due to fire codes. It makes sense. Now, for me, this is totally not a problem. And I suggest that more people wear their babies and give up on strollers in this city! But it's certainly worth noting, yeah?
9. The museum continues to strike me as more overstimulating than the SICM. Maybe the lights are too bright, maybe the exhibits are too interactive (meaning computerized and talking, generally), maybe... I don't know. But after a day, the kids were all three of them (four of them! Five of us, because I felt the same way!) very exhausted and meltdowny and snappish. I know they don't get like that after an average day at the SICM, and even in this whole overcrowded week, nuthin' like this bad. I suspect *part* of the problem was the whole week, and *part* of the problem was the unfamiliar surroundings - but some of it seems to be the museum itself. Maybe it was the crowds. I don't know.
10. There's this part of the exhibit where you can make a video of yourself, and email it home - but at home we only got a picture and the voice recording. I feel cheated.
All in all, it's a nice museum. If you're in the area, I really reccommend it. But I don't plan on making the trip all that often at the moment.
We went to lunch at Homer's Malt Shop, because it was pretty inexpensive. Of course, considering that Elise and I ordered burgers instead of hot dogs, and we had three orders of fries between us, and we each got a dessert, it added up anyway, but that was all. But our server was... I don't know. Like, other people got their food, but not us or the people on either side of us (who had him as their waiter). And we got ours only when we asked for it, then we got it right away - cold. Clearly, it had been made, and he never brought it to the table. I *did* leave a tip, but only because I'd like to go back there at some point in the future - not because his lazy ass deserved it. I certainly didn't tip as much as I would do as a default.
