Helpful Mom

Science Playhouse at the MOST

A couple months ago I went to the MOST in Syracuse, NY for the first time to visit a friend who was moving away. It won’t be the last time I take the girls either, they just loved it.  The MOST is the Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse, NY.   It is much smaller in size compared to the Rochester Science Museum but it is packed with hands on displays and great play areas.  The girls absolute favorite is the Science Playhouse which is this enormous climbing structure that is about three stories tall and big enough in scale for adults to climb through too; think a McDonald play center structure on steriods.  (Don’t forget your socks)  This museum is definitely geared more toward the preK-grade school set of kids, although teens would probably still get a kick out of the Playhouse if they aren’t already too cool for that kind of thing.  In addition to the Playhouse there are giant models of body parts, a Discovery cave which includes a dinosaur dig site, and the most amazing replicas made entirely of toothpicks.

Dinosaur Dig at the MOST

The museum is open Wednesday-Sunday from 10am-5pm with extended hours on Saturday for the IMAX theater.  During some holidays and school breaks the museum may be open on Monday or Tuesdays, check their website for dates and hours. Admission for adults is $5, kids 2-11 are $4, and Seniors 65+ are $4.  Members for the museum are free and they are part of the Science museum receprical program so we were able to get in free with our Rochester Science museum membership.

They do offer a variety of Omni movies on their IMAX screen which cost $9 for adults, kids and seniors are $7.  Or you can do a combo of admission to the museum and a movie for $11 for adults, kids and seniors are $9.  This museum has an interesting membership perk you can sign up for for only $15.  It’s their IMAX Passport which allows you to watch all the regular IMAX movies as many times as you want all year long.

Toothpick Replicas

If you are planning a visit here you need to make note that there is not a cafeteria or restaurant onsite.  There is a small cafe area which offers a number of vending machine but these are only stocked with drinks and snacks no actual food.  There is a small microwave provided though along with plenty of tables and chairs.  You are permitted re-entry if you want to leave to eat and come back as long as you keep you receipt.

Also the museum does not have it’s own parking lot so you have to either find a parking lot, which costs about $6-7 for the day, or find on street parking which is limited to 2 hrs. And meters are free on Sundays.

We loved it so much the girls begged for days afterwards to go back again.  It is an easy hour and a half drive from our home in Henrietta, NY.  But even though we get in free with our membership we do still have to pay gas and tolls to get there so we haven’t gone back til this last week when we took along friends.  I bet they will be going back too.

Ahhh…Vacation erh, Staycation has come to an abrupt end.  Preschool starts tomorrow and my moms group, WOW-Women of Worth, starts up again.  But back to the point, we had an awesome week.  In fact we have decided to try and do this every year.  Joel gets three weeks vacation and of course we can’t afford to go away for three weeks so if we take an at home vacation for a week we can still go away somewhere too!  We spent almost nothing for the entire week which was fun because when the kids asked for fries or something we were able to say yes because it would end up being our only expense for the day.  How did we manage that you ask?  It’s because we have memberships for the kids museum(Strong Museum of Play), Seneca Park Zoo, and the Science Museum which allow us unlimited visits for free for an entire year.  We always join because not only can we get into our local museums but also hundreds of reciprocal museums, zoos, and aquariums around the country.  So we very quickly save hundreds of dollars.  And to cut down on the cost of those memberships we request from family members that instead of buying Birthday or Christmas presents that they would chip in on our memberships so it’s a gift the entire family can enjoy and it’s sure to be used.  Also there are discounts on a number of the membership fees such as employee discounts or membership drives that offer % off the annual rate, and some will offer a discount on rejoining by a certain date to cut down on those reminder mailings.  Memberships also give you discounts off extra tickets if you bring friends and family, you can purchase add a guest memberships when you sign up which allow you to bring one extra person with you each time you go if you like, discounts in the souvenir shops and restaurants.

So for example earlier this summer we went to Boston to visit a friend and we were able to use our Strongs membership to get into the kids museum there for free.  And we were able to use our Science membership to get in free there as well, likewise we used our zoo membership there too.  Which means on those days we only had to pay for meals and lodging.  It’s a great deal and we have been using it for years.  What can I say we are thrifty nerds ;P

Anyways over the week we did the corn maze, beach, zoo, science museum, my mom watched them for a day, and on Saturday we went to Seabreeze Amusement Park for the day.  It was Xerox employee days so it only cost us $10 each and Mikayla was free because she’s still 2.  It was so much fun, Joel has never been to Seabreeze ever!  And I grew up going there every summer.  I loved how much fun it was for the girls to get to ride and ride and the giggles of glee made it totally worth it.  We are talking about getting season passes in the years to come because we would definitely get our moneys worth out of it.  It’s a smaller park but that means lines aren’t that long so you can ride and get right back in line and ride again.  And when the kids get bigger you can go two different directions without being that far apart.  I was disappointed that some of my favorite things to do like the fun house are no longer there and have been replaced with newer rides.  It’s funny going back for the first time in over ten years to realize how much smaller it really is than I remember as a kid.

Staycation was a smashing success.  Yes I still did the cleaning, laundry, and dishes, and most of the cooking.  Although I was able to guilt free order dinner a few nights since we were on vacation.  I’d say we spent less than $200 for the entire week, including gas.  And there are still a number of things we had talked about doing that we didn’t fit in, so we are already working on a list for next summer.  Maybe we’ll send you a postcard.