8/17 Anniversary Expedition!
(That's eight years since our wedding, and 17 years since Ian asked me out. :B)
So to celebrate, yesterday Ian and I spent the day being intellectual tourists and eating lots of tasty non-homemade food. We left early to check out the new home of the California Academy of Sciences (which could have been more aptly named the Academy of Showing How You Worthless Humans Are Ruining The Earth, but I digress :P), and were not disappointed. Yes, the $25 admission fee is quite steep for a casual museum-goer, but Ian and I have been visiting the Academy since we were wee kids, and having it closed for 3~ years left a big hole in our SF visits. It is a really great rebirth for the museum -the architecture, the displays, and the sustainability are all exciting features. Finding pieces of the old displays was a fun treasure hunt, and seeing all the new environments was really amazing. A few point-by-point observations:
- Buying tickets online is highly recommended to avoid the line. However, you can't apply any discounts (such as AAA). :\
- The building itself is pretty dang cool. Be sure to go up to the roof to see how nicely the plants have filled in.
- The new penguin environment is so much better than the old one -you can see all their underwater antics!
- The multi-level rainforest environment is AMAZING -colorful butterflies and birds fly freely around you, mist drizzles gently (it's quite humid, if you're sensitive), fragrant flowers bloom, while fish and amphibians splash below. Fabulous -a must-see!
- Steinhart Aquarium is reinvented as never before! My favorites were the jellies, the chambered Nautilus, and the "leaf" seahorses.
- Foucault's Pendulum has returned, but Ian and I thought it lost some of it's magic being out in the bright open (somehow the old dark and sunken room added to the mystery of it).
- We grinned at the old T-Rex and Blue Whale skeletons; ironically they seemed bigger than when we were kids.
- Don't miss a show in the Morrison Planetarium! It's included in the admission price, so there's no reason not to. ;) "Fragile Planet" wasn't as interesting as any Nova episode, but the visuals (particularly at the dizzying beginning) were awesome. Center top offers the best view, btw.
- The Naturalist Center is quite cool, I could blow a lot of time there looking over all the artifacts and information.
After we went through the Academy we walked across the plaza to the de Young, for a free trip up to the top of the observation tower (which was EMPTY) -where I took a couple pics...
Ian, looking cute, overlooking the Academy...
Larger view of the Academy, with Ian's trademarked sideways glance...
And finally, Ian with some lumpy gal making a really weird face (I never got to use my umbrella, boo) -but yay for convenient camera ledges...
From there we headed over to Kitaro for some tasty sushi noshing. We drove home in the rain, had a cozy rainy-afternoon nap, and took in a late dinner at The Tides Wharf in Bodega Bay (right across the road from where we honeymooned!). All in all it was a fabulous day spent together, and I couldn't ask for more than that. :)