High Maintenance Mom

Now that B is three, we've started to go to a larger number of museums and parks. Previously, we went to the zoo. Now we've added children's museums, natural history museums, and science museums. The membership pays for itself if you go to the museum/park several times a year and I find not having to wait in the ticket line to be well worth it. Because we have enjoyed our local memberships, I looked into the pricing for memberships at the San Diego Zoo and Animal Park prior to our trip. It turned out that the membership was cost effective for our visit with my inlaws and everyone was happy to avoid the lines...

I bought the San Diego Zoo/Animal Park Diamond membership a few weeks before our trip so we could get the cards and discount passes in time. B also needed a membership because he is over three. The Diamond membership came with two free passes each to the Zoo and Animal Park along with free parking. The kids loved seeing the animals and it was fun for their grandparents to see their excitement.

We also ended up using our reciprocal membership from the Cal Academy of Sciences to visit the San Diego Natural History Museum and the Science Museum one afternoon. The museum we joined is a participating member of the ASTC (Association of Science - Technology Centers) Passport Program, so we have reciprocal memberships at over 250 institutions mainly in North America but also several around the world.

Because of the penguin movie, it was requested that we visit Sea World, which I made a large fuss about not wanting to visit. Two hundred dollars to see the penguins didn't seem to be cost effective. Once I realized we were really going, I was upset we hadn't checked Craig's List, eBay, or The Pocket Physicist's corporate programs for discount tickets before we left. We ended up buying a membership for B at Costco, which gave us discount (20% off) guest tickets (we needed four) along with free parking, and discounts on food and gifts. The park was more fun than I anticipated and we all had a great time.

If you haven't taken advantage of your local parks and museums, I recommend it. In most cases, someone at the attraction has carefully thought out how to make the exhibits kid-friendly. Plus, there is often space for the kids to run around while you sit or join them. Sometimes it's easier to go out than it is to stay home.