We recently became members of the California Academy of Science which gives us access to museum an hour ahead of the general public a couple of days a week.
It certainly was nice being there before it got crowded, before other visitors' stray limbs started popping up in our pictures, and before the throngs of shrieking preschoolers arrived.
Although everyone in San Francisco, including Cristie, disagrees, I personally believe the building is an architectural monstrosity. Doesn't this picture prove it?
Nevertheless, it does have some interesting exhibits. The museum's mascot is Claude, an albino alligator. Here he is, seen from below, with the top of his head invisible above the waterline.
There's a live penguin exhibit. The penguins were in love with this zookeeper who cleans their habitat and feeds them.
There are also static dioramas of the African savannah, although there's something creepy about them compared to the more famous ones in New York's American Museum of Natural History. I guess they were just better at this in 1910 than in 2010.
This being California, there's a big emphasis on the environment and global warming. Visitors are encouraged to write their ideas to save the planet and pin them on a board. Some selections:
"It meat in modration! Be nice to cows! Bruce & Nia 22nd bday!"
"Lets stop useing thes cards because they are wasting trees"
"Treez are goood ..."
Here's an exhibit in which you lift up very realistic food models to reveal their carbon footprint. This exhibit made me hungry and we left for lunch right after.
Lunch at a wonderful European style cafe.
UPDATE: Cristie just showed me this amazing picture she took of her spicy orange salad.
Followed by walking around town looking for interesting things. The most photogenic thing we came across was a 25 foot tall sculpture that had been made for Burning Man and then moved to the city.
Click on the pictures to see how the sculpture is made of welded-together scrap metal parts and machine parts.
