Frugal Friday-Free admission

Today is the first Friday of the month, which means something in our house. It means you're likely to find us at the Portland Children's Museum tonight wandering from room to room, watching Natalie explore and play. On the first Friday of each month, from 4-8pm, Target sponsors an evening at the Portland Children's Museum where admission is completely free. 

We've gone 3 times now (tonight will be #4) and each time has been a different, but great experience.  We were really expecting it to be insanely chaotic and crammed with people, but so far 2/3 times were really calm and surprisingly not busy. The last time we went it was much more crowded, but it was still a great experience. 

 

The Portland Children's Museum is so much fun, and is designed specifically for the toddler-preschooler crowd.  (Note to Children's Museum: We love you and would happily support you on non-free days, but seriously? Charging me $9 to watch my kid play is a little much.  I'm happy to fork over the cash for my kid, but if I'm going to spend $9 per person I'd like to walk out the door with a little more than an happy, but over-stimulated toddler.)

We love that Portland has so many fun places to go and explore with Natalie, but it's difficult when you're paying an arm and a leg for some of them.  Fortunately, there are many budget friendly ways to enjoy some of the great places to play in Portland.

Here's our top favorities:

Children's Museum: Free- first Friday of each month, 4-8pm (Free parking, too!)

Oregon Zoo: $4 admission second Tuesday of each month, all day ($2 parking, take the MAX and get $1.50 off your ticket, also if you print your ticket at home, parking is free, but I haven't tried this on a $4 Tuesday)

OMSI: $2 -First Sunday of each month, all day ($2 parking)

Another good option to explore some of the city's museums is using a pass from your local library. Washington County Libraries have a "Cultural Pass to Adventure" where you can get a family pass to many of the city's museums and gardens including the Children's Museum, Chinese Classical Gardens, The Japanese Gargen, Pittock Mansion and more.  It used to include OMSI, but sadly, I think they discontinued that. We haven't tried using the pass from the library yet, but we've heard it's super easy.

There are so many other cheap of free things to do in Portland.  This site has a great calendar of free and cheap events.

For us, getting out and exploring in the world is something that is important to us.  Like all parents, we want to provide fun, memorable, and (at least sometimes) educational experiences for Natalie.  Plus living in a city where it's cloudy 222 days a year and raining an average of 155 days per year (not that I'm counting or anything), it's nice to find some fun, dry, indoor activities to provide a little cheer.