City: Durham, NC

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (919) 220-5429

Address: 433 W. Murray Ave.

Description: With 65,000 square feet of indoor space and 13 acres outside, the Museum of Life + Science is a learning playground. Indoors, kids can get in a real Apollo Space Capsule or, if it’s feeding time, watch keepers give the poison dart frogs a snack. In all, the museum is home to more than 75 species of animals. Some of the more beautiful are the flittering residents of the East Coast’s largest butterfly conservatory, the Magic Wings butterfly house. While these might hold kids’ attention for a while, before long they’ll want to head outside for the Dinosaur Trail, where towering replicas of the late Cretaceous age await along a wooded trail. A nature park offers glimpses of live bears, wolves, lemurs, barred owls, woodchucks, possums, young alligators, and snakes. In the farmyard, kids can pet sheep, pigs, a donkey, a steer, a rabbit, a turkey, a duck, and goats. Children can operate radio-controlled sailboats on a pond; take a ride in an ornithopter, a winged flying machine; or launch giant seed pods from a tower. Among the most popular activities is the Ellerbee Creek Railway’s miniature train, which takes visitors through the park. It is especially popular at Christmastime when Santa rides along. Educational programs offer plenty of ways for kids to get involved, and events like the Butterfly Bash in April, which celebrates insects in many forms, draw big crowds.