Peggy's Journey: Academy of Sciences in San Francisco

After seeing the JMW Turner exhibition at the DeYoung Museum last Wednesday, Gil and I walked across the beautiful space between the museum and the Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. We had not been there since our adult kids were young. We have fond memories of seeing the snakes and pendulum and other exhibits.

As we walked up to the ticket booth and saw the prices for going in, we were dumbfounded! It was going to cost us an additional $60 to go in as Seniors. This was after spending almost that much to see the Turner exhibition. We started to walk away but were drawn back knowing that we would probably never be there again. So in we went.

Great place for kids. Not so for us. First of all it had changed dramatically. The snake exhibit was gone. The pendulum was still there and still fascinating to watch its progress around the circle. There was an albino alligator that was fascinatingly beautiful. We got to the penguin exhibit just as they came out to feed them. The line and wait for the planetarium was excruciating, so we left that for others to see. We walked around the outside of the biosphere, as it was a super hot day even in San Francisco. The thought of going into a humid room filled with birds and plants was more than either of us wanted to do. Plus all the kids. The longest line was for the earthquake simulation room. Having lived through several earthquakes in real life, I didn't need that experience. We had not eaten since we left Carmichael that morning, so we stopped in at the cafeteria and bought one chicken salad wrap and water to share. It was nice to sit for a few minutes out on the patio in the wonderful breeze coming in off the ocean. We then walked through the aquarium. If you have been to one aquarium on the west coast, you really don't need to attend another. Same fish. Same exhibits. Nothing new. Again for a family with kids, a good place to go. For two old seniors alone, forget it.

Here are some of the pictures Gil took while there:

Tyrannosaurus Rex

I have watched all the Jurassic Park movies. I know to stay away from them. Look at his/her teeth!

Hard to tell how big he really is. He was in a pool that was probably 8 to 10 feet below where we were standing.

Two electric eels. They were very large.

Huge fish. His eyes were so covered with a white tissue that it made you wonder if he was able see through them.

This is the pendulum. As the earth moves, so does the pendulum. In a twenty four hour period, it will go around the symbol on the floor one rotation. They have put pegs up for it to knock down, so you can see the movement around as well as back and forth.

Hard to tell, but this turtle was quite large.

Look at the size of that Manta Ray on the left. His tail went out probably 8 feet past his body.

Looking back at the DeYoung Museum.

After leaving Golden Gate Park, we decided to go home via the Golden Gate Bridge since it took us forever to cross into San Francisco via the Bay Bridge. We crossed over and stopped at the vista center on the north side of the bridge. It was sunshiny and beautiful as we left San Francisco. By the time we drove the short distance relatively speaking across the bridge, the top of San Francisco was in a foggy shroud. And so windy. I had a skirt on - sort of. It took all my resources to keep it down around my knees instead of up around me head. Here are the pictures from the vista point.

Taken in color - honest. Fog does that to a scene.

We went on into Mill Valley to eat at Tyler Florence's restaurant there. Got there at 4:30. They didn't open until 5:30. We were starving. We walked around the corner and found Pearl's Phat Burgers. Oh my goodness what a find!

Following pictures were taken from the internet, as we were too busy eating to think of taking pictures.