California Academy of Sciences

This sunny Monday, my family spent some quality time at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. We woke up early and set off to Starbucks at 7:30, and then hit the highway. My step-mom's parents were with us, so the car was almost full. My sister and I sat in the back-back, attempting to play chess without losing any pieces (our board is magnetic, but still).

We arrived in SF and I pulled my camera out. I'm co-president of the Photography Club at my school, and our current biweekly theme is "Homeless." We're planning an art show for the public this spring and the general theme will be "Poverty in America." The "Homeless" theme is broad and can be literal or metaphoric. I realized that SF was probably the best place to capture some homeless shots, so I popped off the lens cap of my new EOS Canon Rebel XS and scanned the street. We were exiting the freeway at Octavia St. and heading toward the left-only curve that takes you to Haight Street. My sister pointed out a homeless person to photograph, but he was right by my window, and I didn't want to make him angry by snapping a picture right in his face. So I didn't. I forgot to look the rest of the drive, and never got a picture of any real homelessness for the theme.

On we drove down Fulton St. to the parking garage. I saw the sign for Arguello Blvd. and flashed on the last time I'd been in that intersection. My cousin Jack, who lives in the Presidio, had taken me on a bike ride one Sunday evening, promising that he'd show me some crazies in the park. He and I took off down Arguello, freaking out pedestrians and crossing at red lights. My cousin is a maniac with a fixed-gear bike. No brakes for him. He'd leave me at red lights, expecting me to risk my life as well by darting in front of oncoming traffic. Like I said, maniac. Anyway, some days, they block off parts of the Golden Gate Park parkways so cyclists and pedestrians can take advantage of the free trails. He and I caught the tail end of this block-off time and were surprised to encounter a car heading for us. We swerved out of the way and continued down the road. At the time, I was using my old, heavy bike with baskets for carrying school bags and books. It weighs a ton and, compared to my cousin's lightweight specialty bike, I was lagging (not to mention that he plays sports and is in far better shape than me). Regardless, we made it to the crazies: people (probably high) on roller skates riding around on a cement square on the outskirt of Golden Gate Park. A boom box blared hip-hop music and these people were just dance/skating all over the place, oblivious. Jack and I just laughed and laughed and rode through them. Jack almost hit this woman who rode out in front of him. It was quite a sight...

So today, we pulled into the parking garage, expecting to see my step-mom's brother and his family. They weren't there. We piled out of the car and ascended the steps to the front of the Academy. The line was steadily growing to get in, and it was only 9:00. Half-an-hour of waiting in the cold seemed unfortunate, until the line began growing and stretching down the ramp. At least we aren't those people, we all thought. My sister and I crossed the street to the Stern Grove and I snapped a few shots of her sitting on a ledge with a statue in the background (above). An engraving in memory of Phoebe Apperson Hearst was etched into a wall between two flights of stairs; I photographed my sister in front of it for no reason other than to take a picture.

The cousins arrived, so my sister and I returned to the line. We hardly ever see them, so it was nice to hang out with three-year-old Alyssa and seven-year-old Justin (below: my step-mom, Pam, Alyssa, and me). Finally, the line began moving as they let people in. A man offered to take our picture against a green screen, but we declined. My dad quipped that they'd probably put a picture of a gorilla behind us. We entered the state-of-the-art building, complete with a living grass roof and neat glass-paneled walls. They didn't let us free just yet. We had to stand around in the entrance, looking at the California Academy of Sciences Pocket Guide that had just been handed to us by one of the lovely ticket-takers. Finally, at what I presume was 9:30, they released the barrier-lines and we rushed upon the exhibits like freed sheep. Justin wanted to see the "Bugs! 3D" show, which you had to get tickets for due to limited seating. We all rushed up the stairs to the Forum and got in line. My sister Kelsey and I aren't huge bug fans, so we opted not to attend. My step-mom's family got tickets for the bug show and my dad, step-mom, and sister made our way to the Planetarium to get tickets for the "Fragile Planet" show. The line was enormously long, but we stood there and looked at the coral reef they're growing. How cool - to reproduce a coral reef inside a building! If you looked down into the water, you could see a guy with his daughter down under the water in some room with a window. Fascinating!

After getting the tickets, we explored the African Hall and looked at dead, stuffed animals in their little glassed-in displays. I took pictures. At the end of the hall were African penguins! They were adorable. I didn't quite understand exactly where African penguins lived; I always thought penguins lived in cold places like the Arctic... According to Wikipedia, the African penguins are "found on the south-western coast of Africa, living in colonies on 24 islands between Namibia and Algoa Bay, near Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with the largest colony on Dyer Island, near Kleinbaai." How very interesting!

We looked at evolution exhibits about the Galapagos Islands with the remaining time before the show. I learned that the Galapagos Islands were formed through underwater volcanoes. All the diverse wildlife living there had to get to the islands either by swimming, floating, flying, hitching onto a log, by wind, or through some means of getting across the ocean. Because of this, the few surviving plants and animals who made it had to the islands had to adapt to the new conditions. I found that fascinating.

We decided to get into line early for the show. The planetarium is a large globe-shaped theater with rails and walkways encircling it. We stood in line along the outside of the building. We made our way into the entryway, where an enormous screen was showing us live-feed from NASA of outer-space, planets, galaxies, and astronomy-related images. It was pretty neat, especially knowing it was live.

We then shuffled into the theater, which in itself was fascinating. It was dome shaped, so the screen was all around you. After waiting for people to take their seats, a woman began speaking about the theater and the show we were about to watch. She started with questions about light-years and stars. She explained light-years to us and gave us examples to help us better understand. Then, the show began.

