Last week we took the kid’s on our 2nd trip as a family to Cosi, a really big science museum in Columbus, Ohio. This was about a 2 hour drive for us one way (I’m taking my husband’s word on that part- I didn’t time it). Cosi is so big that it took us 2 trips to see it. The first time we went was last August (2009) I think.

If you look at the website (Cosi.org) and see ticket prices you may think, how can going there be called “frugal”? Well, Cosi is part of  the ASTC Travel Passport program that allows free general admission (there may be varying rules for each museum) to other science museums around the USA and in other countries. Since we live near the McKinley Museum in Canton, Ohio, we bought the family membership with includes the ASTC Passport Program thereby allowing us to visit Cosi for FREE!

**If you do buy a membership I recommend calling the places you want to visit to be sure they are still in the program and what part of the admission will be free before you make a long drive to where you wish to visit.

The Membership program we bought last year through McKinley cost us $49.00.  We’ve been to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for free as well.  We think we may be driving to Cosi again to see the Titanic Exhibit thats coming later this month. You can see how quickly admission prices add up so its smart to buy a membership. I have family near Chicago and we can visit the Field Museum and more out that way too.

I’m sharing some pictures from out latest trip. Above our boys climbed down into a mini-sub. There was a waiting line for this opportunity and that may be why we didn’t do it at our first trip. Oh, the day we went to Cosi was a rainy day and there were a LOTTA people there that day.  While hubby waited in line for us I took the boys around the corner where they could do some interactive “submarine” related stuff.

We got to visit Grossology this time- I think this is new. It was pretty cool, as far as “gross” goes. I’m not all into gross but…

Above is the giant nose you can walk into. Below is a step/slide and crawl area for kids. They get to experience being a piece of food chewed, swallowed (slide into the stomache) and then you crawl out the intestines as …what else but POOP!

There was SOO much to see, like I said, it took us 2 trips. These are just a few pictures of our recent trip. I highly recommend buying the best membership you can and going to Cosi a few times or more! Last year when we visited the temporary exhibit was an Egyptian type complete with mummy and a fake camel for the kids to climb on and get pictures with. You can see some pics of our trip then by clicking HERE. In that post I also mention a place called Boonshoft where you might be able to can get a ZOO/MUSEUM membership deal for a great price ($79.00). I will be looking for a membership like that somewhere so we can get into the zoos at a discount as well.

We will definitely be looking into getting a membership through Boonshoft OR {update here} COYOTE POINT ($65 for a family& includes the Zoos/Science Museum Reciprocal Progam) later this year. I plan to homeschool the boys in the fall and I plan to make field trips a regular thing 😉

Subscribe here to get my updates by email or RSS!  Subscribe now and find out where I get our next membership. Our McKinley membership (museums only) will expire this summer and I want one that covers Zoos & Aquariums  AND Science Museums. I’ll post about it later.