This is really a children’s science museum but it is a spectacular one and if you have kids in elementary school or younger, they will have a great time. Definitely go here on a day you can go outside. There are indoor exhibits but the best part of the museum is the outdoor exhibit area. The butterfly building also requires a five minute walk outside to get to it. The outdoor area is beautifully landscaped and has a lot of unique exhibits you won’t find at any other museum geared towards children. In addition, the bears, lemurs, and wolves are all on display outside. The outdoor exhibit area requires a lot of walking. Expect three to four hours to get through all of the outdoor exhibits, plus another one to two hours for the exhibits inside the museum. There is a cafe next to the butterfly building that serves pretty good food and has kids meals that come with drinks, a side, and a cookie. All of this doesn’t come cheap but going here is an all day activity. Adults are $23 and kids are $18. This includes all exhibits and parking except for the the train ride, which is extra. This museum is extremely popular in the area. Nice weekend days may be kind of crazy here. We went on a cloudy and cold Tuesday and there was still a good number of people here.

So glad we scheduled this visit! I wasn't sure due to my daughter being in a moody pre-teen stage but I watched her within 10 minutes transform back to a curious excited child. They are taking reservations to enter right now due to Covid-19 restrictions but that was great because it was not crowded and she didn't feel rushed as she checked out the stations. Inside the building took about 1 1/2 hours to thoroughly enjoy and the rest of our time was spent going through the outside exhibits. A highlight for her was actually playing with the younger children in the sand/water area building dams & trenches. One disappointment was that we didn't realize you have to buy train tickets at the entrance and by the time we were ready to ride it, there really wasn't enough time to walk all the way back to the front & then back to the train. So remember to get the train tickets at the beginning. The museum should have a ticket kiosk near the train, we would have gladly spent the money for the tickets.

So happy that the museum is open and still free of charge. However, several exhibits are closed (like the ones that are touch and feel). Lots of hand sanitizer stations around. We felt very comfortable since they limit the number of patrons inside at any one time.