Let's be honest - any kid would love a trip to a children's museum. Some of the exhibits at the Madison Children's Museum, though, make this one of our favorites. We recently took a day trip from the Chicago area to this museum and it took us about two and a half hours to get there.
Parking is not free at this museum, but that could easily be overlooked because of all the awesome exhibits. There are fun water exhibits and an amazing art studio where kids can paint the windows, but our favorite part of this museum is the Wildernest exhibit. The Wildernest exhibit looks like a giant indoor treehouse - complete with bridges and slides. And, while we loved every minute of it, I will have to say that the slide is a little dangerous. It's a gorgeous tree trunk slide, but the rails are all metal with no padding around them and while we were there a kid hit his head on the metal rail and medical attention had to be called. I hope they fix this ASAP.
Another exhibit we really liked was the Rooftop Ramble. There were hay bales to climb, a pirate flag to hoist, and even some animals up there. Visit on a nice day so you don't miss it. You can even see the capitol building from up there!