Gull Wings Children's Museum, Oxnard

Ventura, California Print   Leave a comment

Description

Gull Wings Children's Museum has several rooms where kids can enjoy pretend play and explore different aspects of the world. The outer space exhibits are particularly strong. The museum is showing its age and some of the toys from different areas like the ambulance or doctor's examining table are old or missing, but it still ends up being a ton of fun for kids.
The Ares launch vehicle is where our daughter spent almost an hour. A TV screen allows kids to watch a take-off so they can pretend they too are taking off. The control panel delights kids with its buttons and levers.
My favorite area was the moon walking room where silver tin foil and a beautifully painted moonscape lit with black light makes for a magical effect. Orange lights inside various control rooms contrast with the bluish light everywhere else in the moon area.
Also in the space area is a satellite and a real rocket engine.
Another fun exhibit is the table full of different types of gears. You can turn the gears, and labels explain where each might be used, such as different types of factories.
A train behind a glass panel goes around a model town of Oxnard in the old days, complete with tunnel.
In another room, kids can scoop away tire fragments to dig for fossils and bones like a paleontologist.
A car with clear plastic exterior instead of metal panels allows kids to see the inner workings of a car, including the engine under its hood and the electrical wiring in its doors.
There is a room with real spiders, and small animals. Next to a mural of a street, there is a fire hose and fireman's gear that kids can wear.
The ocean-themed room has a small pier and a boat that kids can captain. A yellow submarine and a rowboat with fisherman's net adds to the fun. On land there is a Hawaiian snack shack where kids can cook their parents a meal.
All in all, kids can spend about one and a half hours here investigating whatever interests them.
After you're done, walk around Plaza Park and get an icecream or coffee in downtown Oxnard.

Photo Gallery

Hawaiian snack shack where parents can sit on the stools and be served by their kids!	A meal on the griddle...	Rowboat with fisherman's net.
Toddler play room.	Pier and boat kids can climb inside.	Firehose. Save the day!
Step inside an ambulance.	Train chugging around Oxnard in its early days.	Gears such as Geneva Wheel and Steam Engine gear.
Be immersed in black light in the moon room.	A real rocket engine.	A satellite.
Ares launch vehicle.	Pretend to be a paleontologist.	Crawl around in the space station.
Control panel in the Ares launch vehicle.	See inside the doors and hood of a car.

Directions

Gull Wings Children's Museum is located at 418 W. 4th St in downtown Oxnard.
Open Tues-Sun 10-4. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for children/seniors, and free for children under 2 yrs old.
Exit Highway 101 at Vineyard Ave and head toward the ocean on Vineyard Ave. After 1/2 mile, turn left on Oxnard Blvd (Highway 1). After 2 miles, turn right on 4th Street. After you pass B Street, park along the road.

This is an interactive map, you can zoom and move it.

Visitor Ratings

Overall Visitor Rating: Unrated.