If you are traveling with younger children stop at the expanded
Children’s Museum of Cleveland, housed since last November in
a former “Millionaire’s Row” historic mansion. Its newest exhibit
“Meadow,” designed for children from birth to age three, opened this
month. Other exhibits include Adventure City, Wonder Lab, Arts &
Parts, Making Miniatures, and next month Play List and Theater will
open.
Adventure City, the largest exhibit space, invites children
to build, work, climb, and explore the bustling city that includes
a market and a construction site. The Wonder Lab is an industrial
science laboratory with water tables, whirlpools, jets and a magnetic
wall that invites creative construction. Creating cascades of bubbles
is popular for all.
Arts & Parts is an art studio where children can work with various
materials, tools and supplies to design, construct and experiment to
create special objects to take home or add to a communal project. For
children with special needs, the museum offers a sensory friendly
room, call-ahead accommodations, noise canceling headphones, and
other aides.
Other popular family attractions include:
• The Great Lakes Science Center, next door to the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, is one of the nation’s leading science and
technology centers, featuring hundreds of hands-on exhibits, the
NASA Glenn Visitor Center, OMNIMAX Theater, and the Steamship
William G. Mather.
• The Greater Cleveland Aquarium opened in January 2012 in
an 1892 building designed to provide electricity to streetcars. There
are eight galleries and more than 50 exhibits. Highlights for many
visitors are the daily stingray and tortoise encounters. There are also
a variety of interactive programs from behind-the-scene tours to a
diving with the sharks program.
• The 183-acre Cleveland Metroparks Zoo offers several truly
thrilling close-up encounters with wild animals. Elephants are always
popular and there are several opportunities for close ups.
The highlight of the African Savanna is surely the giraffes with
their incredibly long necks and gentle nature. Lettuce leafs are for
sale to feed the sweet faced giraffes during the warmer months.
Other highlights are the gorillas, monkeys, and several species
of lemur, Siberian tigers, rare snow leopards, lions, and bears, as well
as kangaroos with babies in their pouches, wallabies, and orangutans.
Travel Tip of the Month: For more information visit www.
ThisisCleveland.com or call 800-321-1001.
Deborah Williams is a veteran travel who lives in Holland, NY. Her
work has appeared in national and international publications and
she is the recipient of the Society of American Travel Writers Lowell
Thomas Gold Travel Writing Award.
October 2018 WNY Family 17