California Academy of Science
(Leafy Sea Dragon photo found here)
We went to see the new California Academy of Science on my birthday, and perhaps because my birthday is during Christmas vacation, it was crowded. Really, really crowded. Far too crowded for enjoyment. We waited about 40 minutes to even get in, and once we did, we could barely get near any of the exhibits. We were there for about an hour before the claustrophobia of the situation took us over, and we had to leave. It’s not cheap, either, so that was an expensive hour. I mentioned this on my blog, and my San Francisco bloggy friend patois mentioned that she might wait until her kids had a minimum day at school, and try then, rather than on a weekend, which was bound to be as crowded as when we had gone. That sounded like a really good idea to me, and since my dad gave us tickets as a gift, which would expire in 6 months, we decided we would try again this past Friday, which was a minimum day for Maya. It was like night and day. Instead of waiting in a long line behind hundreds of people, we walked right in. Instead of being shoved aside by people hoping to get a glimpse of the exhibits, we were able to see everything ourselves. It was wonderful.
The California Academy of Sciences has been a fixture of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco since the early 1950s, but has been recently completely redone. The old academy was torn down, and over the next few years, the new academy was designed and built.
The old academy was sort of corny and old fashioned, with outdated exhibits, consisting of an African exhibit with taxidermied animals (always sort of upsetting for me), a wonderful planetarium, an aquarium with a pretty good variety of fish, and at one point, dolphins; snakes and alligators, and various science exhibits like bugs and butterflies and so on. They had a charmingly old fashioned earthquake simulator, with a scientist with a strong accent warning us that if we live in this area, “We must be prepared”.
The new academy is state of the art, with updated exhibits warning us of the dangers of global warming to our home. The African exhibit is still there, as are the taxidermied animals, though thankfully the dead baby gorilla has gone missing (made me cry on more than one occasion), a wonderful new digital planetarium, snakes and alligators, and an amazing new aquarium. The new aquarium isn’t as easily traversed as the old one, and has more in common with the Monterey Bay Aquarium than the old aquarium. Thankfully, the brightly colored fish have remained, and wonderful additions have been brought in, like the sea dragon, above. It’s beautiful, and there are so many wonderful fish, it’s really great.
Overall, I think they did a great job. I would like to spend more time in the rain forest exhibit next time we go, as it is 3 stories of wonderful exhibits, and we rushed through in order to make our planetarium showing. I am very much looking forward to going again and again over the years, and seeing what they have to offer. I look forward to it being a fixture in Maya’s life as she gets older.
Perhaps it’s my childhood memories, though, because I still miss the man saying, “We must be prepared!”, and the more scientific, less glamorous exhibits. Ted said that while he enjoyed the digital technology of the new planetarium, he missed the presentations of our night sky that they used to have at the old one. I must admit, I would like that as well. Perhaps a trip to the Chabot planetarium is in order.
UPDATED to add, if you go, and you decide to eat in the expensive cafe (not more expensive than the cafeteria, they’re just both expensive), don’t kid yourself that you can eat a whole $5 ice cream sandwich by yourself. They’re BIG, and RICH. And the chicken salad is really good, too.
Another UPDATE: I went looking for the old video for the earthquake video, with the concerned scientist saying, “We Must Be Prepared”. Couldn’t find it, but I did find a very detailed review of the Academy that you might enjoy, if you’re thinking of going. It’s at a blog called moon>sun.
15 Comments
Shannon
I love aquariums! The one in Atlanta is the latest I have been to. It has a staggering wall tank that must be forty feet wide by twenty feet tall filled with all sorts of tropical fish and coral. I’ve been to the Monterey aquarium as well. I think they had a chart on the growth of the world population and a related display. The one on global warming sounds fascinating. Guess it has finally moved beyond Myth??
apathy lounge
My favorite birthday excursion? The zoo. No, I’m not kidding.
