A friend told me about the Bay Area Discovery Museum a while ago and it sounded awesome. I jumped online to check it out and discovered that it was even more awesome than I thought. Our library does a thing where you can get free tickets to different museums in the area so when Jeff was off one day we decided to go here as a family.
I cannot rave about this place enough, it really was amazing! It is made for children age 6 months to about 8 years and it is all hands on. There was so much for the kids to see, learn, experience, discover if you will. It was AWESOME!!
The Tot Spot: Wetlands
This was actually one of the last places we went during the day but it was great! The Tot Spot has a height requirement so it is really just for the little ones which was great. In here there was a water tunnel to crawl through, water filled ponds to jump, climb, and play on, fish costumes to try on, buttons to push to make animal noises, and more. The kids LOVED this place. They ran around liked they owned the place!
The Art Studio
This was really fun! I was a little hesitant to take the kids in here, but decided to give it a go and I am so glad we did. There was tons to do in here. They had 2 walls that the kids could paint on. Every once in a while they would squidgy it off and they could start all over again. There were also blocks to stack, cool magnetic sticks and balls you could build with, also some magnet tiles, and this amazing play-dough type stuff. The texture of it seriously blue my mind. It was so cool! We were going to buy some at their store, but it was all out. The kids loved it. P spent most of the time with the play-dough and Em spent most of the time building stuff and knocking it down.
Lookout Cove
Outside there were TONS of things to do too. P really loved this construction zone complete with hardhats, diggers, dumpers, and shovels.
More Lookout Cove
There was tons to explore outside. You could go on a mini hike and check out the awesome view of the bay, you could climb in an oversized spider's web, climb in a shipwreck and discover artifacts and debris, go through a replica sea cave, learn about the tide and animals that live on rocky shores, and so much more! You could easily spend all day outside and never be bored.
Bay Hall
This was our last stop of the day and we could not get P to leave. He has a current obsession with trains which made Santa's Christmas shopping a piece of cake! Thank you IKEA! Anyway, there was actually a lot to do in this area, although P literally never left the train area. Em discovered what lives under a pier by crawling through an underwater tunnel, climbed on a boat and learned about fishing, she even helped steer the boat and raise and lower the fishing lines. They both loved this room and were sad that leaving the room meant it was time to go home too. Many tears were shed.
The Tot Spot: Woodlands
This room was one of our first rooms. The kids were so excited when we went in, they just started running around checking everything out. They were so excited about all the things to do they didn't even know where to begin. They could dress up like insects, Em was sporting the spider, they scaled a baby mountain, played on all the different texture mats on the floor, sorted blocks, discovered what sounds insects make by pushing buttons on the wall, and could even climb on and through a tree and it's roots. This was the perfect start to the day, the kids loved. Again they did not want to leave because it was so much fun. We had to convince them that there were lots of other fun things still to see and play with.
The Tot Spot: The Stream
The was our first real stop of the day. They loved, loved LOVED this stream. It was huge too, probably about 50 feet long. It had different levels too so you could have fun no matter what size you were, it gradually got lower and lower until it reached the floor so even babies could splash and play. It was so fun to watch their imaginations run wild and they helped the fish swim and the frogs jump through the stream. So much fun. We went back here a few times throughout the day.
We all had such a blast. There is still even more that we did, I just didn't get pictures of it, but I think you get the idea. You can learn more and see more pictures on their website here. But really, this place is amazing! If you haven't been, GO. If it wasn't so far away I would insist that we get season passes, but it is quite the drive out to Sausalito for the little ones. But we will most definitely be going back, hopefully soon!
It was awesome to see how excited the kids where and how eager they were to try new things. They did so great the whole day too, the only tears shed were when we told them it was time to go home and we had even pushed nap time back 2 hrs already! We got their right when it opened and I am glad we did because the later it got the more crowded it got as well. But really, one of the best days ever. GO. Soon. You will not regret it!
p.s. The first Wednesday of the month is a free day which I think we are going to attempt one of these days, but it said on their website that last year they had over 18,000 people come throughout the year on their free day. That averages 1500 on any given free day. That is a lot of kids in one place at one time, so it might be a little too crazy, but worth a shot!
Comments