Thanks to the Smithsonian Magazine, this Saturday September 28 (2013), more than 1500 museums across the United States are offering all Americans two free tickets per household!

Wait, did I say free activities and outings that are fact-filled, fun, and family-friendly? Yes, yes I did!

From the Smithsonian Magazine’s website directly:

The Museum Day Live! Ticket offers one free entry per person plus one guest! In the spirit of Smithsonian Museums, who offer free admission everyday, Museum Day Live! is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine in which participating museums across the country (USA) open their doors to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket… for free.

• Only an official Museum Day Live! ticket is eligible for free entry. Official tickets can be found here on the Museum Day Live! here.
• One ticket per household, for two people.
• A ticket will gain entry to only one of the participating museums, excluding parking and special events and exhibits.
• If museum reaches capacity, museum has the right to limit the number of guests until space becomes available.

To find museums in your area, please go to this link to search by city-state and/or ZIP code. From a cursory search of the Long Beach (CA) area, these were among the closest that I could find near here:

Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA)
Palos Verdes Art Center
ExploreOcean, Home of the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum
Heritage Museum of Orange County
California Science Center

Note to self: Must put a few of these on our to-do list for another day. Since we are not local this weekend, we plan to try out the Orange Empire Railway Museum (OERM) in Perris, CA, a place we’ve been meaning to go for a while. Since we already had a visit set up with JoePa and Memaw this weekend, I think this may be the day we finally go. Perfect timing, Smithsonian, and thanks for the free tickets!

To get your free Museum Day Live! tickets, please log onto the Smithsonian magazine website here. Limit of one voucher per household, which needs to be presented at time of entry. Museums that are willing to accept the ticket on the screen of a smartphone (in lieu of printing out the voucher) will have that fact on their Museum page. Visit the Find a Museum page to locate the participating museum you choose to confirm what ticketing format(s) are acceptable before arrival.

Now get out there and discover America’s museums big and small, RMT’ers!

Thanks also to two of our family’s favorite bloggers (Million Miles Secrets and PlanADayOut.com) for tipping us off to this great deal!