california academy of science

We got a membership to the California Academy of Science, which was completely rebuilt and just opened up again the weekend of the Raiders game. We tried to go to the opening, not to actually get into the museum, which we assumed was going to be jam-packed, but because they had all kinds of things going on in the oval out front, like circus performers and ballet and booths and food and piles of other stuff. Unfortunately, jam-packed turned out to be a complete understatement. We never made it anywhere close to the museum (although we did see a line for something - we were so far away from the museum that we can only assume the line was to get into the CAS) before we gave up and decided to go to the beach instead. Even then, it took us so long to get out of the park (the CAS is in Golden Gate Park) that we were very late getting to the beach, and ended up just getting something to eat and going home.

Today, however, we actually went in. The CAS is a natural science museum, and it has an aquarium, a planetarium, and a rainforest. How cool is that? Knowing that Charli likes aquariums, we figured we better go a lot. It has nothing to do with the fact that I like aquariums, too. We got our own special line, which means we got to go right in, rather than waiting in the long line with all the rabble. Once we got in, we didn't go see the planetarium or the rainforest, since there were still more lines for those. But, we did see the Africa hall (lots of stuffed animals), penguins (Charli was a big fan), the various parts of the aquarium (Charli and I were both big fans), and the swamp with the albino alligator (not very good camouflage).

Overall it was lots of fun and we look forward to going again with anyone who comes to visit. :)