Hmmm...unfortunately never went to those when I was on the East Coast.
I did go to the Biodome, Insectarium, and Botanical Garden in Montreal which is absolutely wonderful if you spend the whole day going around them all. The Biodome has a walkway going through the canopy of the very tropical sections, which is the closest to something like going through the Amazon I've ever gotten to...unfortunately I haven't been for a while so I don't have any pictures.
I've gone to the Boston Aquarium as well which was just breath-taking with level after level of different animals in relatively huge tanks. No pics on that one either.
The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has a pretty nice tropical plant house, but I get the feeling when I walk through it the humidity isn't high enough for half the plants (they have neps inside but they're not pitchering). Also they have a small shop where you can get tillandsias for cheap from time to time, as well as some other cute little plants.
The University of Vermont has a small tropical public greenhouse that has two or three neps, currently not pitchering but they are flowering, and it's those plants that got me addicted. They've got papayas and bananas and a bunch of orchids and tree ferns and things though, so considering it's only two small rooms it's pretty impressive.
I also liked the Waikiki Aquarium, they have sea dragons!
and pretty sharks too, but the zoo out there in Honolulu isn't so great from what I remember.
I've also gone to the zoo in Brno in the Czech Republic which was OK, but seemed like the enclosures were too small for the animals. Here's a shot of a giraffe:
Balboa park, also in San Diego, has a tropical house that has a small bog garden and two or three neps hanging above it, with a huge koi pond out front. Here's the neps and a shot from the pond out front:
And if you guys ever want to see some very pretty rose gardens, I suggest dropping by Bern, Switzerland...they have some very nice antique/used book stores, bears in a pit, and public pools too. Here's a pic from the rose garden:
While I'm at it, here's one picture of something orchid-like and some more herps from Puerto Rico while I'm putting a ton of pics up
.
...and a toad and some mushrooms from Vermont:
...and some more lizards from San Diego...
Maybe this will turn into a "best of zoos/arboretums" thread...