One thing I love about the Bay Area is the number of places to explore. We usually opt for the free activities like hiking, or we splurge on some tasty food at a local restaurant. The Cal Academy of Sciences though has been on our list of places to visit ever since we moved out here.
The Academy has a variety of different exhibits to explore, including a planetarium, rain forest aquarium, and (right now) an earthquake exhibit. I think my favorite part was the earthquake exhibit and planetarium show featuring the San Francisco earthquakes in 1906 and 1989. One part of the earthquake exhibit is the Shake House, a simulator of what the two major SF earthquakes would have felt like. Since moving here, the biggest earthquake we have felt was around 3.0 and only lasted a few seconds. I'm not sure how I would even react to a 7.0 earthquake lasting up to a minute! (Seriously, earthquakes freak me out!)
We also enjoyed walking through the Rain forest and seeing all of the beautiful and bright creatures. The rain-forest is a 4-story dome structure with birds and butterflies flying around inside. Unfortunately, we had just missed the parrots, but the smaller birds were just as pretty, though much harder to photograph. I really loved trying to capture some of the gorgeous butterflies, but they don't like sitting still too long...
From the rain forest, we took an elevator down to the aquarium. Sam and I have visited a number of aquariums, but for some reason they never get old! This one was definitely a little smaller since it shares its home with other exhibits, but it still housed some very cool sea creatures. I especially loved this gold, sparkly fish. I also love fish faces- they have the funniest expressions!
We ate lunch at the in-house cafe, and it was delicious! Seriously, the food was great, and they even had a coffee bar where you can order coffees, teas or hot chocolate (or something a little stronger). We ate outside on the patio, and then ventured over to watch the baby ostriches. They were so freaking cute!
The visit was tons of fun, and I'd definitely recommend it for both adults and kids. They also have a program on Thursday nights called Nightlife at the Academy for visitors 21+. They serve cocktails, have a DJ or live band, and have a special theme for the night with guest speakers and special activities. It is DEFINITELY on my list of things to attend sometime soon.
