A few Saturdays ago our family unit decided to take the 13-mile drive from our house to San Francisco to go see “a 3,000 year old dead guy’s stuff” (aka the King Tut Exhibit) at the De Young Museum. Unfortunately, as we walked in the museum we discovered the exhibit was already sold out. Note to self: purchase tickets online in advance. Luckily, Golden Gate Park is not lacking for cool things to do, so we walked across the way to the California Academy of Sciences. First off, as a tech geek, I love the ticket kiosks. Touch the screen, choose your tickets, swipe your card, they print, and off you go. Awesome!

Ah, but there were far more goodies inside. The first thing we saw was a huge glass dome that is in fact a four-story rainforest habitat. We waited in line for about 15 minutes to get into the exhibit; the whole time taking in the wonders of it from the outside. Then as we passed through the entryway our environment transformed into a warm and humid rainforest. From the Macaws, to the fish, to the beautiful plants and the butterflies there was always something interesting to observe. A bit of a warning though, for those who like me are a tad scared of snakes, there are several terrariums with our scaly friends, which I was able to easily avoid.

One of the funniest parts of the day was when we watched a large butterfly fly straight into the glass, bounce off and fly on his merry way. He (or she) didn’t seem to mind at all. It was also fun to see, at the end of the exhibit, a setup of large mirrors and a guide – the intention of all this: to check for possible butterfly stowaways. From the elevator we walked under the rainforest aquarium through a glass tunnel with a better view of the fish.

I will say, once we reached the Steinhart Aquarium, which had several tanks and hands-on exhibits (hands-on is a key part of the whole experience), I thought we were safe from snakes. But no, it turns out there was one, very, very large snake in there. I maintain it was as big across as my fridge; those visiting the Academy with me say it was far smaller…  After checking out the aquarium, as we were leaving that area, we found the albino alligator – a very chilled out dude that was interesting to watch even if he didn’t move around a whole bunch. 

We then came across a fascinating pendulum clock, which the younger members of our family unit were quite taken with. But, we couldn’t stay there all day literally watching time fly, so we continued on. For those with kids, they have an interactive game where bugs are projected on the floor – this rated very highly.

From there we moseyed over to the African Hall for a mini-safari where we spotted penguins, lions, zebras and baboons. I have to say that except for the penguins, they didn’t move around a whole lot. We thought about checking out the Planetarium but it was fully booked.  Next time for sure. Our last bit of fun was the Living Roof, where we sat and enjoyed some fabulous views.

As for the 3,000 year old dead guy, we’re going back to see his stuff right before it moves on to another city. But that will be another story.

Interested in checking out the Academy of Sciences? There is a “Grown up night” and even a Free day, every Third Wednesday of the month. And their Rainforest Blog is really pretty cool and informative. You can also follow the Academy on Facebook and Twitter, where they share lots of fun material.

Have you been to the Academy of Sciences since it reopened?  If so, what’s your favorite exhibit?


Posted by:Jennifer Masterson