California Academy of Science

My parents and I took Jack to the new California Academy of Science museum in San Francisco today. We had heard such good things about it from other friends; it incorporates an aquarium, planetarium, four-story Amazonian rain forest, South African Penguins, all in a newly renovated building.

Driving onto the 10th Ave entrance to Golden Gate Park was a quite a surprise as it now leads directly underground into a colossal parking lot. When I lived here eight years ago, this street entered directly into the park.

We arrived about 1030, one hour after the museum opened, to a sea of people who oddly resembled us: a mix of older couples and their adult children shepherding strollers and all the attending equipment that goes along with that.

Jack did well during the long drive over and took the waiting in line to enter in stride. I had prepped him for what we would be seeing. He was especially interested in seeing the "fishies" in the aquarium. He's a huge fan of the animated show, "Oswald" which chronicles the adventures of an anthropomorphic octopus and his best friend, Henry, a penguin. Naturally, he was interested is seeing examples of both animals.

After entering and getting our bearings, we made our way to the African Hall exhibit, which features stuffed animals and live penguin habitat. Jack was amazed by near real life examples of gorillas, zebras, lions, cheetahs, antelope, and other examples of African fauna. For some reason, he kept running back to the zebras. He pointed his finger and said, "elephants!" "No," I said, "they're zebras, buddy." He was insistent and I saw he was pointing just to the right of zebras. And there, in the simulated distance of the hand painted African Savannah, I saw a digital projection of a herd of elephants slowly making their way across the grasslands. It was very subtle but the movement caught Jack's eye. He was really excited to see them, albeit in the simulated distance. Smart kid.

The culmination of the African Hall was the live penguin habitat. Jack raced right up to it, his small size allowing him to weave between adults standing near the exhibit. When standing, Jack's head was still below the water level of the tank. I held him up to see the penguins standing on the simulated rocky shore. Periodically, they jumped off into the water to swim and dart around. Jack loved it.

After the African Hall we saw a massive swinging Foucault pendulum whose cable was suspended two stories above the main floor. I remember seeing a similar one with my father when I was a young kid at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, where I grew up. It was oddly comforting to see a similar pendulum with both my son and my father. Jack was fascinated and lingered much longer than I thought he would.

We then made our way down to the lower level where the aquarium exhibits were located. Jack was amazed and very excited to see so many fishes. We spend the majority of our visit down there racing from exhibit to exhibit. In addition to seeing fishes, Jack got to visit the tide pool exhibit and touch a star fish. He was a little hesitant but enjoyed it. At one of the last tanks, he saw a giant sea bass. It was bigger than him, easily. It slowly swam in circles, periodically coming right up to the tank much to the delight of the various kids watching it. Jack exclaimed, "it's my favorite!" and stayed to watch it swim around and around.

We then made our way up to the first level and had some lunch before heading out. Jack was running on adrenalin but finally conceded it was time to go home. I promised him we'd be back to visit again.

In the car on the way home, he announced, "I'm not tired," and then proceeded to fall asleep.