story and photos by Kayte Deioma
It’s a good thing that there are signs posted from all directions pointing to the Kidspace Museum in Pasadena or I would never have found the unassuming white structure in Brookside Park across from the Rose Bowl. 
But the signs are easy to spot and they led me into the vast Parking Lot 1, then past the camouflage of uniform-clad soccer teams and bushy trees and up to a big white house with a little round sign near the ground next to the entrance. The contrast between the businesslike exterior and the fantasy that begins as you enter the Kidspace Museum is startling.
A Kaleidoscope Tunnel of glittering red, orange, and gold circles and mirrors leads you into the building. Another sign directs you out the other side of the 
building to the ticket booth that juts into the inner courtyard. Beyond the ticket booth, are two distinct worlds. Mothers at courtyard tables sip their mochas from the Nestle Café by Wolfgang Puck. Just feet away, kids in hard hats work together to create structures of giant blocks or PVC pipe and plastic squares as others drive pint size construction vehicles in the Blasting Zone. Steam shoots up from the pavement, reminiscent of the streets of New York, not Pasadena.
Beyond the central courtyard, you enter another imaginary world, or really, many of them, bumping up against each other in the Digging Deeper exhibit. 
Kids can interact and get a bug’s eye view with people-sized bugs and become servers or customers inBugsy’s Diner or get up close and personal with a real bee hive. They can go on an archaeological dig and discover fossils and dinosaur bones, create an earthquake by moving tectonic plates, drive a jeep or climb up and up and up on all kinds of climbing towers. Supervised art and activity stations let them get as messy and creative as they want.
Through the glass doors the Nature Exchange provides hands on opportunities to learn about rocks and fossils. Kids can bring their favorite stones and trade them for different ones.
If it’s not raining, you’ll definitely want to venture into the KidspaceGardens. Even in a mild drizzle, you might want to throw rain ponchos on the kids and go out to explore, but watch your step. The trail can be slick in the rain.
This area really sets Kidspace apart from most other children’s museums. Immediately behind the Digging Deeper building, is the paved Wisteria Courtyard. On one side is Kirby’s Kid’s Korner, where kids can play on a small playground. Most of the rest of the pavement is covered by the Trike Tracks where kids can race around on solo or tandem trikes. In the Stone Hollow Amphitheater on the hillside above the courtyard, staff present educational and interactive shows with costumed characters if the weather is good. The hillside is landscaped as a miniature version of Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco, with a trickle of a stream running down the rocky hill. TheSpider Web Climber, Bat Cave, and the Strata Cliff Climb rock climbing wall are popular highlights of the outdoor exhibit.
From the central courtyard to the back of the outdoor exhibit, most activities are designed for kids five and up. The Early Childhood Development Center has activities and toys for children four and under in the front building next to the Busy Bee Learning Store. Immediately to the right when you come through the kaleidoscope tunnel is the Nestle Café by Wolfgang Puck. Considering that it is in a museum, the food is reasonably priced, and since it bears the Wolfgang Puck brand, it’s also quite good.
The Kidspace Museum in Pasadena used to occupy the gymnasium of a downtown elementary school. They moved to this 3.5 acre location in 2004 and are still under construction – not just by the kids. Look for the interior exhibit space to have tripled by March 2007.
Kidspace offers a $2 Rainy Day Discount.
Kidspace Museum
480 N. Arroyo Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91103
(626) 449-9144
www.kidspacemuseum.org
Your first stop should be the Ford Education Center. For an extra charge, you can try out the Wild Adventure Simulator, a virtual reality ride offering movement and sound to create an adventure for your senses. There are a variety of different animated simulations that alternate, so depending on when you visit, you may find yourself saving dinosaurs from extinction, searching for life on the bottom of the ocean or seeing the world through the eyes of birds, bees, tigers and other creatures.
The award-winning Amphibiville is populated with hundreds of amphibians like frogs and salamanders, some living on two acres of outdoor wetlands, and others in recreated environments inside the National Amphibian Conservation Center. The intricately constructed exhibits in the Center are inhabited by creatures from around the world. Some of the indoor habitats are created with glass walls to the outside so you can see what’s going on in the outdoor habitat, even if you’re staying inside out of the rain. Even if it’s not raining outside, it might be raining in the Immersion Gallery where you can walk through a recreated environment that may be experiencing rain or fog.
The Wildlife Interpretive Gallery is housed in the zoo’s oldest building which is 10,000 square feet of interactive displays, wildlife theatre, video and multi-media to draw in visitors for a fun way to learn about the animals and nature. There is also an exhibit hall within that offers rotating exhibits.
The Butterfly Garden offers first hand experience with a wide range of beautiful butterflies from Costa Rica and El Salvador. The Holden Reptile Museum houses the zoo’s reptile collection. The Penguinarium also offers a covered climate-controlled display of a variety of breeds of the ice bound birds.
The Atrium Le 1000 was not on my list of potential rainy day activities when I set out for Montreal. I didn’t see it listed in any of the guidebooks or webs sites I used for my research. But once in Montreal, it was the one spot everyone mentioned when I talked about fun things to do on a rainy day, so I had to check it out for myself. There are plenty of ice skating rinks in this city where kids learn to skate almost as soon as they learn to walk, but only one in a downtown office block.
This year-round ice rink is located in Le 1000, a 51 story office building at 1000 de La Gauchetiére Street West, the tallest structure in Montreal. Le 1000 has garnered awards for being environmentally responsible and for the design of the food court surrounding the Atrium Le 1000 skating rink. Of the ring of restaurants, only the Subway sandwich shop was open on a Sunday afternoon, but there was a steady flow of people coming and going on the ice.
There are several things about the Atrium Le 1000 that make it a great place for children and beginners to take to the ice. According to staff, the ice itself is softer than at most skating rinks. Since the air isn’t any colder than cool air conditioning, that’s easy to believe. They also provide the Easy Skater, a frame like a walker that you can hold onto while your feet learn how to control the blades. This is such a brilliant idea. For klutzes like me, the idea of skating is intimidating because I’ve seen how easy your feet can slip out from under you if you don’t know what you’re doing. Having a sturdy frame to support you as you cross the ice for the first time is a confidence builder. Easy Skaters come in child and adult sizes.
The diversity of the crowd was refreshing, from families with children of all ages to well-seasoned seniors. There were regulars and first-timers, off-season hockey players keeping blade muscles in shape and a bus driver in uniform gliding through his lunch hour for a bit of exercise. A couple young girls were getting some impromptu lessons from a senior coach who was there for an afternoon spin around the ice.