Planetarium in Salt Lake City

Nannying or taking care of kids full can take a toll on your mental health and sometimes you just need a break. But sitting them in front of the TV is not always the best option. They will often times get bored and not learn a lot from whatever they are watching. So I was looking for alternative activities that I could take the kids I nannied to. I thought about what I wanted the activity to be and I wanted it to be inexpensive, educational, and worth the trip time wise. I didn’t want it to be just an hour and go home. That’s when I remembered the Planetarium my mom would take me to when I was a kid. It is called the Clark Planetarium that is right off of 400 West in Salt Lake City, UT. I had only gone there once or twice but I remembered it was fun. So I decided to take the kids on an adventure to Salt Lake County and go to the Planetarium.

When you’re driving downtown the streets can be a little busy in the morning and late afternoon when people are going to and coming home from work. There are a lot of places to work downtown and the University of Utah and the LDS Business College are right in Salt Lake as well so that will pull a lot of students from Salt Lake and surrounding areas. The Planetarium is also right by the Gateway shopping Center so there are a lot of people there. So I decided to take the kids at a nice time of 10 am to hopefully miss most of the traffic, and I did. We actually parked in the Gateway right off 100 S. and went in. I was so surprised that it had changed so much. There was so much more of a variety of things to do and mini-shows to see. The kids were ecstatic and could not be more excited to go watch the stars show, which I had not anticipated.

Normally the kids get tired and want to go home after about 2 hours of being anywhere, but it wasn’t until after 4 hours that they finally wanted to take a break and go get some food. They were behaving so well and having so much fun so we decided to eat out. We went to the California Pizza Kitchen at the Gateway since they both love pizza. It was so fun and afterward, they wanted to go back. Again, another thing I was not expecting. We went to the afternoon show and saw a couple more things and were able to head out at about 4. All and all it was such a successful day out and the kids learned so much. I was really excited to hear them talk about things they had learned in the car ride home. Let’s just say that this became a monthly adventure, if not twice a month. They even wanted little glow in the dark stars all over their ceilings so they could make up their own constellations.

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