Nance
I think you owe it to yourself and anyone around you to, whenever you are at the academy, say “We must be prepared” in the exact voice. There will undoubtedly be others there who remember and also miss it, and you’ll bring back memories for them as well. Besides, it will get to be a Regular Fun Thing for your family, despite the fact that Maya will roll her eyes and die from embarrassment, which is just an Added Benefit for you!
Cherry
I totally forgot about the Earthquake exhibit. That was totally awesome. They took it out? That’s sad. I found it very eye opening albeit probably gave me nightmares too.
I’m glad it wasn’t too crowded this time. I hope to go someday soon although I don’t know when.
I’m sad the dolphins are gone. I used to just sit there and stare at them until it was time to meet the school bus. Oh no, I would also stand in the shark circle thing too…. remember that?
Starshine
Wow! That leafy sea dragon is amazing! How big was it?
J
Starshine, it was small, like a bit larger than a sea horse. Very cool looking. You couldn’t take pictures of them, because they’re sensitive to the camera, so I looked one up online. But, um, wouldn’t this one have been sensitive, too? Maybe one in the wild getting a picture once is OK, vs. one in an aquarium, getting its picture taken hundreds of times a day…
Ted
Last Friday’s trip was so much more enjoyable. I do miss the earthquake guy, the scales where you could weigh yourself on other planets or the moon, and, yes, the old planetarium. But, I’ll get over it.
Suebob
That is a gorgeous photo.
I could spend days in front of the big tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is so peaceful and gorgeous.
Casey
We’re anxious to go, but we’ve been waiting until the crowds die down. Maybe during our March break, when most schools are still in session. We took our students to the old one some years back, and the earthquake simulator was definitely the biggest hit, even with sixth graders. Our kids even liked the little temporary one downtown, so I can just imagine their reaction to the new version!
J
Casey, there’s NO EARTHQUAKE SIMULATOR!!! Can you believe that? It’s sad. Truly. But they’ll love the planetarium.
Jenny (your cuz)
Sounds like a wonderful place to explore. I really want to go now 🙂
amuirin
*howls*
I really… really, really really want chicken salad and an ice-cream sandwich now.
Long, long ago, our dad took us to visit a great aunt in Berkeley, and we just happened to stumble upon a place holding an exhibit called ‘After Man’. It was so… woah. Surreal. I was not very old at the time, but I remember it. We got a book.
This exhibit had life-size models of creatures that would theoretically exist after man ceased to be. Some of them were like mixtures of modern day animals, others were regular animals, only changed… evolved, larger, stranger, like creatures of fantasy. Each one had a write up of their habitat/behaviors/diet etc.
It was an amazing feat of imagination and construction. I wondered, reading this, if this was the place we went to see that, but I kinda think it was in Berkeley. Might even have been connected to the University. Not sure.
We have those sea-dragons at our local aquarium! They’re in a travelling exhibit called ‘Oddwater’.
amuirin
Srry, this got me on a tangent. I did a search about the After Man exhibit. Wikipedia talks about the book and the dude who wrote it, but there is no mention of the exhibit.
Only one reference did I find anywhere, someone else was there, also, as a kid… he said it was in 1981, at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Golden Gate Park. Do you know that place?
That isn’t right though, cus I would have been four in 1981. That is when the book came out. The exhibit must have been at *least* four years later,… maybe eight years.
Weird how, even with the internet thriving, an experience can still be a phantom that only exists in memory. If you go by internet, this exhibit never existed. Weird.
J
Amuirin, the Lawrence Hall of Science sounds like just the place for an exhibit like that, and it is not in GG Park, but is in the Berkeley Hills, in Tilden Park.
Sounds like an amazing exhibit, and one that Maya would totally want to see. 🙂
Linda Atkins
I love the California Academy of Sciences and can’t wait to visit the new one, but I think I’ll take your advice and go when everyone else is at work. Friends of mine went over there and gave up before they even got to the front door. That is an amazing-looking sea creature indeed.