Discovery Gateway Children's Museum

 Last week we were in northern Utah with our kids and thought we try out the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. This children's museum is located in the Gateway Mall. Hours are from 10 am- 6 pm Monday-Thursday and 10 am- 8 pm Friday- Saturday. Admission is $8.50 for adults and children over age 1. Discounts for groups available. Parking rates vary, but you can get validated parking vouchers at the museum or stores throughout the mall. (With lunch and everything we were at the mall for four hours and ended up paying $2 for parking. Heaven compared to parking at the museums in Chicago.) The only coupon I could find was a 2 for 1 in the Salt Lake City, Utah Entertainment book. (You can get 17.5% back when you purchase Entertainment books through Ebates.) Occasionally there are free admission deals available, but I couldn't find any that haven't expired.
 My kids loved this place, but I was a little disappointed. I thought 'Wow 4 floors of children's activities!' But there isn't anything on the first floor and the fourth floor is just administrative offices, so it's really only 2 floors. Here are the basic features of this children's museum: a large ball and tube area, a construction block area, a farm, grocery store, a Lifeflight helicopter  complete with buttons and sound effects (I have to say that I thought that was pretty awesome), animation center, a digital media center, a large room that was full of different kinds of blocks and small building materials.  There was another temporary exhibit called "Play". There was one part of it that my husband and I couldn't figure out at all (was it broken?), and I thought that the explanations were way too preachy for the age group that they were supposed to be geared to. I did notice and appreciate that everything was very clean and there was hand sanitizer conveniently located throughout the museum. This is a big bonus for me. I realize that keeping things acceptably clean when you have activities that are geared towards little hands is no small feat, and I have been to museums who don't do as good of a job.

Sitting in the Lifeflight helicopter

If we were in the area again and had coupons, I may go again, but I don't think that it's worth paying full price for children and adults.