City: Olde Towne Portsmouth, VA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (757) 393-8393

Address: 221 High St.

Description: This is that special museum, which started out in the basement of the city’s main library and has been growing ever since. It is geared to kids and their imaginations and is undergoing a two-year renovation with a scheduled reopening in 2011. (Until then, there’s an adjunct facility called Andalo’s Clubhouse at 420 High St.—next to the Courthouse Galleries and across from the Commodore Theater. It features a series of changing exhibits as well as some old friends from the museum: Thomas the Tank Engine, and the town, with it’s bank, market, and library, as well as oversized construction blocks and a series of science demonstrations that test muscles and reflexes, explain sound waves, and explore such magic as the Bernoulli Blower and Newton’s Cradle and Air Cannon.)The new facility will have an additional 12,000 square feet of space, but will retain the special, interactive character that has made this a must-go destination. The new first floor will be aimed at kids six and under and retains the make-believe town concept. Here you’ll find the popular grocery store play area, only it will be expanded to a farm-to-food market. The old dentist office, where kids used to pretend to be on the other side of the drill, is growing to an entire body works area. A new exhibit will put kids into the world of a bustling port. Or they can pretend to be in a bank and count out money. Another area will let kids play vet and heal a pet. The fire engine and motorcycle that kids loved to climb will be back as will the bubble room, where you can blow giant bubbles—including one station where you pull a lever and wind up in the middle of one.The second exhibit floor is designed for 6- to 10-year-olds. Here there will be science exhibits that make those Standards of Learning lessons fun and an environmental area called My Backyard and Beyond that uses a 1,100-square-foot house to show how to go green. The third area will be for creating art and music.Children under 2 are always free and an adult must accompany children under 14. Open daily Labor Day through Memorial Day, Tues through Sat the remaining year. Closed most major holidays.