A Day at the Museum

www.calacademy.org

Most people who know me understand that I am not a museum lover. I am too bored to read the signs, I would generally rather be outside, and I don't want to pay the exorbitant prices to get in. Hell, I sat outside in the park in front of the Louvre and waited there for my sister rather than go in. I am a strange bird. (I did enjoy my recent visit to the DBG, however.)

At any rate, I have been super excited about the new California Academy of Sciences. I have heard much about it, largely because it was designed by Renzo Piano and constructed sustainably, featuring a green roof, loads of recycled materials, gray water, and more. However, it is also awesome. It features a 4-story rain forest, a large climate change exhibit, an aquarium, a planetarium, and penguins!

[Like many other veggies I suspect, I struggle with the ideas of zoos and aquariums. However, all of the CalAcademy's penguins are captive hatched, so they probably couldn't survive in the wild anyway. And I have heard multiple stories from NPS staff who took aquatic specimens to the Academy for a variety of reasons - animals that had to be moved during restoration, ocean creatures brought up when they removed a nasty old net. So I think, that overall, the ability for a child (or me!) to touch a starfish and discover wonder and awe of the natural world, is probably worth it, at least in this case. I totally understand how one might disagree though.]

Anyway, I'm rambling (as usual). Matt's office party involved a trip to the CalAcademy, to which I was invited. After spending a 40 minute commute, partly standing on a crazy, out-of-control bus, I arrived to meet them at the museum only to discover that they were running very late. After threatening to go home (because I'm terrible like that), I decided to wander across the Music Concourse to check out the deYoung Museum as there was a Maya Lin exhibit I wanted to see anyway. So I spent $18 and 1.5 hours in a whirlwind visit to an art museum. (Actually a long time for me, as I got through the Uffizi in just 30 minutes.) I would even go back. There were fantastic photographs, Hudson River School paintings (influential in the establishment of National Parks), an amazing Asian Art exhibit, and crazy outfits by Yves Saint Lauren (thanks so much for letting women wear pants!). Also some Chihuly pieces that definitely did not look as pretty without the cacti next to them, as I suspected.

Then off to CalAcademy with about an hour before closing time. No time for the rainforest and planetarium, as the lines were too long. We checked out the green roof, the aquarium (yay fuzzy starfish!), the climate change exhibit, and the penguins (really stinky!). We plan to buy a membership so we can go back repeatedly and drag all our guests there.

I highly recommend both museums, even for museumphobes like me. I think even non-science geeks would enjoy CalAcademy. Some day I hope to work there.