Face your fears and head to the Natural History Museum's Spider Pavilion, where you can observe approximately eight local and exotic species in an open, landscaped area on the museum's South Lawn as they wander freely in a living exhibit. Scared they might be hard to spot in the wild? Fret not. One species, the Nephila Maculata from Malaysia, is about the size of an adult's palm and can weave webs up to six feet in diameter, making it the largest orb-weaver in the world. Worried about going from zero to spider all at once? They've got that covered too. There's an adjacent interpretive area for arachnophobes to get acclimated as museum entomologists guide them through a variety of things most people typically go out of their way to avoid, including scorpions, brown and black widows, and Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantulas, the largest spider in the world. If that fails, you can always gather some liquid courage at any of Downtown's nearby watering holes.
