NOTE: This museum is closed until April 2024.

Children's Discovery Museum in Rancho Mirage is a super fun place for kids to play indoors, located two hours inland from LA. There are so many things for kids to do, but their favorite by far is the pretend grocery store and the pretend pizza cafe. Kids can shop for fruits, vegetables, and canned goods, with little carts, and then be the cashier behind the register, with apron. They can serve their parents pizza straight out of a flickering oven. The "dough" for the pizza is in whole pieces which they can flip. Lots of teamwork goes into the making of a pizza and kids really enjoy this.
There is also a police motorcycle to drive, a magnetic wall with large metal utensils to place on it, brain teasers to solve, and a rope spiderweb to tightrope walk.
Kids spend a long time playing with the stuffed animals in the pretend veterinary clinic. Here they can feed the animals, put leashes on them, check their vital signs, and make xrays.
Kids can also sit on seats and pull themselves up with ropes and levers.
Adults can enjoy the huge pretty windows looking out on the desert sky.
A fun place to eat in Rancho Mirage is Your Pie, where you choose the toppings of your pizza or salad at the counter. It is 15 minutes from the museum.
For another good children's museum, check out Kidspace Children's Museum in Pasadena.

Directions

Children's Discovery Museum is located at 71707 Gerald Ford Dr, Rancho Mirage CA 92270, call (760) 321-0602.
Open Tues-Sat 10-5, Sun 1-5. Every third Thurs, open late to 8pm. Open Mondays during certain times of year.
Admission is $10 per person.

Click on map for interactive view