Gallery: The 12 Most WIRED Places to Take Your Mom on Mother's Day
Exploratorium01exploratorium
San Francisco's [Exploratorium](http://www.exploratorium.edu/) no longer cuddles up alongside the Palace of Fine Arts, but it's still situated in a picturesque spot: Pier 15 right on the Bay. It's all about having hands-on fun with science, too. For example, Mom can send ping-pong balls down a massive toothpick sculpture and get crazy with a robot-themed praxinoscope. An extra $15 gets her into the Tactile Dome–which is recommended, but probably best during adults-only After Dark events (and a couple of glasses of wine).
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images02NYC & Company NYCxDESIGN Kickoff Event
The recently reopened [Cooper Hewitt](http://www.cooperhewitt.org/) in New York looks old from the outside—it's in a 115-year-old mansion once home to Andrew Carnegie–but don't be fooled. The inside is as high-tech and futuristic as it gets. Mom gets to design her own furniture and wallpaper using one of the museum's massive 4K touchscreens. She'll also receive a magical pen when she enters the museum–one that posts everything she interacts with to an online scrapbook. That way, she can revisit the best Mother's Day ever whenever she wants.
Getty Images03Volcanic Crater at Haleakala National Park - Maui
A bike ride down a volcano sounds like something for extreme athletes, but this one is very chill–and beautiful. The ride down Maui's Haleakala is all downhill, on well-paved roads with banked turns. Mom will feel like she's on another planet because of the view: Red soil, weird plants, and a space observatory. If the bike ride is too intense, tour guides usually lag behind the pack in a van to offer a ride down in a pinch. The trailing van also keeps car traffic off the bike riders' butts. And after the ride, you end up in the quaint little town of Paia, home of Willie Nelson and [an incredible lunch spot](http://www.paiafishmarket.com/).
Getty Images04129913245
After a few decades of putting up with your nonsense, Mom is way overdue for letting off some steam. She can do that in two ways at [this unique bar in Tokyo](http://www.shootingbar-ea.jp/): (1) Have some cocktails and (2) shoot some guns. Disclaimer: They're just air guns that shoot BBs, and the shooting range is separate from the cocktail area. But the arms in this unique spot are modeled after serious weaponry: Airgun versions of AK-47s, Colt Pythons, FN P90s, Heckler & Koch PSG1 sniper rifles–you name it. Many of the guns have special cocktails to accompany them, and there's a thick menu for drink-and-gun pairings.
Adler Planetarium05adler
Depending on your Mom's age and love of John Hughes movies, you may want to take her on a tour of the same [Chicago locations](http://www.choosechicago.com/blog/post/2013/09/Your-Chicago-Location-Guide-to-Ferris-Bueller-s-Day-Off/999/) Ferris Bueller visited on his day off. Or you may want to one-up Bueller and take her to the [Adler Planetarium](http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/), which Ferris didn't manage to fit in. Worth visiting for its view of the Chicago skyline alone, the Alder's amazing theaters are its main attraction. The 20-projector, high-resolution system in the marquee Grainger Sky Theater will make Mom feel like she's damn near floating through space.
McMenamins06kennedy
Finally, a chance to experience detention with your Mom. The [Kennedy School](http://www.mcmenamins.com/KennedySchool) in Portland, Oregon, used to be an elementary school, and it sort of still is. Except in this school, you can drink (and eat) freely. It still looks and feels like a school, but many of the classrooms are themed restaurants and bars. There's a bar in the boiler room, the auditorium has been converted into a movie theater, and there's a brewery in the girls' bathroom. In the detention room, they serve whiskey and cigars. And if mom has a little too much fun, this place is also a hotel.
David McNew/Getty Images07Park In Irvine Deemed California's First Natural Landmark
One of the best retreats from SoCal's oppressive grid of pavement is the serenity of Laguna Canyon. Orange County's [Laguna Coast Wilderness Park](http://ocparks.com/parks/lagunac/) has over 40 miles of hiking trails and is home to a number of rare species of birds and small mammals. With all those insane ocean views, beautiful flowers, and cute tweety-birds, it's the perfect venue for a photo-walk—and a great way to familiarize mom with that new mirrorless camera you bought her.
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum0812178925693-08519e6754-h
Your mom is the real deal, and when it comes to flying contraptions, she deserves to see the real deal as well. Washington, DC's [Smithsonian Air and Space Museum](https://airandspace.si.edu/) houses the world's biggest collection of spacecraft and aircraft, and most of the flying machines in the mix aren't just replicas. We're talking turn-of-the-century hang-gliders, one of the Wright brothers' seminal planes, the nosecone of Charles Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis," and even the Friendship 7 capsule in which John Glenn orbited the earth. If Mom's a space geek, this is her nirvana. Oh and they have a killer [IMAX program](https://airandspace.si.edu/visit/mall/things-to-do/imax.cfm).
George Rose/Getty Images09Las Vegas Neon Museum Opens
These days, most of the signage in Las Vegas is made out of LEDs or giant high-definition screens. That's one of the things that makes the [Neon Boneyard](http://www.neonmuseum.org/) so important: It's meant to preserve an important part of the city's history, with hundreds of bona fide neon signs from old Vegas–including a few restored ones–to be seen. This isn't just a great destination for a nostalgic mom. It's also a great spot if your mom is into Instagram, because there are plenty of cool signs and sculptures spread across the museum's six acres. 100 likes, guaranteed.
Matt Dunham/AP10Britain Imitation Game Bletchley Park
If your mom is into puzzles, why not take her to the spot where one of history's most important codes was cracked? During World War II, [Bletchley Park](http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/), 30 minutes from London by train, was the secretive headquarters of the Government Code and Cypher School. Alan Turing and Joan Clarke both worked there as cryptanalysts and helped crack the Enigma cypher system used by the Nazis. Among the exhibitions at Bletchley Park are the giant Bombe machine used to crack the Enigma code, as well as a German Enigma machine itself.
Emmanuel Dunand/Getty Images11US-ART-MOMA-VIDEO GAMES
Whether your mom is from the days of pinball wizardry, Pong, or Ms. Pac-Man, the gigantic [American Classic Arcade Museum](http://www.classicarcademuseum.org/) has all the bases covered. There are hundreds of throwback games within the hallowed halls of this New Hampshire museum, and they're all playable. If old-school games aren't mom's thing, there's also a candlepin bowling alley (because New Hampshire) and another massive arcade in the building. But this could be the Mother's Day that you learn your mom used to be known as "Smokin' Tokens" back in the day.
Keukenhof Gardens12tulips
Look, if you really want to do flowers for Mother's Day, you should get something a lot more impactful than your average bouquet. Like, for instance, a trip to the psychedelic garden of [Keukenhof](http://www.keukenhof.nl/en/) in Holland, where seven million flowers of every color imaginable are in bloom. The 800 different kinds of tulips are the main attraction, and the timing's perfect because it's spring.
