The planetarium wasn’t recommended for kids under six, so we skipped that. Maybe that was the “other sciences” part. But we saw the aquarium and the butterfly/rain forest exhibit (very cool, except Degen got a little claustrophobic and kept asking when we could go outside). And we saw the penguins.

A few notes in case I go again, or for those of you planning a trip:

The parking garage is pretty close, but expensive, like $12 for four hours. You might be able to get free 4 hour street parking, but don’t count on it.

We got there 30 minutes before the 9:30am opening time, and were only in line for about 5 minutes after it opened. The very long line moves fast so don’t be intimidated. It was rainy that day, so that might have affected it, but there was ZERO line when we left at 1pm.

Get in line for the rain forest immediately if you’re not going for the planetarium. Lines there get long and move slowly because they have staff supervised double doors in and out to keep the fancy butterflies and bugs in.

The food is wildly expensive. A little ham sandwich costs $8.50. A bottle of soda is $2.50. Pack your lunch and eat it in the lovely atrium in the center of the building.

I want to try to get to the roof garden next time. I think roof gardens are neat.

It’s a busy place, so bring enough adults to supervise kids going in different directions. Grandma and Grandpa came with us and we were just able to keep track of our two preschoolers running at different speeds and in different directions, plus the baby in the stroller.

The rain forest is hot. The rest of the place was slightly chilly. Wear layers.

I liked the albino alligator, the jellyfish, and getting to touch star fish, abalone, and spikey sea urchins. The kids liked getting to stomp on virtual bugs in a floor projected game and catch butterflies in a Wii-style computer game. Maggie liked touching the star fish too, but Degen would have nothing to do with touching animals.

4 hours is not enough to see the whole thing, but it’s past the amount of stimulation my 4-year-old can manage with any civility, and even worse for my 3-year-old.

There were a couple of less-than-appealing moments, like a monkey peeing on Ben Stiller. And he says the A-word once that I noticed.  The only other disappointment for me was the special features on the DVD.  The only features were commentaries, one by the director and one by the screen writers.  Neither were enthralling and we turned them off before reaching the halfway mark.  Other than that, it was a fun movie to watch.