One of the Christmas gifts we gave our children this last year was a membership to the Discovery Museum in Rockford. When we are looking for out of town adventures, we usually head to Chicago since we live so close. However, we had heard great things about this children's museum so we decided to give it a try, and I'm really glad we did. The facility's and exhibits were great - all the kids keep asking when we can go back. It's a little bit farther away from us than the Chicago's Children's Museum , but since there isn't as much traffic, it's actually much easier to visit. It's also not nearly as crowded and you don't have to pay for parking. If you live north of Chicago, this museum is definitely worth checking out. There are tons of exhibits so we didn't quite make it to everything, but here are a few highlights. big buddy came back to this tornado several times