Flint Children's Museum

Once upon a time in a land far, far away was a town called Flint. It thrived under General Motors presence, they nicknamed it "Vehicle City" as the name "Motor City" had been taken by Detroit.

And then the crime rates soared when GM abandoned the city more or less... At some point in this time I assume the Children's Museum lost many donors.

It's okay. I had been told by someone it was great. My guess, they don't visit many CM's.

What we liked:

*The beehive

*Fairytales

*Free with ASTC membership

What we did not like:

*It didn't seem very clean or well cared for.
*Best for children five and under.

Why does the play food look like it is molding? Can plastic mold?

In the hive. I thought this exhibit was well done and in general pretty fun. 

Overall impression. I would rate it a 4/10. I'm happy we did not spend money to visit but if you live close by it could be nice for reciprocal benefits if you travel. 

Ann Arbor, MI Hands on Museum

This past week we decided to visit a few children's museums... Four to be exact. Our first stop was the Hands on Museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan which is FREE as a reciprocate member of the ASTC. I believe it also reciprocates with ACM but all of those are discounted to 50% off.

What we liked:

*It was clean, well cared for and fully functional. Not one exhibit was out of order which we have seen a lot in the past.
*The toddler area was fabulous (although chaotic and older kids are not encouraged to help.)

*It is part of the ASTC. - Whenever we visit a free museum we donate if possible to help them care for their facilities.

What we disliked:

*I was told to park on the street by staff when we arrived. However, the street parking is metered and only allows you to park up to two hours from what I could tell. When I left to find parking, it took close to 30 minutes and was a five minute walk back to the museum.

Trilobyte digging.

A2 weighs more than a rabbit and less than a lobster.

The toddler area has it's own ball machine and water table.

Ready! Set! Disrupt tornado!

This exhibit is better, IMO than the water table at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. (AKA- the world's largest children's museum.)

Detroit zoo

The Detroit Zoo is home to the National Amphibian Conservation Center so it has a fantastic amphibian house. It's laid out so well but what is most impressive and something I think they really excel at is the sheer amount of volunteers they have on hand... On weekdays, we have been to this zoo many times and it is pretty constant and almost every time we have visited it has been during the week. The volunteers are very knowledgable and have always taught us something.

The other exhibit we always make a point to visit is the Arctic Ring of Life, it is a fantastic polar bear exhibit because the polar bears are lively! We've never visited when the bears have not been crawling, sitting on or swimming above the tunnel. This time we were lucky enough to see the bear attempting to hunt a seal through glass. My kids loved this. We almost missed it as the bear had been above water and dove in as we were leaving. 

Overall, we really appreciate the Detroit Zoo for being clean and well laid out. It takes a full day to get through but there is a lot to see. We had a membership to the zoo when we lived in Michigan and always make it a point to come back.

My one complaint was the box office trying to "upsell" us on tickets going in. There are signs all over for upgrading tickets to watch movies and ride trains or carousels. I'm not a fan of forced upgrades and had we upgraded our ticket we would have missed some animals as we were there the entire day. Furthermore, the person selling tickets never told us if those tickets were discounted with our AZA reciprocal membership.

Outside of that issue I would rate the Detroit Zoo a 9/10 because of the well designed exhibits and focus on amphibians as well as education. 

Michigan:)

We've been in Michigan a while now, over a month if I'm not mistaken. We left on this trip May 19th, which puts us out about six weeks give or take.

We've had some highs and lows but overall it's been a great trip. The girls have spent time with family, explored logging museums, nature centers, state parks, parks and more... Really, it's been a low key month with a lot of reading at the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library. Because we are Colorado residents, we are unable to check out books. It's resulted in many trips to the library where we sit and read for hours. The positive of this is so many of the books are rich in culture and folklore. The girls have loved this. The library has also let the girls participate in their summer reading program which ends next week:)

We learned to fish twice, once with some nice people at a dock as a catch and release. The second time with two amish men who were fishing with purpose. 

Blandings turtle

Searching for Petoskey stones and other treasures in Lake Michigan. 

Watching a turtle lay her eggs! 

Dow Gardens, Midland MI

We love Dow Gardens. It is well cared for, has a simple layout and they tend to have a lot of fun events... I should also mention there is an annual membership of $10/ person which is also valid at Whiting Forest. If you opt for a day, $5/ adult and $1 for kids 6 and up. 

We have visited the Garden several times in the past few weeks. Currently, there is a scavenger hunt going on while the Ribbit Exhibit is on display. The girls have loved looking at the frogs on display and the frogs encouraged us to explore places in the gardens we had never explored. (We lived in Midland 18 months in the past.) 

Isle Royale National Park

Ferry to an island, explore as long as you like, head back. It's a fantastic park and so untouched. We loved it... and no, we did not see a moose. We have just missed several moose on several occasions but we seem to repel the buggers. My kids are desperately searching at this point so if you happen to see one in the wild, moose finding tips are wanted!

***If your tip involves quiet children... We've tried it.***

Make sure to bring a water filter as you need to filter water on the island. As much as Athena enjoyed Voyageurs N.P. both girls preferred Isle Royale and the general ecology of the island.

It's perfect for nature studies! We brought along our pocket microscope, specimen jars and went to town journaling. Athena loved this park!

We left to the island from Copper Harbor but you can also leave from Houghton- though the boat ride is longer.