National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY

While on our very long road trip adventure this summer we found ourselves at the National Museum of Play, also known as the Strong Museum in Rochester, NY. This museum was awesome. We stayed all day until it closed. It is for children and from their website, I thought it would only be for little kids. When we got there, however, I realized what a poor job their website does, because my nine year old had a blast!

National Museum of Play

This museum had an entire area full of mind-bender/hands-on puzzles, even the grandparents had fun in this room! It was very challenging. I wish I had gotten a picture. My kids spent an hour or two in there. Here are some pictures of the museum that I did get.

The farm area is complete with an elaborate chicken egg harvesting setup.

They have a “sand” area. It is not actually sand, but instead tiny little pieces of plastic or something like that. You don’t get dirty!

They have a dress-up area along with a stage.

This was an area that you had to find upstairs that had a giant chessboard. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much my kids played with this. I didn’t think they would be that into it.

This is near the Sesame Street zone. These are pipes that make music.

This area was good for older kids. This is a ball contraption and I would be embarrassed to admit here how long it took myself and two other grown-ups to figure this thing out and then explain it to my kids. I’m just going to focus on the fact that we did figure it out!

As you can see Noah really enjoyed it.

These were taken inside their butterfly habitat. Inside the Strong Museum’s butterfly habitat are hundreds of butterflies and all kinds. As you walk around a small loop you will have a chance to see them all. There’s even a little waterfall in there. This is butterfly room is a great place for a photo op. It is a little humid in there.