While Western New York lucked out in both the lack-of-natural-disasters and abundance-of-lakes lotteries, we pay for it in long months of harsh winter. Some of us head to warmer climates for vacations. Some of us fight off the urge to hibernate, suck it up, and play outside. But frigid temps and soggy trousers aren't everybody's scene. I tend to give in to my inner grizzly bear and take cover in a nest of blankets and cats, and whenever I get cabin fever, I remind myself that I don't actually live in my little apartment, I live in the great city of Rochester, and she does provide. Make the most of the blah months with these local indoor havens, where you can get your injection of real live nature, find a separate peace, and even learn something while the outdoors are frozen over.

Main Building at the Seneca Park Zoo

2222 St. Paul St. | 336-7212, senecaparkzoo.org

Daily 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (gates close at 3 p.m.) | $6-$7, children 2 and under free

If you just can't stand the cold weather, you're in good company. Many of the animals in the zoo's Main Building are from South America, and the majority don't venture outdoors when the weather turns icy. I was under the impression that I'd only be seeing monkeys and apes, but General Curator David Hamilton took the time to introduce me to and educate me about every resident of the place, including reptiles, raptors, and rhinos.

Your first encounter begins in the foyer, where you can gawk at the piranha, snakes, and frogs. Next is the amphibian room, with a variety of striking and exotic frogs. Through another set of doors is the first resting spot: the aviary. The loft-like space is an effective pretend-paradise complete with waterfalls, tropical plants, and a cacophony of calls from about 15 dramatically painted birds from all over the world. "If you are quiet and still, the birds become more active," Hamilton says.

The main stretch of the heated building has benches where you can sit and watch the spider monkeys, apes, ocelots, coatimundis, orangutans, and more. I predict the golden lion tamarins, with their tiny expressive faces and endless scampering, will be popular with everyone, but the meerkats, whose habitat is situated at eye level for small children, will mesmerize the little ones.

Other comfy indoor observation and education spots (watch the graceful sea lions glide to and fro!) can be reached by those who brave the short trek between buildings. I noticed that the hyena was outside in the cold. You gonna get shown up by a hyena? Hot chocolate and coffee can be found at the food stand.

Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden at Strong National Museum of Play

1 Manhattan Square Dr | 263-2700, museumofplay.org

Mon-Thu 11a.m.-5p.m., Fri-Sat 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sun 12:30-5 p.m. | $8-$10 (museum admission, children under 2 free), plus $3 for butterfly garden

Feeling stifled in your winter-coat cocoon as winter takes its slow turn? Take shelter under the glass wings of this little haven. I got more flora and fauna than I was expecting, encountering not only 50 to 75 species of butterflies and moths (about 100 new insects are released into the garden daily), but a blessedly humid room packed with tropical vegetation, turtles, and fish in the ponds, red-footed tortoises, finches, ridiculously cute button quail, and lizards running freely about. So walk gently and be vigilant, and you'll see a lot without trampling anything. (Pssst: the calmest of shoulders encourage more winged friends to alight.)

I spied many colorful creatures lazily fluttery by, including a delicate, pale Paper Kite from Asia, a vibrant Blue Morpho, and a beastly huge and beauteous Atlas Moth. But my favorite part, hands down, is the chrysalis case, where rows and rows of the alien, jewel-pendant-like metamorphosis cases in countless shapes and sizes hang from strings above newly emerged butterflies, whose new wings resemble wet Kleenex, as entomologist Tad Yankoski put it. With loads of patience, the bugs bide their time until their wings are properly stretched and dried. Perfect metaphor for our wait for spring, no?

"The Dutch Connection" at the George Eastman House

900 East Ave | 271-3361, eastmanhouse.org

On display February 12-28, Tue-Sat 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Thu 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Sun 1-5 p.m. | $4-$10, children 4 and under free

As if the Eastman House needed to get any more opulent, every year its Conservatory is lavished with more than 2000 tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, freesias, amaryllis, and alliums, as well as a display of tropical orchids for the "Dutch Connection" display. That either sounds like ecstasy or allergy-induced death, but either way, it's going to look phenomenal come this February. The mansion is accustomed to being lavished in winter bloom: George Eastman ordered tens of thousands of bulbs from Holland nearly every year of his residence there (1905-1932) to decorate his Conservatory. During the run of the display, you can view the blossoms with regular museum admission, or snag your sweetheart for a Valentine's date (flowers do convey the racy language of love...) and attend a talk and tour by Landscape Curator Amy Kinsey (Sunday, February 14, 1:15 p.m. or Thursday, February 18, 6:30 p.m.; included with museum admission). Members can make reservations to attend one of the coffee talks and tours with Kinsey (Saturday, February 13, 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, February 17, 9 a.m., or Sunday, February 21, 12:30 p.m.).

Lamberton Conservatory at Highland Park

171 Reservoir Ave | 753-7270, monroecounty.gov/parks-highland.php

Daily 10 a.m.-4 p.m. | $1-$3, children 5 and under free

Elevate your sprits from the filthy slush and into the heady splendor of this lush realm. Navigate through the curling, winding, draping, and closely packed plant life along brick paths in this glass greenhouse, where even the weak winter sun creates the lovely effect of enhancing the highly saturated colors of the flora. The giant flamboyant hibiscus, piles of delicate ferns and mosses, and thickly cascading Spanish moss will hint that you've stumbled upon the Land of the Lost. On slower days, the place is filled with a profound silence and peace, while balmy-earthy scents drift through the humidity (which is only properly appreciated in the height of winter). Several benches provide a resting spot for reading or meditating on the explosive diversity of precious life on this tiny dot, lost in space. We forget, in the head-down bustle of modern living, that it's good and necessary to just be calm and appreciate "it" for a bit.

The collection is an impressive reminder of the payoff of patience and care, especially poignant for chronic killers of houseplants. There is vast variety to be found within the cacti and succulent room (or just within the aloe plants, for that matter). When you visit, feel free to bow down and give thanks to the giant blue spears of the agave plant for the gift of tequila, and peep the strange shaggy shafts of the tall aaronsbeard cactus. Play games, like "choose the oddest/prettiest/best adapted/scariest plant." Dispersed throughout are humorous and educations signs, identifying plants of various import and fascinating facts, like how some plants make babies without, you know, making it.