An amazing experience for the whole family! Adults and kids alike will have an absolutely wonderful…read moretime interacting with the model trains. There is a 1930s miniature train that the family can ride on that takes you all around the property. The building is air conditioned and accessible. If you and the family are visiting the Cave in the Mounds in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, then you've got to visit The Toy Train Barn Museum!

This museum has made our young sons blissfully happy many times, but we adults find something…read morespecial and new upon every visit too. Buck Guthrie has poured his passion and life's work into creating something truly special.

This place is so interesting and it is HUGE. Be prepared to spend a lot of time here. Some areas…read moreare very hot/humid. I do not deal well with heat so I did have to move thru some areas faster than I would have liked. They do have a cafe half way thru so you can have some food and drinks. I did not stop here but it did smell wonderful. There's many things to see and everything is really cool and unique. The house and infinity room are impressive as well as the HUGE whale but all of Alex's inventions and collections are amazing as well. Honestly, the whole reason why I wanted to come was the world's largest indoor carousel. It is beautiful. I definitely sat there for awhile watching it. Side note on the Carousel, they have no horses but they do have a bulldog and as a owner of a bulldog, I literally bought everything in the gift shop that had a bulldog on it. Till this day, they are still uncovering more items in storage lockers so they probably will continue to add more items. I do think this place is worth the price and it is something you won't find anywhere else. I would love to check this place out again and I do highly recommend it. Also, the gift shop is big and had a lot of different items for everyone.

My cousin really wanted to come here and I didn't even know what it was. We drove here from St…read more Louis to come see this attraction. I came in blind, not knowing what it was. It was super impressed. It literally kept going on and on and on. so many fun interesting things. We stopped and got a hotdog at the cafeteria, which was nice because we were getting a little hungry and thirsty on this long walk. I would recommend bringing dollar bills so you can buy coins and put them into the different coin operated machines that they have. They have a lot of those around the entire facility and it's one of the only interactive options. Obviously everything looked really cool. I think that the only thing that would make it better would be to have a more interactive aspect to some of the parts, but I'm not sure how they would do that and I don't think they're gonna change anything. It's still well worth a visit.

We came here on a Sunday with my kids (5 and 3). It being March, the outside was open so we were…read moreglad to explore outside for a bit but it closed at 4 pm. I felt this time that the place was kept tidier. I saw employees moving from area to area and trying to keep things in place, which seems like a pretty tough task with the amount of stuff in each area. My kids had a lot of fun in the upstairs area. There's lots to do & for $12 each, it can easily keep young kids entertained.

I cannot recommend this place highly enough!! Absolutely killer on every level!! This is fun for…read moreadults to come to too! Obviously you need to be an inquisitive person and still enjoy learning new things.... But if you have some kids to bring it's literally like Disneyland but where they learn how everything works in the universe...... You really need to come here multiple times to take everything in..... If you care about your kids, and want them to be smart, this place is mandatory!

This was an unusual, a bit quirky, off the beaten path (though it's right in the middle of…read moreMiddleton) type of museum. It was free - which is why I actually did go in and look around. There is free public parking right near the museum and when you walk in, you walk immediately into the gift shop, with not only mustard paraphrenalia, but also Wisconsin-themed and other gifts. The cashier by the front door greets you heartily. At the back of the gift shop, there is a mustard tasting bar. A number of different flavored mustards are available with pretzel sticks for tasting. A large number of jars that are available for tasting are at the bar and you can taste as many as you like. The mustards are available for purchase, and they have recipe cards for ideas on ways to eat the flavored mustards. The musuem istelf is downstaris, and if there is a mustard product, it is downstairs, with sizes and flavors of all kinds and from all over U.S., Canada, and the world. There are bottles and bottles and containers of mustard, a large mustard bottle plushy, a film about how mustard is made, and even a mustard vending machine. I learned, because of the museum, that the largest producer of mustard is Canada. The mustard museum is a fun, low-stress, low-key stop if you're in the area. It's free, fun, easy to access, educational, and a nice value for the visit.

We stopped here during our cross-country road trip as a place to stretch our legs, and it turned…read moreout to be a fun surprise. The museum is free to visit and, while it's not very large, there's much more to see than we expected. The basement features a fascinating collection of mustard-related memorabilia and exhibits that showcase the history and culture surrounding this unique condiment. It was surprisingly interesting and added a lot of character to the visit. The main floor is home to an extensive selection of mustards from around the world, along with complimentary tastings. The staff member leading the tastings was exceptionally knowledgeable and took the time to explain the different varieties while letting us sample quite a few of them. Overall, it's a quirky and enjoyable stop that's well worth a visit if you're passing through the area. It's the perfect place to take a break from the road and experience one of the more unique museums you'll come across.

