FEBRUARY 18, 2026 – As grandparents who are only semi-retired, what do they do while visiting their grandkids (and their parents) for 10 days on the young family’s home turf in Connecticut—especially when a heavy mist transforms the hills and vales into an interactive Chinese silk screen the grandparents would expect to find on display at the Met? Of course! They proceed as directed to the “KidsCity Children’s Museum” in Middletown, just down the street from Wesleyan University—the Wesleyan, that is. Without any advance information other than the words in the destination’s name, they had no expectations.
As kid-oriented attractions are concerned, however, the KidsCity Children’s Museum turned out to be a work of art . . . or more precisely, works of art. By the time Gra-MA, Gram-PA and their toddler grandson completed their 90-minute joint tour of the place, Gram-PA, at least, was certain that grandparents were the target market for the museum. As often occurs inside the human imagination, when a person is exposed to creativity writ large, creative juices inside the person’s cranium flow at an accelerated rate, spinning off ideas and possibilities that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred.
The grandson was a repeat customer of the museum, but by all impressions, this fact didn’t seem to have diluted his enthusiasm for any of the offerings. More likely, prior exposure was to account for his ready and active engagement.
The museum is housed inside a vintage mansion surrounded by impressive additions. Altogether, there seems to be no end to the grand maze running through innumerable life-size dioramas. In some cases, the display areas were so commodious, they seemed to be inside free standing buildings; “Middleshire,” for example, with a multi-level castle (including a pet dragon snoozing in a cozy corner), full of nooks, crannies, lookouts and target-practicing area, where visitors could shoot realistic feeling/appearing carrots and potatoes with a crossbow. Nearby was an imitation cornfield with rows of tasseling corn stalks, a communal bread-baking oven with a real bellows that kids (and grandpas) could activate to see the glowing embers break out into full flames.
In another zone was an hilarious display with a tongue-in-cheek rocket-repair, UFO-science fiction-Western-tourist attraction theme. While the grandson played with the controls inside a large rocket ship, the Gram-PA chuckled over the outside “bumper stickers” (e.g. “My grandparents went to BEETLEGEUSE and all I got was this BUMPER STICKER!”; “GOT MILKYWAY?”; “KEEP EARTH WEIRD”; and “I LOVENUS”). The adjacent full-size flying saucer offered a full complement of multi-colored flashing lights and enough “space” inside to accommodate several kids—and a grandparent?—together. Next to that was a soda fountain bar inspired, no doubt, by Star Wars, where the dispensers provided ample portions of dry ice mist. What GramPA found equal to the clever design of the props was the humorous originality and exquisitely painted murals all over the walls.
Around the corner from the “Space Age Roadtrip” was the “Neptune Theater,” a small-scale old fashioned stage theater but equipped with cameras, sound effects, musical selections and lighting. What’s not to like about an interactive make-believe setting depicting a place that’s all about make-believe?
Perhaps Gram-PA’s favorite space was “Piazza del Delfino” featuring a village center “air fountain.” Surrounding the six-foot high sculpture of giant fish standing on their tails were various creatures with mouths that operated as vacuum-cleaners. Visitors could collect any number of squares of light green silk and place them over the “vacuum-cleaner” mouths, whereupon, the squares instantly disappeared. Once the squares were sucked into the base of the “air fountain,” the standing fish blew the silk squares into the air above the fountain. As light as leaves, the silk cloths floated gently down—often landing in the treetops, otherwise operating as grandparent crowns. What Gram-PA liked most about the “Piazza” were the narrow streets painted on one wall—so realistic and with such excellent detail, Gram-PA actually went to step down one of the streets only to discover it was a figment of the artist’s imagination—as well as Gram-PA’s. He was fortunate not to have hopped on the model Vespa to try motoring down the narrow cobblestone street.
Near Piazza del Delfino was the “Lake House,” which captured wonderfully the nostalgia of the stereo-typical “camp” (Maine), “lake house” (southern New England (?)), “cottage” (WI/MI), and “cabin” (Minnesota)). Next to the “Lake House” was a simple room with a suspended latticed ceiling strong with lights shining over a wall-to-wall mat with a gazillion birch blocks of various shapes for construction of most any model building the imagination could devise—together with several model trucks made out of the same stock of birch. Until the appearance of additional kids coincided with the parking meter alarm, the grandson could’ve spent all day in this room.
On the way out of the museum, the “crew” stopped at the “Clipper Ship” and adjacent “Fishery,” where the artwork and creative props continued to amaze and amuse the grandparents. Gram-PA laughed out loud at the cannonball (a repurposed bowling ball) embedded in the splintered site of impact of the ship’s hull just above the waterline.
What the Gra-MA overlooked was a cutout of Waldo standing next to a (model) snoozing dragon at the end of a beam above the entrance area of the museum. Gram-PA had noticed it while he was in transit along an open walkway on the second level. The answer to “Where’s Waldo?” was entirely consistent with this most remarkable (art and prop) museum molded into children’s museum of the highest order.
The grandparents later learned that this fabulous time had been their grandson’s sixth encounter with the museum. He’s likely to have many more given that the establishment is geared to kids between one and seven, and he’s a full year and a half past the threshold—with his sister just a year behind, so the grandparents will have ample opportunity to enjoy this gem of Middletown, Connecticut.
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© 2026 by Eric Nilsson
