Solid Children's museum with a mixture of STEM and pretend play that suits kids 1-6yo. Our kids had…read morea blast and easily were entertained for a few hours. A nice touch was they had spare diapers to use as well. Kid friendly size toilets and bathroom sinks. Price is reasonable and also on Discover and Go. There's also nearby EV chargers as well.

PSA: Tiny Tot Tuesdays, toddlers that are 23 months and younger are free! Woo-hoo!…read more Sacramento Children's Museum found in Rancho, lol - is a fun spot for kiddos. There are different themed rooms that create an environment of imaginary play for kiddos of all ages. You can easily spend an hour+ here expanding the energy of our kiddos. I would highly recommend this spot if you have kiddos!

A small but well thought out indoor play space. Great for hot summer days. My 2 and 6 year old had…read morea blast for 3 hours. Everything is run by volunteers so be nice! Both my kids can't wait to go back!

This place is so sweet. Took my sweet lady here after a day trip to Davis for a school thing. She…read morehad the best time and volunteer staff were so lovely. Been hoping for an excuse to go back!

We were pleasantly surprised of this place. We have visited children's museums regularly all over…read morethe Bay Area. From reading the reviews, I didn't expect much. But, we hand a great time. Parking was $6 for the whole day, $19.99/ adult and $17.99 for kids. We especially loved the planetarium. We had just gotten back from another planetarium, but this one was so much nicer! My kids loved it. And the instructor was very knowledgeable. The kids loved downstairs and upstairs. You can tell they did a lot interactive displays for children and adults to learn. My kids loved touching all the buttons, interacting with the screens, jumping/hoping, making songs, etc. My favorite exhibit was the brain one- such fascinating stuff! I definitely recommend going especially if you have young kiddos. We had a Great time! Tip: There's a McDonalds on the other side of the freeway - go there before entering if you have kids.

This place was great the first few times we visited, but now going on 5 years since it's opening,…read morethere hasn't been any real improvement to the experience. Most of what is here has been here since 2021, and many of those things are also frequently out of order. The prices have increased, while perks, benefits, or experiences have decreased or been removed. When I first joined as a member, there were member hours everyday and now they are only 1 Saturday per month. Planetarium shows used to be included with admission and now it is an additional cost, even though the shows are also primarily the same since 2021. They initially advertised having lockers, but they were always out of order. I honestly prefer my Chuck E Cheese membership over this place. If you aren't from Sacramento, your children will have a good time. If you are a Sacramento parent looking for a fun membership where you can visit multiple times, choose something else.

Fun place to bring the little ones to explore some science! Love the hands on exhibits and the…read morekids (a lot of them) seemed to really like the sand box. There's a separate area for the littlest kiddos which is nice and enough throughout for my older child to keep occupied for a few hours. It doesn't look like a huge space but there's enough for little kids to explore and I think it's great to have something like this in the community

This cute Children's science museum in Lodi is not very big, but it has so much to touch and see! I…read morebrought my 11 year old son (and my parents tagged along too) and we all enjoyed it!! My son was very into the stop-animation display. we had to tell him a few times that it was time to go for lunch. I'd say it's a good 2 hours experience if you really read and interact with all they have to offer. I would recommend it! Price is reasonable too! We went on a week day and it was not crowded. Had a nice time and have recommended it to other parents. I hope they are able to expand it in the future!

Lived in the Sacramento area for 18 years and somehow never made it to the California State…read moreRailroad Museum until we had some out-of-town guests visiting! Better late than never, right? We finally decided to check it out, and it turned out to be a really fun experience. The museum is much bigger than I expected, with massive restored steam locomotives, vintage passenger cars, and so many interesting things to see inside. Walking through the old train cars was pretty cool, especially the beautifully restored dining car with its classic table settings and the old sleeping car that gives you a feel for what train travel used to be like. There's also a fascinating exhibit about the Transcontinental Railroad, including the famous Golden Spike, and the stories of the Chinese workers who helped build it. We spent a few hours exploring, learning a little history, and enjoying something different with our guests. After living here for 18 years, glad we finally crossed this one off our Sacramento bucket list. A fun stop if you have visitors in town or just want to explore a little more of your own backyard!

While we were in Sacramento, we found out about the California State Railroad Museum, and we knew…read morewe had to go! We definitely were not disappointed. I was amazed by the life-size trains and how beautiful and well-preserved everything was. There was so much to see and learn! If you visit, definitely keep an eye out for the guided tours--they're absolutely worth it. I learned so much about these incredible trains and the history behind them. If you're a train lover or just enjoy history, you have to come visit this museum! You'll learn so much and get to experience these amazing trains up close. I went with my lovely hubby, and we had such a wonderful time exploring together.

