Museum of Science and Industry

Chicago is awesome.

And we live in the perfect location. Seriously. 10 minutes west to campus, 10 minutes east to the lake/beach, and 7 minutes east to the Museum of Science and Industry. So naturally, when a groupon appeared for a discounted yearly pass, we got one! One of the university owned buildings has an indoor "tot lot" where a lot of the members in our ward take their kids to play in the winter, but we have a MUSEUM just down the street!

Cost justification: hmm, $55/year for the "tot lot," or $89/year for an awesome museum? Also, I had been thinking maybe I would get a membership at the university gym, that's like $120+/year, but now during the winter I'm going to walk down to the museum and walk around inside there with Dean. That's less than $10/month!  When i signed up i said we have 4 children, so our pass gets in up to 7 people at once! more incentive for people to come visit us! :) I'm not sure if they have a WIC discount, the museum COSI in Columbus had a $20-30 WIC yearly membership, but if they do, we're doing that next year. And the year after that, and the year after that...


Also, in Columbus, a family in our ward had a yearly membership to the Franklin Conservatory and during the winter they would go at least once a week. In case you forgot, conservatories are glass indoor quiet peaceful places with humidity and warmth and jungle atmosphere to keep the plants going. and they usually have butterflies and fish and sometimes birds. And they are usually pretty desolate because they're kindof boring. So your kids can run wild and you can have a picnic and noone will really care.  Anyways, Chicago has a free Conservatory that is open 365 days a year. So we'll be doing that...

AND, a lot of museums in the area have free days for Chicago residents. The Art Institute of Chicago is free to Chicago residents every Thursday after 5pm. Did I mention that we live about 3 minutes from the Metra? and that the Metra stops in the city on either side of the Art Institute? How convenient.

Also there is a planetarium, and the aquarium, and the zoo (always free). And there is an ice skating rink on the midway, and 2 free ice rinks in millenium park during the holidays. Also the oriental institute and a host of other art museums in hyde park are free. The chicago public libraries also have museum passes (first come first serve) you can check out for a week and get your family in for free. 

And most importantly, our newfound favorite Wednesday tradition, $1 shakes on campus! We are going to be spoiled rotten here. 

Are you convinced yet? Frontier flights are cheap, I saw tickets to ORD for as low as $59 one way! But seriously, fly into the midway, it's closer.