The experience was phenomenal and unlike anything I've ever experienced before. You went to outer-space, looked close up at Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, the moon, and galaxies many, many light-years away. I highly recommend going to the planetarium if you visit the Academy. After that, we found ourselves on the upper level, right near the Naturalist Exhibit. I've considered being a naturalist before, so I rushed in. My sister, of course, didn't want to go in there because the show had given her a headache. I scanned the shelves of books on biology, evolution, environmental science, botany, and anthropology, and then was forced to go by my 13-year-old sister.

We ventured onto the grass roof, which they call the Live Roof. It looked like the set of Teletubbies, only it was environmentally friendly and there were no full grown men in strange alien suits with televisions on their stomachs and symbol-like antennas.


(See what I mean? Live Roof photo credit: Paul Sakuma)

All of the plants growing on the roof are native to California, and the purpose of the green roof is to keep the building cool. It saves energy in that the Academy won't have to spend as much energy cooling their building. The flowers attract other life, like birds, butterflies, and bees. Though it looks strange from a distance, it is very innovative and beautiful to look at from the roof views.

We left the roof, and waited to meet up with the family for lunch. My dad and sister played chess at a bench (right), and I returned to the Naturalist Exhibit. I scanned the titles, observed the skulls and dead bugs and "green" magazines, and then returned to my dad and sister.

We met up with everyone and decided that the cafe had more options than the snack bar, so we grabbed trays and entered the confusing, overwhelming cafe. I was a little worried about what I would get; there were just too many options! I settled for lamb meatballs and jasmine rice. I picked an organic sparkling apple cider from the refrigerated case and met my dad in the check-out line. We snagged a table outside, but there wasn't enough room for everyone. My immediate family sat together, and the others sat together at another table. The lamb meatballs were okay, but there was a strange taste in it that I couldn't identify. My step-mom had gotten sushi-type rolls, so I tried one. Better than my lamb meatballs. My sis wanted a cookie, so I went back into the cafe to get one. We ended up getting a chocolate chip cookie, a brownie, and a half-caf. coffee for me.

The Climate Change exhibit was probably my favorite. It's my thing, environmental activism. There was this board with nails for hanging these papers, and on them you were supposed to write down your solutions to climate change. I didn't write one, but I read some. "Obama," "Go nuclear!", "educate yourself and others and then live what you learn." Not so sure about the nuclear one, but I definitely agree with education and living "green." I could go on for hours about that subject. There was this cool battery-powered Optibike that they were exhibiting. I ended up explaining the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee I'm on to my step-grandma. We're making a master plan for bike/ped. on-street trails in our city. We've hired a consulting firm, and they're working on the plan right now. They've posted a working draft, and plan on showing the city council a completed draft in September of this year. The Academy also had a poll going on nuclear power. They had reasons for and against it, and slots for coins and dollars under "No" and "Yes." They encouraged you to vote with your money. I haven't researched it enough to have an opinion either way, but I'm leaning to no at this point (There are too many risks involved with nuclear power. Wind turbines & solar power plants take less time to build and therfore enact. Nuclear waste is an issue which the United States currently "box[es]...up and store[es]...beneath the state of Nevada"). The exhibit also had cartoons about climate change (above), as well as many images and access to computers with websites about climate change.

To the Osher Rain Forest! The line was long to get in because they only let fifteen or so people in at a time. My aunt Michele stood in line for us, so we walked right over and went into the humid bubble shortly. There were all kinds of animals behind glass, and numerous butterflies and birds swooping around near the canopy. Fish of many different shapes and kinds, including piranhas, were swimming in a large pool of water. There are many levels to the rainforest, and each level at the Academy is devoted to a different rainforest region, each housing many different kinds of animals. Borneo housed bats, Madagascar had chameleons, Costa Rica was at the canopy level with butterflies practically landing on people, and the flooded Amazon was underneath the water pool. It turned into the Aquarium, where you could observe all kinds of marine life. At the Tide Pool, children were sticking their hands in the water to pet the rough surfaces of the star fish. (My sister and I wanted to name one Patrick.) One humongous fish caught my attention. He was a giant bass, and the plaque said those things can live to be 100 years old! This guy looked mean, ugly, and downright bored. His eyes were huge, and a miniature version of him lay at the floor of the tank, watching the crowd. I felt sorry for him, stuck in a tank too small for him with tourists staring at him day after day. The sign also said that capturing large bass is banned, due to the length of time it takes for one to reach maturity and have offspring. When they are captured too young, the population dwindles.

On we went through the Aquarium, which seemed never-ending. Jellyfish, crabs, fish with sand-colored backs to blend in, sand dollars. One window showed items found in a tiger shark's stomach: a liscense plate, whole sea turtles, Barbie dolls, nails, a can of Spam, and a shoe.

(My sister, Kelsey, in the Aquarium. The people above were in the upper level of the rain forest.)

The Swamp was next. We missed the albino alligator, unfortunately, but we did see the regular alligator and his tank of fish. Then, up the stairs, and to the gift shop. The kid store had venus fly traps for sale. Get rid of those fly-swatters and buy yourself a fly-eating plant!

The Academy Store had some neat stuff! T-shirts, sweaters, books on how to be green, jewelry, Planet Earth on DVD, solar powered backpacks, expensive chocolate, stuffed animals, and baskets made from tree stumps and roots. There was a plethora of neat stuff. I didn't buy any of it, but my sister bought a squirrel monkey stuffed animals (and named it Ester!).

We said good-bye to Pam's brother's family and then headed out ourselves, back into the real world where not everyone recycles and the roofs aren't made of grass and there aren't rain forest domes in the middle of the street. How I wish the world was just like the Academy.

If more people visit it, perhaps they'll begin to care more about this world we live on. Take a look at their website at http://www.calacademy.org/. Check out the adorable penguin cam!

Melissa

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The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth.
-- Chief Seattle