I feel very lucky to have a place like the Children's Museum of Sonoma County right here in Santa…read moreRosa! There are so many fun, hands-on activities and special events for kids, which makes a membership absolutely worth it. We especially love the extra-large Light-Brite, water play area, and art room, but there is SO much more to explore. Totopia is also fantastic if you have little ones under 3--it's such a great space for them to play and explore. My only complaint is that the museum can get pretty crowded, so I definitely recommend getting there early if you want a little more space to enjoy everything. I'm also really excited and grateful that they are planning to expand the museum, which will create more exhibit space and hopefully help with the crowds.

This is a non-profit children's museum in Sonoma county in Santa Rosa. It's fun for all ages…read moreespecially if you're a kid at heart. It's centrally located in town and very close to the Charles Schultz (Peanuts/Snoopy) museum which is pretty well known. Pluses: - fun for all ages, but especially the littles both indoors and outdoors. - pretend play areas indoors including a dentist office and a medical clinic and a fast diner. All 3 were a hit w/my kids. - lots of other hands on activities inside to include a treehouse where kids can load apples and send them up and down baskets, my kids love that when they were little. - very popular air launchers to shoot wind spinners. - a huge manual pinball machine that is super fun, my kids never tired of making the pinball launch over and over. - a miniature train set that goes around, it's on the 2nd floor. - plenty of outdoors activities and play areas. - a little stream for water play, little kids love that. - a real life former medical helicopter (a bit random, but still cool). - a climbing structure, and a few other play areas also. - so many ways to tire your kids out, guaranteed a good nap on the way home and they'll prob sleep a lot that night. Minuses: - The building indoors is really quite packed. The different features are each thoughtfully designed and very nice and colorful, but it can get crowded here. - Pretty expensive admission. We got a discount, but I think their prices have increased. All in all, a great little place and good for creative play for kids maybe up to like 5th-6th grade at most, but best for 9 or younger probably.

Adj: Impressive, Informational, Innovative, and Incredibly Interesting!…read more Another visit to the RUEC, which is the Roseville Utility Exploration Center. It is located next to Martha Riley Library, one of 3 City of Roseville libraries and the newest one. The RUEC is pretty cool and admission is free. We like to come by every once in awhile because they have changing exhibits, but their permanent displays are informative and interesting too. As an environmentally minded person, I try to conserve, but how do you know what to do and what is worth your effort and what doesn't make much of a difference? The RUEC has quite a few exhibits on how to conserve energy, water, and how to minimize our impact on the planet including garbage disposal (that often end up in landfill more than anywhere else), recycling, being conscientious in our resource usage by setting our thermostats properly, cycling our ACs, replace or clean air filters regularly, install a programmable thermostat, and properly insulating and weatherizing your house down to HVAC ducts! There's even information on where our stormwater and runoffs go (which affect our fish and other wildlife), how much energy different specific kitchen appliances use, not putting grease/oil down the drain, vacuum the coils on our fridge 2x's a year to keep our fridges efficient, thinking about the temp and weather when considering what to cook (don't run your oven on hot days), installing energy efficient fixtures/bulbs, and only doing laundry and dishes with full loads so as to maximize efficient when washers and dishwashers. These are things many people don't know or haven't thought about. Overall, the RUEC does a great job at educating the community and especially kids on environmental and resource conservation and also provides info about how we can practically make a difference just by being more aware of how we use energy and other natural resources.

Located next to the Martha Riley Library, the Roseville Utility Exploration Center is a community…read moreeducation center that's free to visit anytime it's open. I think that's pretty cool. We took our kids here since we like fun educational activities and free is always the right price. We went on a Saturday and it was not too busy. The staff is friendly who greeted us, then we just wandered around a bit. They have interactive utility exhibits about how the City of Roseville provides utility services to their residents. They have their own power plants and substations, etc. to generate their own energy, so their residents pay less than even SMUD customers, I was kind of jealous about that. At least I'm not paying PG&E electricity, but maybe I should've looked into living in Roseville. Anyhow, they also have their own sewage and water facilities of course, and their services are focused on saving water and sustainability and being resource conscious and eco-friendly, which all make sense. My kids enjoyed the interactive activities about using less electricity and water, but what they really liked was the Utility Truck Experience where they got to go on a Recycling truck and pretend play. It was pretty cool. There are also tons of education displays on shopping smart to get things that last and not disposable items that end up in the landfill. In addition to permanent exhibits, they also offer kids educational classes. My kids took a few over the years, one of them was on urban planning and it was quite interesting for them to learn how to design and layout infrastructure for a pretend city that makes sense for where to put the power plant, the landfill, the sewage system, etc. relative to locations of homes, roads, nature places like rivers and lakes, and public places like parks, schools, and fire stations, etc. All in all, RUEC (as they call it) is a really nice little museum that kids and adults alike where we can learn a lot about utilities and resource conservation, it's great that it's open 6 days a week and it's free and everyone's welcome, not just Roseville residents, and they even offer free educational classes (w/advance RSVP) for kids. Worth checking out if you've not been.

