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5. Creation Museum, Petersburg, Kentucky

What's surprising about this Bible-centric museum/petting zoo is how many dinosaurs are roaming about. On top of permanent exhibits that focus on natural selection, the construction of Noah's Ark and the Garden of Eden, the museum also hosts daily family-friendly presentations on topics like "Snakes Alive! (a look at reptiles from God's perspective)" and "Four Power Questions to Ask an Evolutionist." Whether you agree or not with the politics behind Creation Museum, it's still one of the only sites in the country that features a live zebra-donkey hybrid. Long live the zonkey. $22 for adults, $12 for kids.

4. Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, California

All the charm of a Victorian mansion combined with all the whimsy of Pee Wee's Playhouse. According to legend (and the web site), the former owner of this 160-room mansion kept carpenters working round the clock for thirty-eight years in an effort to stave off evil spirits. Whether or not the plan worked, Winchester Mystery House is an architectural marvel packed with functionless features including windows buried in floorboards, stairs that lead nowhere and doors that open to blank walls. $26 for adults, $23 for children or $23 for a behind-the-scenes tour (hardhat required).

3. Craters of the Moon, Arco, Idaho

A national park roughly the size of Rhode Island, Craters of the Moon was a bed of molten lava just 2,000 years ago. Today the site, made predominantly of crusted lava, looks almost post-apocalpytic. It's peppered with underground caves (called lava tubes), and is a guaranteed geek freakout for young scientists. Admission is $8 per vehicle, $4 for those on bikes, motorcycles or on foot, free for ages 15 and under.

2. Santa Claus, Indiana
Christmas only comes once a year everywhere except for Santa Claus, Indiana. Home to the Santa Claus Museum, Santa's Lodge motel and Santa's Candy Castle — a sweets shop that not only sells confections, but also personalized phone calls from Santa year-round — Santa Claus also receives over half a million letters each year addressed to St. Nick himself. The biggest attraction in town is Holiday World and Splash Safari, a Christmas-Halloween-Thanksgiving-all-rolled-into-one themed amusement park that vastly overshadows Frosty's Fun Center, the Christmas-themed mini-golf course just a few minutes away.

1. Professor Cline's Dinosaur Kingdom, Natural Bridge, Virginia
What would have happened if Union troops had used dinosaurs as weapons of mass destruction against the South? It's a question historians have pondered for ages. Thankfully, one outdoor sculpture park in nowheresville, Virginia, is dedicated to solving the mystery. Featuring sculptures of life-sized dinos attacking old-timey soldiers (an excellent sepia-toned photo is available here), Professor Cline's Dinosaur Kingdom and adjacent Haunted Monster Museum (featuring "no scare" tours for kids) is well worth the $8 ticket ($5 for kids).

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