1651 Coyote Point Drive, San Mateo, California 94401
Good for: Educational family outing
Price: $8/child (2-12), $7/student (13-17), $11/adult, $7/seniors (62+), Free for infants (0-23 months)
Features: Science exhibits, resident animals
CuriOdyssey (fka Coyote Point Museum) is located at the top of the hill in the Coyote Point Recreation area. This is a smaller museum with a focus on green education and natural preservation. It is set near the bay with a beautiful view and is a wonderful area to have a picnic. The first Sunday of every month is free to the public but homeschooling parents are always admitted free. With a new name also came a few new features including the carp tank and solar-powered planter.
When you enter the main area, you will find several exhibits that periodically rotate. Their current ‘tinkering’ theme has a lot of fun contraptions featuring gears, marbles, air-flow, and more. Your children will learn of motion and related energy. Children from 1-1/2 to 9 years old will have a great time experimenting and exploring everything hands-on.
CuriOdyssey also holds regular classes. We recently attended the Homeschool program which focused on life, physical, and earth science. The educators are knowledgeable, patient, and are wonderful at encouraging the children to discover things themselves.
The exhibit area seems much smaller now that they closed off the large ‘wooden’ room for rental. Since nothing really changed that much in there it’s not that bad. In fact, I can imagine the large area is a wonderful place to have a gathering/party and bring some extra revenue in for the museum.
When you children (and you) are don’t playing with all the exhibits, you can step outside for a bit of fresh air. Walk past the gift shop to find a cave-like entrance. Here you will be introduced to several animals have been taken in and make their permanent home. You can even check their calendar to see when their daily feedings are. What kind of animals?
Get a chance to meet the fox, otters, porcupine, owls, coyote, bobcat, garter snake, toads, banana slug, vultures, and eagles. As you can tell, there is a nice mix. The aviary is a great place to let the kids run around before you make your way outside. The river otters love their remodeled home. You can watch them play on the surface or walk around to see them diving and swimming in their dedicated pool.
When everyone is done, the wonderful Magic Mountain Playground down the hill is the perfect spot to end the day. With an area for the smaller ones and a huge slide for the larger ones, they are sure to get tired out before heading home.
2 comments
I like that it has a little bit of everything. Inside, outside, and playtime to work off the wiggles. 🙂
Yep, it’s a nice mix. But, since it is so small, it’s not one of those places you can continually go to and older ones can lose interest fast.
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