High recommend The Modesto Children's Museum to anyone with kids. I first visited as a teacher with…read moremy PreK/TK aged students during a few yearly class field trips. The kids LOVED the climbing structure and big slide AND the water room. The museum also has a light room where children can manipulate magnatiles and create colorful light projections. There's a shopping/store area where children shop, play in the juice bar area, and ring up customers. The air flow area where children can use air to make beach balls float and color scarves shoot through vacuum tubes and fly. There are a couple areas that alternate themes and activities. There are family bathrooms. There's a low stimulation room if your child needs a sensory break. This room also doubles as a nursing room. Every single employee is incredibly kind and helpful. I loved MoChiMu so much that I got my 1 year old a membership for her first birthday so now are regular and attended our first story time at closing the other night. We mostly stay in the little rainbows area that is specifically for children 0-3. They can climb, play with light projector to make colorful projections on the wall, manipulate the giant colorful light bright wall, read books, or rock or bounce on the other movement toys. The museum is probably ideal for kids when they start crawling and seeking movement to maybe 7/8 depending on the child's interests and developmental age. My baby loved watching other children and listening them talk and play at around 6 months, and now she's climbing all over the little rainbows area and walking around to look at and explore the rest of the museum. Anywho, check it out when you can. Yearly membership's go on sale sometimes too so look out for that. You can also get 4 free tickets once a year if you have an adult library card through the discover and go page.

Great place for littles and parents we had a great time. We will be visiting again soonread more

We stopped by the World of Wonders Science Museum for their birthday celebration and honestly had…read moresuch a great time. WOW has always been a favorite for our family, but this event really brought the whole community together. The museum was full of energy with kids running from activity to activity, experimenting, building, and just having fun learning without even realizing it. The raffle baskets were fantastic and way bigger than I expected. You could tell local businesses and supporters really showed up for this event. There were vendors set up, tons of hands on activities throughout the museum, and yes, free popcorn which automatically makes any kid event a win. What I love most about WOW is that it never feels overwhelming or overly structured. Kids are encouraged to explore, touch everything, and be curious. You can easily spend a few hours here and still not see it all. It is such an important space for downtown Lodi and a great reminder of how valuable places like this are for families. Fun, educational, and genuinely community-driven. We had a blast celebrating with the WOW museum!

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!

We rode the Polar Express Christmas-theme train event last year. It was wonderful. Trains and…read morefacilities were nicely decorated and the staff were dressed in Christmas attire. The entertainment was nice. The hot chocolate and snacks were nice, too. We hope to make this a yearly event for our family.

Railtown State Historic Park is extremely cool and fun for all ages! We got to stand on the caboose…read morebuilt for Back To The Future III, viewed the train smoke stack from Little House on the Prairie train, coal powered steam engines, and we saw the Well from the olddddddd show Peticoat Junction: We also were able to see some old trains including ones with wooden grates in the front, and lots of train parts!! He enjoyed explaining things to me.. For a very small fee you can take a ride on a train. Walk around the grounds and see old engines, workshops with all sorts of parts, machines of all sorts. A map is providing for easy understanding of the grounds. It is a trek to get across the grounds and would be difficult for someone with mobility issues. Both of my children grew up coming to not only this park, but to Columbia also. Our family has made many trips here over the years. We love combining, education, history and adventure. They host Christmas events here like the Polar Express train ride to North Pole. This was such a spectacular event I brought my daughter to when she was little. We watched the movie the night before. When we arrived in our pajamas for our VIP seat, we stood in line where we were lovingly harassed by actors. We boarding the train after getting a golden ticket! We sat in the back car. Actors were dancing and singing and chasing hobos off the train while we enjoyed a ride and spilled hot cocoa out of polar express keepsake mugs. Arriving at North Pile and seeing the elves and Santa pushed it over the edge for my young daughter. She was beyonnnnnd excited!! Will I return: We always do. There's something incredibly nostalgic about this place!

Yesterday the McHenry Mansion had free entry as well as cradts at the museum, carroage rides and…read moremore! While visiting the museum, my family and I had a wonderful time getting info on the Stanislaus Libraries in the area, looking at Modedto artifacts and making crafts! The staff were very kind and helpful! Overall, we had a wonderful time!

