The blue-whale skeleton by the entrance whets the appetite for the city's natural-history museum. The usual dioramas of stuffed animals are on display (the bird collection is especially good on local species). But the joy of this place is that once you've learned about nature inside, you can head outside to the "Museum Backyard," a trail through woods along Mission Creek, and engage with the real thing.
Uniquely local exhibits include a cast of the intact pygmy-mammoth skeleton found on Santa Rosa Island in 1994, and the gallery on Chumash life, which features recordings of the last native speakers of the area's indigenous languages. From 2pm to 4pm daily (except Tuesdays), meet the museum's resident birds of prey up close – all of these wildlife ambassadors were rescued and rehabbed but can no longer survive in the wild.
