The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/mediacenter/news/pressreleases/200...

Totally amazing!

Oh. That sounds cool. That's going on the list for Volume 2 of my book.

It's really great, huge facility and tons of research going on.

I got to use an electron microscope!!!!!!!

They do open houses once a year or so and they do lots of fun demos.

They did the coin shrinking thing at the last one I went to.

Double plus good, they have a gorgeous machine shop.

A couple that were left out:

1) The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago

Among the exhibits are a captured Nazi submarine (that you can go inside) and the Apollo 8 command module.

2) Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, MI

Greenfield Village has both the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop and Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory. The museum has Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion house, the Ford Nucleon (a nuclear-powered concept car) and the car JFK was in when he was shot.

Related, and not as USA centric:

http://atlasobscura.com/

They say:: 'Wondrous, curious, and bizarre locations around the world'

-Or any factory or public works facility that gives public tours. Fascinating stuff.

The Museum of Flight in Seattle is alot of fun for the kids as well.

It's not in North America like these suggestions, but I would recommend visiting CERN in Geneva. I visited there a few weeks ago, and I was impressed by their public exhibit about particle physics. It would probably to children around 8 and up, I figure.

Edit: Oh, and while you're in Switzerland, go to Berne and visit Einstein-Haus, where Albert Einstein lived when he developed his Special Theory of Relativity. It's not quite as accessible to children, but still interesting.

A library

That's actually on the list.

1000 wired lists to read while bored