It is Spring Break here and this year we didn’t go to Florida for various reasons. The main reason being the state of the economy and considering our company has numerous employees laid off, we didn’t feel right going on vacation. So we stayed home but we did decide to do something fun with the kids.

We considered doing a weekend trip to Great Wolf Lodge with several friends. After looking at the outrageous prices on Spring Break ($500/night), we decided that didn’t make an economical sense either. We were really hoping to do that but even with a discount code, it would have been $400/night. Practically double the normal rate and this was just for a regular room.

Our plan was to go to the Zoo this morning but the weather dicated no. It was rainy, cold, and windy. Not a good combination. Especially when you have a child who has a cough already.

So we ended up at our second choice – the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. It was only second choice because we knew it would be packed and at least at the Zoo, there is plenty of room to move around. Though, I bet if we would have went today, we would have had the place to ourselves!

Started off the morning with my daughter, who is 10, texting me to tell me that her friend didn’t want to go now so I had to take her home. The “friend” only wanted to go if we went to the Zoo. Though, she had warned her that if the weather was bad we would go to the Children’s Museum instead and she said that was fine. I will note, the friend had went to the Museum the day before but knew it was still a real possibilty. So I had to drive 10 minutes out of my way to get her home – which caused me to be late meeting my sister-in-laws.

On a side note, my daughter was VERY upset about this development – cried after the other girl told her this. What kind of friend doesn’t still want to go? Isn’t it about spending time with your friend and not the location? I was irritated too. I can guarantee (yep, that is a guarantee) if my daughter wanted to come home, I would have told her tough cookies. That’s just rude.

So we get to Indy without any major disasters happening. Traffic is crazy on the way there. There is construction around the Museum so the skywalk is closed. The horror of having to walk in a light drizzle.

We had fun waiting in line. Took some pictures while standing in line with the lego guys and exhibit advertisements. Love the little Lego Men with their hard hats.

Once we get inside the people mover lady was a little bossy. She told us since we had a large group we needed to have one person get the tickets and the others go stand in the middle. Reminder, there are 3 family groups with 4 adults and 7 children. We all had different payment methods and if we took turns getting the tickets it would have took forever.

So with a little disgusted look from the people mover lady, we ignored her advice. I know they want to make the lines appear to be shorter but that didn’t work for us as I don’t think one of us adults could have controlled 7 children for 15 minutes. I don’t like the odds of that adult/child ratio.

I have to do a little bathroom review. The little toilets were so cute and the little one who is recently potty trained LOVED using the kid sized facilities. I wish every bathroom was set up for the little ones. With small sinks and paper towels at their level – they really can do it themselves.

I think we visited every exhibit at the museum. One of the favorite areas for my children was the Science area. They had a blast playing in the water and think they all came out of there a little soaked. I’ve added our story along with pictures on Whrrl, which is a really cool new site that allows you to upload pictures as you go and add pictures to it. If you have an iPhone, I bet it is much more fun with their app. I had a Blackberry Storm and added the pictures as we went along today but was very limited on what I could do.

I know going to these places is expensive but the cost of the food was a little ridiculous for the substandard food. I wasn’t impressed with our $5.49 lunch which include 3 chicken strips, tater tots, and a juice box. (We originally were just going to snack and eat after leaving but we were all famished!) Then we had the issue where people were saving seats before they got their food and that always leads to a backlog of tables with savers while people with trays are walking around aimlessly. After 5 minutes of searching for an empty table, I finally happened among two young ladies who were leaving their table. No enough chairs so I had to stand for awhile until I decided to make my daughter share her seat with me.

I let each of the kids pick out a $5 item in the gift shop and they all stuck to it with no whining. WOW! I think they were worn out by then. I know I was.

P.S. If you have never been to the Children’s Museum or are planning a trip to Indianapolis, I highly recommend taking your kids. There is fun stuff for kids of all ages. It is truly one of the gems of Indianapolis.

One more thing on a somewhat unrelated note, when we left the parking garage (free parking, BTW), I went out the wrong exit, which made me go south instead of north. I went down one block to make the turn around to get back to Meridian Street. We encountered a homeless guy asking for money and we handed him a bag of chips out the window. He told us thank you, which we appreciated. I hope it helps him out for the night and wish I could do more but you just never know in those kind of situations if the person is legit. Sadly, we saw several more homeless on our way home and not all were in Indianapolis, I saw two in the Carmel area. It is the highest number I’ve witnessed lately and sadly, I think it is going to get worse.