Life And Science Museum of Durham, NC

We went to yet another museum this week-this time we made the trip to Durham to visit the Life and Science Museum-IT IS AWESOME. Well worth the drive and everyone with kids of ANY age should take them.

There was a super cool train ride-much better than the one at Pullen Park, if you have ever been there, and an amazing dinosaur walk that had all the little boys going crazy. Little Dude, Linus, and JR were SO excited about the dinosaurs. The best part was the fossil digging at the end of the trail-I could see spending many hours there.

The museum was so huge we didn't even get to see everything-they have a mini zoo there with native animals and a barn yard-that was a HUGE hit. The butterfly house was 100 times bigger than the one at the Science Museum in Raleigh-and we didn't even get to see all of it because the outdoor air one was closed for the cold weather. Emily LOVED that; the boys loved chasing each other.

They even had a butterfly gift shop-ohhhh, I could see spending too much money there!

So, needless to say, it was AWESOME. They have a whole indoor part too, with weather, space, BUGS-ewww!-and a music room. I can't even tell you everything that was there.

We will be back for sure-and the great thing is that kids under 3 are free and parking is free, SO the 12.50 for me and 9.50 for Little Dude to get in and wander around for a few hours was well WELL worth it. Also, the museum is DEAD in the afternoons, so it was just us and my wonderful bloggy friend Abby, her son, and a handful of other people.

My suggestion though, if you don't live in Durham, make sure you head home by 4, because traffic SUCKS getting back to Raleigh from there. We left around 4:30, and I ended up SITTING for a good 20 minutes around Miami/Page Road, which made our almost hour drive home even longer-ugh. So, lesson learned here; I will have to be more diligent about leaving early.

Overall, I liked this one better than Marbles; however, it is a long drive from my part of town, so I would probably go to Marbles more often. Marbles is awesome for little kids, but for preschool and school age ones, I would choose the Durham museum as the best. Everyone should go check it out at least once.

*This is my opinion, I was not compensated to give this review or share my thoughts, I just wanted to let everyone know how cool it was *