The California Academy of Sciences

The kids and I headed up to San Francisco to go to the California Academy of Sciences. It is a huge thing here and has recently been moved, remodeled and updated. Still after being reopened for a year, there is a wait to get into the parking lot on the weekends! The first 6 months or so when it opened, the news reported waits of up to 2 hours just to park. Needless to say I was curious about what all the fuss was about.

One of the really fun things about the Academy was that is had so many different things to see. One side is a huge dome that simulates the rain forest. You read about the insane humidity but until you experience it you don't realize the discomfort that is would be to live in that region. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of beautiful butterflies fluttering around. What is also kinda nice is that there are only 5 different kinds so the kids can learn the names quickly and begin to call them by the correct name (i.e. 'instead of look at that blue one', it was "Did you see that Blue Morpho?") Sad the things that I get excited about.

One dissapointing thing was that they had a Red-Eyed Tree Frog in the rain forest as well. I have been wanting to see one of those ever since Madison was little and had frog flash cards. (You knew I was that big of a geek, you may have just forgot). We were all so excited when we saw it's display case and guess what. It slept the whole time. The whole novelty of seeing this frog was its red eyes. You can't see the color of eyes when they are closed the whole time. Curse those preservation measures to make the frog feel so unnaturally safe that it can just sleep. (Maybe I was just jealous, hard to say!)

While they weren't the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, they had a pretty impressive diversity of fish exhibits of which I was pleasantly surprised. Their claim to fame was that they have an albino alligator. Madison had just watch a show on alligators and rescues so she explained to us that they usually removed albinos from the wild because they are such easy targets. The safest place for them to be was in an aquarium.

The Academy also did a pretty good job of having hands on activities for the kids too. I love it when they can experience what they are seeing.

Their roof is also a garden. Alex was dissapointed that he couldn't run up that hill. :) I have to admit that it even looked tempting for me. ("I bet we could see our house from up there...... " Sorry Alex, you really over estimate my eyes.)

We also met up with some friends so we went into the gift shop. I just went in to get Girls Scout patches and then Alex, Ashton and I hung out outside the windows and ate snack. Madison and Payton had the camera in the store (as you can tell) and snapped some pictures. Glad to know I am raising some good (fun) shoppers. :)

Another update on our child raising. The girls had the camera for most of the time. (Let's face it I have a very active 6 year old boy and a 2 year old who is doing everything in her power to keep up with him.... I am usually running somewhere chasing someone which isn't conducive to snapping photos- at least not ones in focus.) As I have mentioned in other posts, my dh loves taking pictures but rarely has people in them. I love having the cool pictures- with people I know in them. Well here is the report for this outing: 204 pictures taken, 26 with people in them (and I was VERY generous in my count- if there was a hand or the back of a head I counted it). It is fun to see things from their perspective through the lens of a camera (and to see that you can't override genetics :).