Founded by Colorado pioneer Edwin Carter to house his natural history collection- and growing ever since- the venerable, solar-powered Denver Museum of Nature and Science is as major a find as the million-plus artifacts and specimens it displays (including the original Folsom point).

Located at the same City Park address since 1908, it has expanded over the decades to include a planetarium and an IMAX theater among its exhibitions of Native American culture, dinosaurs, gems and minerals, Egyptian mummies, and more (to ensure you’ve got the energy for it all, there’s a café on site as well).

And just as the Discovery Zone provides an interactive wonderland for the kiddies, the Science Lounge caters strictly to adults with a monthly series of lectures and happy-hour cocktails.

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1. Be Amazed at the American Museum of Natural History
2. Museum of Contemporary Art Denver: From Mixed Media to Mixed Taste
3. The J. Paul Getty Museum
4. 4. Have a Splash of Science with Your Cocktail at Exploratorium 1/20/10
5. 2. Get Gorky at Philly’s Museum of Art 12/1/09-12/31/09