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Five More Museum Overnights

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—Kathryn O’Shea-Evans

Miami Metrozoo, Miami

After the daytime spectators have migrated back to South Beach, Miami Metrozoo comes alive. On your personalized tour of animal enclosures, you can hold bearded dragon lizards, pet a rhino on its horn, and watch nocturnal sloth bears suck up raisins like a vacuum. 1 Zoo Boulevard; 305/251-0400; miamimetrozoo.com; from $50 per person; children over six; overnights held several times a year.

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles

More than a million fossils have been pulled out of the museum’s La Brea Tar Pits since 1906. At this "Camp Goo" overnight, get a flashlight tour of the bubbly asphalt they came from. 900 Exposition Boulevard; 213/763-3466; nhm.org; $43 per person; children five and older; overnights held several times a year.

Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago

Campers have access to all parts of the museum, but chances are you’ll spend most of your time in Butterfly Haven, a 2,700 square-foot greenhouse where all manner of butterflies sprout wings (look for leopard-like Rice Paper butterflies and Cairns Birdwings from Australia, which can be up to nine inches wide). 2430 N. Cannon Drive; 773/755-5100; naturemuseum.org; $40 per person; children 6-11; overnights held several times a year.

Rubin Museum of Art, New York

Climb "Mt. Everest"—a disguised spiral staircase—at this Himalayan-focused museum with the help of mountaineer Luis Benitez, who’s summated the real thing six times. Each gallery floor serves as a camp with different real-life climbing challenges, like tying knots with mittens on and using supplementary oxygen. 150 West 17th St; 212/620-5000; rmanyc.org; $108 per person; children 11-13; overnights held once a year.

San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego

Wear your craziest-patterned p.j.’s: after you dig for replica dinosaur bones and sleep in the fossil exhibit, Ms. Frizzle—that ginger-haired teacher of Magic Schoolbus fame—will be waking you up for breakfast. 1788 El Prado; 619/232-3821; sdnhm.org; from $55 per person; overnights held several times a year.

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