For Christmas this year my parents promised to purchase our family a membership to Great Explorations in St. Petersburg and we finally made it down there to purchase it this month. We’ve had a membership there in the past and loved it!

We love how our Great Ex membership gets us into all kinds of other places locally and all over the country. Last Spring we visited Dan’s family in Rhode Island and were able to get into the Providence Children’s Museum with our card. By the way, that is one super awesome museum. You should definitely go there if you’re ever in the area.

Our membership card gets us into some great local museums like the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa and the brand new Salvador Dali Museum in downtown St. Petersburg. I’m especially excited about going to the new Dali Museum. The building alone has brought more beauty and wonder to downtown St. Pete. There’s a chance we’ll be going on date there this weekend!

So far we haven’t been to Great Explorations, but we did just go to the Glazer Children’s Museum in Tampa off of Ashley Drive. My mom and took the boys in November for Target Free Tuesday, but it was filled to capacity so we barely had room to play. However, this time we were able to explore so many of the exhibits. Alistair loved the Gantry Crane and the Kid’s Port best.

Wesley had a blast in the ball pit. He also thoroughly enjoyed the Kid’s Port. He was splashing so much we had to just take his shirt off. Check out those muscles!

Dan and I loved that it was clean, appropriate for preschoolers and toddlers and had plenty of stroller parking. There were so many interesting exhibits that we’ll have to go back a couple of more times to see everything, like the Fire House, Art Smart, Vet Clinic, and Engineers Workshop exhibits. I also loved the outside of the building; it has a beautiful colored glass mosaic that runs along the front of it.

I hate eating at these places though because the food is never that good and it’s always over-priced. Thankfully, Five Guys is across the street so that’s where we ate. However, next time we’ll pack a lunch and have a little picnic in the beautiful field next to the museum that overlooks the University of Tampa and the Tampa Museum of Art.

The only downside to our visit, besides the typical museum food, was the lack of supervision. A large group of families came for a birthday party and there were many middle school and older elementary school kids in attendance. Several of them were playing in the areas reserved for kids 3 and under, which drives me crazy. Those are the kids that end up breaking equipment and making it unsafe for my 3-year-old and 1-year-old boys. It would’ve been nice to see the staff handle this problem. All in all, we had a great time and can’t wait to go back!