I had always wanted to stop in at the McHenry Museum, but I never took the opportunity to go, until…read morerecently. The museum hosted an event right before Graffiti Night to kind of kick it off. It was a free event to go inside the museum, and outside were lots of classic cars, trucks, and a few bicycles!! I included lots of photos inside and out!! Well, they had another event last Saturday night! "A night at the McHenry Museum!" What a cute and fun idea!! It was great for all ages. We received a night guard evidence log when we checked in at the front desk! Right before that, we were welcomed by a greeter who opened the door for us. They had nine exhibits with stamps from the people dressed in period or historical costumes. They each gave a little demo or speech about the exhibit they were in. They were all so friendly, and interactive. It really made the scenes come to life! One exhibit was trying to get gold out of the clay rocks, to turn into the cashier for play money, which in turn one could "buy" real candy. I had such a wonderful time. I hope they do this activity again, sometime soon. It would be fun to know about it way in advance, so I could dress up too. That would be really fun! I did not find out about it until a few days before. However, I am so glad I went!

Such a beautiful gem! The mansion is beautifully decorated, well preserved, and has such a unique…read morefeel. I got married here and would recommend it as a wedding venue for anyone looking for a garden wedding. In terms of event planning, Laura was a sweetheart to work with and I appreciated all of her staff's support on the day of the event. The mansion itself is beautiful inside and out. There are two floors and a lower level basement. There are guest restrooms in the lower level. There is one usable restroom that is reserved for the bridal suite guests inside the mansion near the bridal suite room. Overall: Truly such a beautiful venue.

Elegant, unique, historical venue for a wedding. Paired with great weather made the outdoor-indoor…read morecombination just perfect for the intimate event. Added chic decor and great vibes made for a perfect evening.

Well as of last year the Mistlin Gallery closed permanently. It was taken over by the City of…read moreModesto and a good community of artists of all ages were left disbanded. We had a wonderful gallery with events and shows and volunteers committed to the arts. Sad to see it go........

A local treasure that many cities the size of Modesto don't have: a good-sized gallery devoted to…read moredisplaying local art, with a gift shop that sells pieces by local artists, including very affordable prints and cards. Some of the same local artists whose art you can buy also give classes in the learning space. Exhibits rotate often, and there are always announcements for the next one. Now here's the thing with a place that displays a lot of local art: the aesthetics will vary. There are artists I think are top-notch (and I buy the print versions I can afford because my current budget doesn't stretch to originals to go over the sofa). There are artists I think are.. having a great time with self-expression (so I don't buy). Regardless, it is delightful that these are my neighbors (more or less), and many are depicting the local landscape in a part of California that tends to get neglected. Where else can I buy prints of actual Modesto-area places, rather than the "more important" beauty spots elsewhere in the state? I adore this gallery and go as often as I can. Occasionally they will feed you cheese bits or whatever, in a festive way.

This event was a type of searching for spirits, a ghost hunt event. As simple as it was it was also…read morea great experience a bit complex as well but also the environment really made it. The castle itself is historic with some insanely horrific history to it. I'm not going to say much more it's a great experience. The castle does all different types of events throughout the year, they're most popular is the haunt during Halloween season or throughout October. I went one year it was pretty amazing. My family has gone a few times and loved it. Look forward to this year!! Get your tickets quick because it sells out fast.

The Castle never disappoints. It helped that we also had awesome Docents, Francisco and Aaron.read more

Very cool spot. This place is probably best for school-aged children. They do have one wall with…read moreconnector toys for the toddlers but that's about it. It's small but a nice spot to spend under an hour. Also finding the entrance was hard because google maps takes you to the wrong main gate.

I almost got into the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory! Yes, the Lawrence Livermore National…read moreLaboratory is self-described as "a premier research and development institution for science and technology applied to national security." Because they are working with important stuff pertaining to national security, nuclear materials and other top secret stuff, they won't let the average Yelper in there. But, right outside their front gate is the Discovery Center. The Discovery Center is a small museum that gives you a brief introduction to the lab and what they do. They have hands on and interactive exhibits for children to play with. Most of the exhibits were well maintained. It is an interesting way to spend an hour. The staff, at least on the day were there, was fantastic. Since we were the only ones there, she almost gave us a personalized tour to explain some of the exhibits and talk about the lab and what they do. They have an easy scavenger hunt for children with a nice t-shirt as a prize. They are pretty generous with the scavenger hunt and let children of all ages play. The museum is priced just right for most Yelpers. It is free! It's a nice place, with not a lot of visitors.