Dells Fish and Wildlife Museum and Aquarium

Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

This place is a taste of what tourist attractions used to be like before they got slick.

Glassed-in display dioramas of stuffed Wisconsin birds, fish, and furry mammals line the walls, with a polar bear rug stapled to the wall up near the ceiling. Hand-written signs suggest "you are welcome to pet the wolf" (a stuffed wolf) and "please don't put your hands in the sturgeon tank," a murky indoor pool that you'd be nuts to get near.

An indoor deck overhangs a less-terrifying trout pool, and for some reason there's a remote control "actual research submarine" from California on display.

Our favorite exhibits were a wall-mounted display of insects flattened beneath plastic, titled "Bugs;" a "Beaver Boulevard" diorama with stuffed toy beavers (the real beavers fell apart); and "Camper's Dilemma," which features a frightening outdoorsman peeking from his tent while skunks and a bear eat from his campfire skillet.