Upstate NY - day two

C and R first visited the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY last summer.  It made quite the impression on them because they both talked about it all year and that was the one thing I knew we had to do during this visit.  They love the whole museum, but their favorite part is the grocery store.  It is pretty amazing.  Our local children's museum has a grocery store, but it is nothing like the one at the Strong Museum.  Wegmans is the very popular grocery store chain in that area, and this exhibit was produced by Strong National Museum of Play in collaboration Wegmans Food Markets and is made possible by Wegmans and their vendor  partners.

The mini Wegmans is fantastic.  Upon entering, each child takes a shopping cart and shops the different areas of the store. 

Each aisle is set up just like a grocery store with real product boxes (the products have been removed from the boxes and each box is wrapped in shrink wrap). 

There is a meat department (can you see those pretend hamburgers in the shrink wrap in the above photo?), seafood counter, freezer section, produce section, and bakery too.  At the front of the store, there is a microphone that can be used to make announcements. 

My favorite part is that you can really check out your groceries on a moving belt with a scanner that actually scans the correct item and you can print your cash register receipt that details exactly what you purchased. 

Why don't we have Wegmans in Massachusetts?  Sigh. 

There are many other cool things to see and do in the museum.  Some of our favorites are:

The Strong Express train,

The Carousel, and 

the theater complete with stage, curtain, and fun costumes. 

I cannot end this post without a quick story about the dress R is wearing in the above photo.  She found the dress and put it on after commenting about how beautiful it was.  She then went behind the curtain of the theater and an older girl asked her for the dress.  Well, R gave it to her and came out close to tears.  We decided to leave the area and come back in a while so she could wear the dress again, but every time we came back, someone was wearing the dress.  I knew we could not leave the museum without R wearing the dress for just another minute, so when we were ready to leave, I asked the girl wearing the dress if R could have a turn (I should note that this girl had been wearing the dress for a long time).  She said yes, but then ran off.  C and R followed her for a minute, but she disappeared.  Finally, my sister saw that the girl was about to leave with her group and asked her for the dress.  Phew!  R was thrilled to put the dress on and pose for a quick photo.  We were able to leave the museum on a happy note! 

See you next year Strong Museum!