Really cool place to visit with the kids! We came here on a Sunday morning when they opened and had…read morethe place pretty much to ourselves for a good hour or so. They make such good use of the space. There's so much here, and almost all of it was interactive! We especially liked the first responder vehicles that we could climb in (with uniforms, too!) and play with. The Lego racetrack was a hit as well, and there were a couple of space-themed stations where we could design badges! More favorite places included the pretend grocery store and the water course area where we could use panels to change the flow of water to see how the currents are affected when we raced little boats. We ended up spending close to 3 hours here. Very worth the price of admission. We'll be back!

This is spot is perfect for meetups, play dates, school trips and so much more. Paid a small fee to…read moreget in but after that we had such a blast. They do offer several types of memberships too. It's like a mini Exploratorium with less science and more toys and activities for the little ones. Great for all ages. Arts and crafts, building blocks, story time, some science, miniature places to visit, huge hand washing station and so much more. Highly recommend having some sanitizer , or wipes on standby as there are all types of kids and age groups playing . There is a huge wash station when you walk in but kids are gonna be kids you know. Definitely want to come back and have a huge play date and utilize more stuff.

Drive past it so you know where to go, but park in a "C lot" on la rue. A stroller may be necessary…read moreto get from parking lot to entrance. "A" parking is for faculty and staff until 5pm. 35260 for a hint on the parkmobile app. You'll prob need parking for 1 hour. Cut through the parking lots and building walkways to get to Bohart. Museum (I think "open lab" is a more apt name) is on the ground floor, wander til you locate the door. Entrance is free. Have an idea about what bugs you would like to request to see. They have a small case for live/preserved bugs that you can hold, but if you come without ideas you might find it a little underwhelming with young ones. Ideal for kids who can safely hold a bug or glass jar without dropping or shaking. The staff is kind and knowledgeable. The room is small, you may like a mask on hand. They have a gift shop area and they have bug nets you can borrow.

Bugs are cool! Betcha didn't know that the seventh largest worldwide collection of them in No…read more America is nearby at UC Davis. They also boast the second largest mosquito collection -- shhh, don't tell Bill Gates! This was my second visit, this time with kids on a field trip. The collection is vast -- so extensive that they have installed rolling bookcases to house the specimens. Our 45 minute tour led us through some of the cases and then on to live specimens which included a giant millipede, hissing cockroaches, a scorpion, black widow, tarantula, walking sticks, and a leaf bug. Our group of little bookworms with ants in their pants was enchanted! The museum is open to visitors from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday. Wise people call first before they go to ensure the museum is available. While there is a small charge for tour led groups, the museum is free for general admission. But don't be a stink bug; put some money in the donation box.

Adj: Educationally Engaging and Eye-Opening Experience…read more How sad to find out that this museum closed. We visited last year on Sacramento's Free Museum Weekend and it was truly a fascinating and eye-opening experience. With fire in general and wildfire being such a concern in our great State of California, it was a very educational experience for our young ones as well as for ourselves to come visit this little museum. It was actually pretty big, there were so many historic fire engines, trucks, automobiles. They were so cool looking, but all performed amazing life-saving functions in their heyday. From the moment we arrived, we were greeted by knowledgeable docents who had personal ties to fire-fighting. One of them was a retired firefighter and captain. Another was the wife of a firefighter, still others were related to someone who was a firefighter. This meant the fire museum had personal and significant meaning to each docent. Amongst the more fascinating parts of the museum were the fire pumps. Back then it was hard work (maybe even harder than today) to fight fires b/c it was a lot of muscle power required! Another part that was super interesting to me were the fire alarms call boxes. They were so many different ones, the docent told us that some retire firefighters including himself keep a few in their backyards as decorations. The station had these huge dispatch centers (fire alarm rooms) w/operators in them to receive alarms/calls and then the reports were dispatched to the closest station(s) Finally, the uniforms and other equipment used were also on display and they were also really interesting since they represent such a significant part of Sacramento's history.

Well, it's a bummer this place closed. Was going to maybe take the kids here again since it was fun…read morethe last time around. Can always learn something new when we revisit. This tucked away museum is a mine of information, an eye opener to how fire response has changed in the US over the years. From when firefighting was a very local activity, in the 1800s, to the complex call boxes and GPS locating responses of our modern era. We were shown a systematic upgrading system to fire emergencies and equipment throughout history. Displayed was even the first horse drawn fire engine and earliest fire hydrants. The history covered by the museum is perfect for homeschooling students, any adults or kids, and history buffs alike. Many of the retired technologies like pull boxes and alarms were on display. Walking through this museum was taking a journey back into America's past to see how fire fighting used to work, to give everyone an appreciation for the safety systems we have today.