articles

Road Trip: Strategic Air and Space Museum

by Mary Monahan, Macaroni Kid Lincoln

April 17, 2014

Last week the girls and I drove over to the Strategic Air and Space Museum. We hadn’t been there before and it was a blustery, cold day so we decided to take a little road trip. We live in the center of Lincoln and it took us a little over 30 minutes to drive there. I had always seen the signs for it but had never gone. Our admission was $15-one adult and one child. My youngest one doesn’t count yet for most admissions (sadly, she’ll count soon.)

The first hour we ran around the hangars and climbed into the airplanes that were open to us.  The museum would be a great place to go on a bad weather day, winter or summer, as kids can run! There is a lot of space to just sprint back and forth with little worry of them breaking anything.

If you buy your lunch at the café (and do not bring in any outside food) you can eat in the café. If you bring in outside food you can eat in a hangar under one of the wings of an airplane. We packed our lunch so we ate in the hangar, which I think is a much more fun experience for the kids anyway than eating in a regular cafeteria.

After lunch we found the kids area. It has large building blocks, books and some small science experiments. This was nice to find as my little one and I could sit down for a while. Additionally, there is also an airplane shaped bounce house available to kids. If you are a member it is free and if you are a visitor it is $5 per child to play in the bounce house. 

We passed on the bounce house and instead played with the kiddie rides. This was their favorite part of the museum. There were eight kiddie rides- different kinds of airplanes and helicopters, even a little tank. My daughters spent almost 45 minutes going in and out of those and I had no cash so they just pretended they were flying them.  They have larger motion rides for older children and adults with costs at around $5 per ride. 

We arrived a little before 11:00 AM and we didn’t leave until 2:00 PM. We could have stayed longer but my younger one was desperate for a nap. Our total cost for the day was $15 plus gas to drive there and back. It was a fun field trip for us and something different from our usual routine. We will definitely go back during the summer on a really hot day when we are desperate for an indoor air-conditioned activity.

If you are looking for things to in around Lincoln or in Nebraska check out my pinterest board http://www.pinterest.com/mklincoln/nebraska-road-trip/