Nebraska travel: Omaha museums to visit with kids

Omaha, Nebraska is a thriving metropolis offering lots of attractions to families for a vacation close to home, including arts, sports, outdoors activities, and a number of quality museums. Our family recommends two Omaha museums to visit with kids: the Durham and the Omaha Children’s Museum.

Visiting the Durham Museum with kids

Durham-museum

The Durham Museum, housed in Union Station, honors Omaha’s history as the eastern terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad.

The highlights for kids are the hands-on teepee and mud lodge, the stage coach, and of course, the trains: a steam engine, coal car and caboose; a streetcar; and a passenger train where you can walk through a private dining car, seating car, a club car, and sleeper cars. There’s also a big model train.

The rest of the permanent exhibits are interesting and educational, but most are static rather than interactive. Your best bet is to take turns supervising kids in the areas of most interest to them so the adults can peruse the rest at their leisure.

When we visited, there was a temporary exhibit called “Pirates and Shipwrecks.” Everyone in our family enjoyed the hands-on displays, from a n “experience hurricane winds” tube to operating a remote robotic arm to retrieve gold coins from the bottom of the “ocean.”

Dining/Shopping:

The museum gift shop is housed in the former ticket counter. There is also a soda fountain offering ice cream sundaes, shakes and candy as well as brats and hot dogs.

Hours/Admission/Location/Parking:

Plan to spend 2-3 hours at the Durham Museum, which is located at 801 South 10th Street in downtown Omaha. There is a dedicated free parking lot, and also free parking on surrounding streets. Admission is $11 for adults, $7 for kids 3-11. It is open 1-5 on Sundays, and 10-5 Mon.-Sat., with evening hours on Tuesday.

Visiting the Omaha Children’s Museum

omaha-museum

The Omaha Children’s Museum was, as you might expect, a highlight of the trip for our younger kids. It was a little young for the eleven-year-old, but he eventually found the ball matrix and kept himself entertained for the rest of the visit.

Housed on two floors, the museum is dedicated to play-focused learning and simple fun. There are party rooms and a nursing room, and the museum offers stroller parking in several locations. The Imagination Playground has a grocery store fire house, bank, and so on; the creative arts center offers places to build and paint. The ball matrix uses mechanical, pneumatic, and ballistic power to move the balls.

All this is pretty standard for children’s museums. To me, what set this place apart were the presentations and the temporary display called “Pirates and Mermaids.”

omaha-museumAt the Star Wars-themed science presentation, the young woman centered her experiments around examples from the movies: Luke’s land speeder (a hovercraft made of particle board and a leaf blower), the swinging log on Endor (to demonstrate momentum and force), and Cloud City (making clouds in a plastic bottle using water and forced air).

My daughter loved the presentations in the fairy tale area. Nothing educational here, just lots of scope for the imagination!

The Pirates and Mermaids area housed a pirate ship with cannons to shoot balls and a rope playground with a menacing shark to hover above it. (There was a height limit.)

Outdoors there is a small spray park, a covered patio with a small fire truck, and a playground, with signs around encouraging families to run, play, and picnic.

Shopping/Dining:

There is a cafe upstairs as well as vending machines. You can also go outside and picnic near the playground.

Admission/Audience:

Admission is $12 for kids and adults alike ($11 for seniors). This price reflects an intention for the parents to be hands on with their kids, rather than sitting off to the side while the kids play. Note: as indicated above, older kids are not the target audience; plan accordingly. Give yourself at least three hours, and prepare for the little ones to want to spend the entire day.

Hours, admission, Location, Parking:

Omaha Children’s Museum is located at 500 S. 20th St, Omaha. The museum has a free parking lot, and if school is not in session, the elementary school across the street serves as overflow. There is also metered parking on the street.

Our family visited the Durham Museum and the Omaha Children’s Museum as guests of Visit Omaha, in exchange for an impartial review.

Southern California pit stop: Pioneertown

Pioneertown, California is located in the Morongo Basin of southern California’s Inland Empire. If traveling from Joshua Tree National Park or Palm Springs toward San Bernardino or Los Angeles, Pioneertown will (almost) be on your way. And it’s worth the slight detour.

pioneertown

Located in the mountains overlooking the valley floor, Pioneertown began as an elaborate Hollywood set for Western movies. Complete with a main street lined with saloons, general stores, and liveries, Pioneertown can still be explored by anyone who makes the trip up the winding road.

At the heart of the Pioneertown experience is Pappy and Harriet’s, a sprawling saloon, Tex Mex restaurant, and music venue with ample indoor and outdoor seating. Popular with bikers and music lovers, Pappy and Harriet’s is definitely an adults only pit stop at night. However, during the day, bring the kids for lunch to still get a feel for the campy ambiance, then explore around the ‘town’ before continuing on your way.

There’s nothing much out here other than Pioneertown and the restaurant, although a few souvenir-type shops are sometimes open. Walking around and checking out the town is free. Take photos in the Western jail, sit on the saddle in the center of Main Street, and just enjoy this odd but fun pit stop for what it is…Americana at its best, with some history thrown in.

pioneertown-windmill

Directions:

Pioneertown Road at Route 62 in the town of Yucca Valley. The winding, 4-mile drive northwest to Pioneertown has been designated a California Scenic Drive.

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