The USS Midway Museum, sits on the San Diego waterfront, between the cruise ship terminal and Seaport Village.

A big ship may not immediately seem like a high tech attraction, but it's a great place for the intellectually curious. On board the USS Midway, you can learn about life on a Navy ship and how planes land and take off from an aircraft carrier. Visitors can tour many of the USS Midway working areas and see more than 15 restored aircraft. Volunteer docents, many who either served on the USS Midway or are former Navy pilots, provide live talks about the catapult and other operations.

If you ask me (or my husband the engineer), the California Science Center is one of the West's best science museums. It's roomy, offers a wide variety of exhibits on timely topics and provides some interesting insights into things scientific.

Unlike similar institutions in other locations, this place has enough hands-on exhibits to go around, and even on a busy day you don't have to wait long to try any of them. They also rely more on interesting science than gee-whiz gadgets or computer-aided graphics, and have an exceptional life sciences section. And to top it all off, admission is free.