Please Touch Museum - Philadelphia, PA

Now that we are (finally) back home, I'm hoping to get caught up on our summer adventures... and there have been lots in the last week.  So, let's get to it.

Last Tuesday, the kids and I went to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia which is by far my favorite children's museum to date. It relocated to Fairmount Park roughly two years ago and while I was never at the previous location, I am told (to put it kindly) that the museum was in need of some updates and the move to Memorial Hall enabled them to do just that quite nicely.

The museum participates in the ACM reciprocal program (hence the membership upgrade when we joined the Pittsburgh Children's Museum last month) and covers up to four admissions to the museum (a $60 value). All I had to do was pay the $8 for parking. Only six weeks into it and we're approaching our break-even point for the membership... at this point, it's less than 24 hours away!!!

Love my safari girl!

The museum's website offers a great tip about when to visit and I probably should have looked at this before leaving Mom's place on Tuesday morning.  They recommend afternoons, once the school groups have cleared from the building or on Mondays when no groups are scheduled.  That's fantastic advice; we got there around 11:00 while the museum was SWARMING with kids, making it a little difficult to keep track of two highly energetic little ones on my own.  But by 2:00, most of the groups had cleared out and it was much easier for the kids to play!

Cathy

The Schaffer family continued to join us on our adventures and it was so much fun watching the four kids play together!

Katherine

Just like our first visit two years ago, the grocery store is still our favorite location... at least if you judge that by the time we spent there. The kids literally spent over an hour shopping, putting groceries away, restocking shelves and checking other kids out at the register.  Every time I leave, I think I should save our empty cans and boxes and create a store at home and maybe I will finally get around to doing that (yeah, right).

Overall, this continues to be one of my favorite places to take the kids.  It's clean, it's safe, it holds their attention for hours.  And, most importantly given last week's HOT temperatures, it's air conditioned. I wish we had something like it here in State College... or pretty much anything appropriate for small kids. That was the one thing I struggled with through the winter of unemployment when it was too cold or snowy to get outside much.  With Discovery Space of Central Pennsylvania set to open soon, maybe we'll have someplace age appropriate AND close to home... what a novel concept!!! 

Nicholas, Katherine, Matt and Cathy - my favorite picture of the day!!!

Matt tells me that the River Adventure was his favorite (though he spent surprisingly little time there) while Cathy said the best part of was shopping for "stuff".  Both kids gave Please Touch Museum their highest rating.  The oldest in our crowd was eight and he still seemed to have a really enjoyable time, though I am not sure I would recommend the place for kids much past that age.  If your kids are younger, there are several areas specifically designed for the under 3 crowd.

If you are local to the Philadelphia area, a membership is probably your best bet... it's an expensive outing for just one day.  Even coming from Central PA, with family in the city, I know we'll get back at least one or two more times before our membership expires in early June.

And, I'll bet we shop the day away when we get there.