A truly fabulous museum!

Monday – San Francisco!

Hello!

Today was our one full day in SF, and it was a great day!  Up at the usual time – 6-ish, and down for the hotel’s complimentary “American” breakfast in the basement.  Well, the basement is actually the Jeanne d’Arc restaurant that doubles as a breakfast room – and it is stunning!  Beautifully painted with flowers and chickens and different scenes all reminiscent of the Jeanne d’Arc era; quite lovely!  With fresh orange juice, we were offered our choice of eggs or French toast (appropriate, don’t you think?!)  We both chose scrambled eggs, which arrived shortly with toast, a strip of bacon and some wonderful hash browns; very good!

 

Out and looking for our first bus around 8:30 a.m. as we wanted to be at the California Academy of Science Museum in Golden Gate Park at their opening time of 9:30 a.m.  It took a couple of minutes to find the 5 bus line, but once we did, it was a fairly straight shot down Market Street and then up to Fulton and eventually along the Park.  We got off, and had an interesting walk (it would help if we were more familiar with the park, that’s for sure!) past the flower conservatory (which was lovely!) and then over to the Science Museum.  Got there just at 9:30; great timing!

I had read several years ago that the museum had been completely revamped and was wonderful, and we had wanted to see it!  So…while the Institute itself started in the 1880’s, the museum was completely revamped and reopened in 2008.  And our overall impression?  WOW; fabulous museum!

The building actually encompasses the city’s aquarium AND planetarium, but also has room for evolutionary subjects and special exhibits.  We first headed through the evolution section, which had some really fabulous touch-screen demonstrations and information. 

We then ran into “Claude” – who is a just turned 18-year-old albino alligator; he was great!  A very enthusiastic docent suggested that we head next through the Rainforests of the World.  This was basically life in an enclosed very humid globe, while we followed the ramp from the forest floor through the tree tops.  There were wonderful exhibits of frogs, amphibians and snakes (which I didn’t look at…) as well as birds and butterflies.  The butterflies were truly amazing – in fact, when we reached the top, one settled on me and didn’t want to move!  The man who runs the elevator at the top (which takes you down to the bottom) actually has his own butterfly net to keep everyone where they are supposed to be!  Quite fun! 

After this, we had passes to the geology show in the planetarium, called EARTHQUAKE.  It was really excellent, and their planetarium is very modern and actually comfortable!

Immediately after exiting from EARTHQUAKE, we had to line up again for the astronomy presentation at the planetarium, which was called Cosmic Collisions, and narrated by Robert Redford.  Fortunately, the museum wasn’t really crowded – there was plenty of room for everybody, and we were able to get comfortable seating, which was nice. 

After this second presentation, we decided that it was, indeed lunchtime.  And, not only does the Museum have a very nice looking cafeteria, they have a fine dining restaurant called “the Moss Room.” 

There were only a few other tables occupied, and we were able to have a very relaxing and delicious lunch!  We both started off with bowls of clam chowder – will this ever end, we ask ourselves?!  And then Robert had a lovely prawn salad, and I had their chicken wrapped in pancetta with polenta and vegetables – yummy!  For dessert, I had their chocolate torte (oh my…) and Robert had their strawberry pistachio tarte – also excellent!  So, all in all, we were two happy folks rolling out of the museum about 3 p.m.

It wasn’t far from the museum to Fulton Street, where we were able to pick up a returning #5 bus, taking us back to Union Square.  As we still had not paid our toll for the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday, we headed to 10 Geary Street, which turned out to be a wireless phone store.  Paid the $6 toll there, and have put the receipt in a very safe place to prove that we paid! 

From there, we walked back to the hotel, arriving about 4:30 p.m. – great time for a short nap!

About 5, I decided that I wanted some frozen yogurt – and found a place on Montgomery Street, about 4 blocks away.  As Robert says, walking downhill is WAY easier than walking UP hill!  So, downhill it was to Montgomery for my yogurt fix … then how to get home, as it was WAY uphill!!  R, ever terrific with a bus map, figured that if we walked two blocks up to California, we could get a cable car back to within a short walk of the hotel.  Had to wait a few minutes, but there was the cable car – and we got to ride OUTSIDE, which was GREAT fun!  Off at Powell, and then DOWN a couple of blocks, and voila!  Back to the hotel!

Now watching the Monday Night football game – Pittsburgh vs. Cincinnati – and my Steelers are NOT doing well…more later!

m

xxx