San Francisco : California Academy of Sciences
June 1, 2009 by Karlynn Johnston
Filed under Blog Posts
Everything here in this hilly, foggy but beautiful city, takes an entire day to visit, I see this now, very clearly, through the fog even. If you ever decide to visit San Francisco (or just up and move here, like I want to) and you peruse all these tourist attractions online or in a brochure, please remember me telling you that I swear most or all take an entire day. When they do something, they do it big, its go big or go home, baby.
Today was the Academy of Sciences, which has been on my must-do list ever since we found out we were coming here. It is located in the Golden Gate Park, which also has botanical gardens, a Japanese Tea Garden, National Aids Memorial, so many things that I can’t list them all! You could spend a few days exploring everything down there quite happily, here is a link to a map of the park, you can see how much there is to do and view there.Be warned again though, parking cost us $16! I am amazed how parking is just such a big cost to consider, I don’t even think about it at home, the museums/science centers are all free!
The first exhibit we saw was the Rain forest, which was amazing, butterflies and birds flew around a replica rain forest, and you walked up the ramp that went three stories high, each level stopping to have exhibits of various animal life specific to the region. My favorite was the chameleon, we swore he was trying to get to Ivy, he crawled right towards her and was pushing gently at the screen where she was, she was transfixed!As were we, I swear he wanted to get to her for whatever reason, I have never watched a reptile do that, he just wanted to get through the netting to her.
And of course, butterflies everywhere!
A view of the exhibit.
As you can see from the picture above, there was a pool with native fish in it, the coolest part was then walking underneath it to see what it looks like being under the water, very awesome!
Then you went straight into the Aquarium which was great, there were so many exhibits of species I have never seen before, as well as a hand on tide pool with sea urchins that I had never touched before, and as we know, anything hands on is what the kids love best! We spent forever there touching the various little sea creatures.
After those was the African exhibit with an excellent presentation at feeding time, a must see. The biologist is right in the exhibit feeding them and talking via a headset and speakers, and the kids loved watching her interact with them and feeding them their supper. There were also dioramic displays of African animals, very nicely done indeed! Add on a planetarium show (we didn’t see) and Bugs in 3D in another theatre, and you really get your bang for the buck! I was happy that its 6+ for kids at the first fee level, so it was just the $25 each for Mike and I. Steep, but it IS a full days entertainment. And once again, organic coffees and scones and homemade items to eat in their cafeteria.
Tomorrow is the Winchester Mystery house that my dad and I are taking a tour of, and the Mike is taking the kids to the kids museum in San Jose. Are we cramming in the activities or WHAT! I will need a vacation to rest up from this one!
Related posts:
