This Presidents Day weekend, we had the opportunity to spend a lot of time together as a family and enjoy the places that our state has to offer. Michigan winters can be long and brutal, and the feelings of cabin fever are very real. I’m a homebody as much as the next person, but there are only so many times you can watch “Frozen 2” (we’ve been averaging 1.5 times a day since buying it last week), break up arguments between two sisters, and keep a new puppy from chewing up the house or your hands.
Having plans outside of the house helps break up that routine, and until the weather warms up and sun starts to shine with some regularity, indoor activities are essential for survival.
On Monday, we made the drive to Portage, Michigan to visit the Air Zoo for the very first time. I’ve seen photos from friends’ visits there, and it’s even mentioned in our girls’ Goodnight Michigan board book. But truthfully, I had no idea what it was all about.
Earlier in the weekend, we had visited Impression 5 Science Center in Lansing, a favorite spot of ours for exploring and getting some energy out. I still remember going there when Margot was a week old because we had been spending weeks in the house celebrating the holidays and waiting for her arrival that we needed to get. Out. Of. The. Damn. House. We love Impression 5 for visits, summer camps, you name it. We bought a family membership during that visit, and used it quite often with family and friends. After that year, we ended up letting the membership lapse with Stella starting full-day school.
We decided to renew our I5 membership on Saturday’s visit. At $75, it’s a really great deal for our family to visit the museum throughout the year, and it also gives us a discount on summer camps. On top of that, my friend Brittany alerted me to the fact that an Impression 5 membership means free admission to the Air Zoo for the month of February. What a deal!
General admission to the Air Zoo for adults is $15.95, $14.95 for kids 5-18, and free for 4 and under. That means we saved almost $50! Beyond the free admission, our visit to the Air Zoo was well worth the drive toward Kalamazoo.
The Air Zoo features over 100 historic aircraft, including WWII planes, and great interactive exhibits. Even though we were there on a Monday and missed Open Cockpit Weekends, which concludes next weekend, a very nice staff member named Dave invited the girls to step inside one of the planes.
The girls loved the indoor amusement rides the most. These rides are part of the admission fee and families can ride them as many times as they’d like. If we lived closer, I could absolutely see the appeal of visiting the Air Zoo and letting the girls enjoy the rides for a couple of hours. Stella liked the Paratrooper Jump the best, and Margot liked the balloon race.
I loved how open, colorful, and interesting the entire space of the Air Zoo was. The walls were painted with murals of hot air balloons, outer space scenes, and more. It got busier as the morning went along, and we wanted to grab lunch, so we only stayed a couple of hours. I would definitely love to visit again sometime and see the areas we missed.
For the rest of the month of February, Impression 5 members get free admission to the Air Zoo. It was a super fun morning and we had a great time as a family!
After our visit, we tried out Presidential Brewing Company at the recommendation of my husband’s coworker. It was pretty perfect considering it was Presidents’ Day after all. They were pretty busy and the food took longer than usual because of that, but I really loved my meal and my hard cider with cinnamon (Barbara Bushels, hilarious!). They were celebrating the holiday and anniversary of their opening, so they had live music, presidential bingo, and more. We had a lot of fun listening to the music and teaching Stella how to play Blackjack with the cards at the table.
If you’re visiting the Air Zoo and need a fun spot for your family to grab lunch, I would recommend Presidential Brewing!
Have you been to the Air Zoo and/or Presidential Brewing? Where’s your favorite Michigan gem to visit?