Ingles Open Road at The Children’s Museum of the Upstate

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I’m Chris Bainbridge… and I love the Carolinas. This is an amazing place to find adventure in all shapes and sizes – even in our changing world. Ingles has sent me on a mission to bring you the very best of what our beautiful home has to offer – food, fun, nature music, and more… all affordable, and all out of the ordinary. This is The Ingles Open Road.

CHRIS: Welcome to Greenville. Today I have my adventure buddy Cate leading the way as we explore 3 floors of fun and learning – right here at The Children’s Museum of the Upstate.

The museum got its start in 2009 and has been growing and changing ever since. With campuses in both Greenville and Spartanburg, this is one of the largest children’s museums in the world. Here we’re entering 80,000 square feet of learning and play space — housing multiple exhibit galleries, with components and programming in the arts, humanities, sciences, health, nutrition, and the environment.

Right off the bat when you enter your eyes are immediately drawn to this incredible sculpture that is made for exploration. And it’s appropriately named, The Climber. Show us how it’s done, Cate. 5. Montage of “Start Your Engines” exhibit Bank shot Grocery store shot Montage of “Healthy Heroes” and “Teddy Bear Clinic” CHRIS and CATE on camera Here on the main floor there’s a super cool exhibit called, Start Your Engines. It focuses on aerospace and automotive technology. There’s also a bank and a grocery store to help young minds start to learn about finances. And we find Healthy Heroes and a Teddy Bear Clinic where you can learn about the human body, and even perform your own teddy bear surgery.

Downstairs on the first floor we find Reedy River Bend, an amazing water table that teaches about the chemical and physical properties of water with different channels, miniature dams, and waterfalls. There’s also Garage Rock where you can learn about music. There’s Off the Wall, where you can get creative with performing, visual, and language arts. And there’s Bib’s World, a large fully wheelchair accessible playground.

Up here on the third floor is something really cool. This is SPARK!LAB, Developed by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, Spark!Lab got its start here, and is one of only six in the country. Here kids get a unique, hands-on experience that encourages them to solve problems, collaborate with others, build their confidence, and enhance their creativity.

And that’s really the mission of The Children’s Museum of the Upstate. They want to ignite a community of compassionate problem solvers through intentional and inclusive play – with a vision of creating a world where no barrier is bigger than a dream. Sounds good to me. Schedule your visit online today at TCMUpstate.org. Your weekend is waiting… on the Ingles Open Road.