I knew the Clay Center was cool, but I didn’t know know, ya know? I’m too old to have taken field trips there in grade school, and I had a kid approximately 87 years after my peers, so aside from concerts I had never been. Let me tell you, I felt like Katniss Everdeen popping up through a capsule right in the middle of Melissa and Doug’s collective brain.

It. Was. Awesome. 🤯

Oh, and Wright loved it too!

It took an act of God to get him away from the water table. This is the water table dreams are made of. There are SO many levers, pulls, cranks, boats, balls, legos, and the list goes on. He could have spent the entire morning there, and almost did!

After I used jaws of life force to pry him away from the water room, we made our way to the music section. We didn’t get to spend long here because he kept running back to the water room.

I was honestly so impressed with what was on the main floor I didn’t expect there to be more. I noticed some people going downstairs, so I followed. That’s when I landed in what I’m going to call the Melissa and Doug think tank. Like, damn! Life size versions of our favorite toys? Yes, please! I can not believe Charleston, WV has something so amazing!

We finished out the day eating some prepacked Aldi snacks, and very briefly checking out the climbing sculpture. He’s a little too little for it now, so he barely got a taste. Some day though he’ll scale that thing like a barefoot hippy rock climber at Summersville Lake!

… and ya’ll, this was only $9! I’m pretty positive there’s more we didn’t see. We didn’t go to the third floor. What’s even up there? Had he been 3 and his admission wasn’t free, it would have only been an additional $7. WORTH IT!

Due to the pandemic you now have to make reservations to the Clay Center. I actually loved that because it wasn’t crowded at all. To make reservations click here.

I absolutely can not wait to go again! Way to go, Charleston! You hit it out of the park with this one!