SF: Day 4

Are you ready? Have you drank some Power-Aid? Have you done some stretches? Cause here come a stinkin' lot of pictures! We went into the city today and had fun first in Golden Gate Park at the Academy of Science. It is an aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum, rainforest and research facility all under one roof. They have recently renovated the museum and exhibits and we (my mom, two aunts, Laura and I) thought it would be cool to go.

T-Rex (does he come to life at night?):

In honor of Stef:

In their "Green" exhibit, you could write on scrap paper about what you would do to be more environmental...

...and somebody had the right idea!

Mr. Croc in the swamp:

Penguins! They were way cute.

And we got to see them be fed...happy penguins!

Note the large predator in the tree above me (he's stuffed):

a Honeycomb stingray:

Sorry Heather, these were stuffed:

Several types of seahorses:

Buttons? No, jellyfish:

This is the new roof to this building, pretty neat!

Here is the rainforest dome, it was closed, darn it:

We then went from there across the street to the Japanese Tea Gardens, which is one of my favorite places to see. It's very serene (and photogenic!):

I heart pagodas:

This is the Taiko Bashi or "Drum Bridge"

The gates to the gardens, aren't they neat?:

The view of the city from The Cheesecake Factory up in the Macy's building:

You know how every city has fiberglass installations? Seattle had horses, Erie has fish and frogs and SF has hearts (as in "I left my heart in SF"). Some were cute.

Us with hearts:

I got to go to the MOMA gift store...always fun stuff. I got a book of photographs taken by Lewis Carrol (yes, the Alice in Wonderland guy- who knew he took cool portraits back in the day?) and a mag (gotta love ReadyMade magazine) and some art postcards for the collection. Maybe one day I'll be able to afford the Charley Harper art books (do yourself a favor and look him up, cool mod nature art).

A full, but fun day with the fam. Gotta love it.