This is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it museum on the way to House on the Rock. It is totally worth…read moreyour time to stop. Fantastic collection of local, regional, and global crystals, fossils, gems, and rocks. The owner will give you some history on the collection and then you can just wander and gape at all the cool stuff. There's an entire room of fluorescing rocks. There are massive geodes. There are even more massive fluorite specimens. There are even fossilized lightening strikes! That's right, lightening strikes. There's also a stable so you can go for a ride and visit the museum in one stop.

While it may look unassuming, this is an amazing little museum. The specimens are truly remarkable…read moreand the owner is a kind old man who's happy to share his passion with you. It does cost $7 to get in, but that's a small price to pay for the intimate experience. There is also a small gift shop that's perfect for mineral or fossil nerds (plus it's very reasonably priced. If you're stopping by House on the Rock, Taliesin, or Cave of the Mounds, you need to stop by here! It's criminally underrated! Definitely going to stop by here again.

Tinker Swiss Cottage is a hidden Gem in the middle of Rockford. The house is filled with Victorian…read moreera furnishings, artwork, clothing and everyday items that one wouldn't normally see in one place. There is a long rich history of the house and the architecture is beautiful. In order to enter the museum you need to have a guided tour. The guides are knowledgeable and will go into great detail regarding the history of the house and the family. Well worth the price of admission. Also, depending on what time of year you go depends on how the house is decorated. They will change the furnishings and the interior based on holidays as was the custom in the Victorian era. They also hold various workshops, lectures and events throughout the year. You need to check their schedule to see what might pique your interest. One of the events they do that we enjoyed was the Ghost Tour. The house is allegedly haunted and they will take people through at night and tell stories of things that have happened in the house. We had a lot of fun with it. If ghosts aren't your thing, try holiday teas, Murder Mysteries, lectures and much more. There's something for everyone. Definitely worth the visit.

I visited Tinker Cottage today because I am writing a paper on it for a school assignment and I…read morehonestly loved learning everything about this family who lived here. The lady who gave the tour was super kind and made the experience very try fun. This is definitely a must see if you visit Rockford. The library was so beautiful inside and I loved learning about the secret sparkly mirrors that were used back in the day.

The museum is awesome!! So much to see and learn. The wildlife is incredible to see. We saw a very…read moremajestic bald eagle up close. We experienced the steam engines running and visited with the curator for a bit to learn even more. The movies were very well done. The fact that your tickets are good for two days allows you to take your time. Worth every penny and your time!!! A must see!!

We visited here over Labor Day weekend. Our Reciprocal zoo…read moremembership got us half off admission. Also tickets good for 2 consecutive days. We worked our way backward from neighboring freshwater building with paw patrol special exhibit since our kids needed to get wiggles out. We got to play at opening on Friday morning when it was quiet. Then, we made our way to the maker room where there were hands on water table and toddler area. Afterward we colored sheets at the kids activity table to project their dinosaurs on the screen in diorama. Gift shop at west entrance of freshwater aquarium is smaller so we headed back to 1st building with larger gift shop. It is located just few steps upstairs from entrance which was annoying with stroller wagon needing to go half floor up. I thought the saltwater aquarium on east entrance is a lot better with sting rays and more interesting fishes. Overall we finished in just 3 hours so no need to return the next day. Only complaint is that their restaurant onsite took 30 minutes to get food ready. Overall it was nice experience but we thought paw patrol exhibit could have been a little bigger:

Midway village is great. They have a free walking path and grassy field area open to the public,…read morewhich is beautiful in the spring, summer and fall. The walking path is about a mile around which is a great distance for us. They also have a veterans memorial off the side of the path. Next door they have a museum which I've never been to, but I have been to a wedding nearby and it was a really nice backdrop. I know they have lots of events here throughout the year, including a WWII re-enactment that people from all over the state and region come to. Definitely a place worth checking out.

Worth a visit and we didn't even see everything here!…read more If you're a fan of "A League of Their Own" you need to come see the exhibit about the Rockford Peaches and the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. There's also info about the history of the sock monkey and red heeled socks which are from Rockford, in addition to information about Camp Grant and other local history. We didn't go through the historical village part, but we did check out the dollhouse museum (apparently the collection of one person, but there wasn't really any information about them in the building and no one manning this space). The gift shop is small but well appointed (they need a penny smasher, though!) People can also rent spaces/venues here; there were two weddings happening here the day we were there! A nice smaller local history museum.