Science Sunday

Last week Holly and I met Lucian and Tracey at the Science Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Tracey has a Membership so we were able to get in for free, and have been hearing so many good things about it, especially the Aquariums.

The day we were planning on going we left the time up in the air, you know how it is with naps and all. Well Holly decided that she didn't want to go down for a nap, and instead of having a battle over it, getting her to sleep at Noon, and not being able to leave for our outing until 3:00 I decided, OK, Don't nap, lets go into the city now. Well of course now really meant like an hour, by the time I got ready to head out of the house, and of course Holly fell asleep in the car just as we drove over the bridge. I was supposed to call Tracey when we were parking and she was going to come meet me, but it took me like 20 minutes to find parking, and when I finally found a hidden entrance into the garage, I went to call her and realized there was no signal under ground.

So we parked, and I planned on going to the stairs to call Tracey, but Holly woke up when I opened the car door. So I picked her up, settled her into the stroller, took the elevator up and was finally able to call. Tracey was still a few minutes out so we got a chance to eat, and play. I fed Holly in the courtyard, looking over at the DeYoung Museum, which was just across the way. I love these trees, they are so interesting, the way they are cut and all wood and branches.

Once we were done eating our Yogurt I decided that Holly should get a chance to get out of the stroller and stretch and run around. Just to the right of the museum was this little patch of grass, Holly doesn't normally play in the grass, but i figured, no better time then the present.

It was such a beautiful day and in the distance through the trees i could just see Sutro Tower.

This week on I Heart Faces the theme is no flash, so I figured what better place to take pictures then on the grass in Golden Gate Park, on a sunny day. Holly and I had a cute photo shoot, and boy did mommy go over board.

Holly of course had plans of her own. She crawled all over the grass, and then decided that she would much rather be "walking" and used her stroller to pull up and cruise around.

There were also these cement pillars that she wanted to explore. I had to be really careful following her around, not wanting her to tip back, as cement blocks are a lot harder then hard wood floors. I love this face, with her tongue sticking out, full of concentration, its a face her Daddy makes.

And of course, Hollzilla left a path of destruction in her wake pulling all of her toys out of her diaper bag. I decided to set it out in the grass for her as well, so she would have something a little safer to climb around on.

Once Tracey and Lucian arrived we headed in and went to the cafe for lunch. Then we found out that the penguins were being fed so we headed over to the African Hall to check it out. It was so busy and crowded, that we decided not to stay, we took a peak at the penguins, and then headed out over to the Aquarium.

On the way we stopped to check out the Sting Rays. The main floor has a large globe, that houses the Amazon Rain forest, it is surrounded by a wooden bridge and walkway that goes over these stingrays, below that is the aquarium, and there are several areas that in the aquarium you can look up at the fishes swimming above you and see out to the floor above.

This was a huge catfish hanging about, I loved his whiskers.

Here are Holly and Lucian looking in at the fishies, she loved walking back and forth across the bench using the glass as support. She loves putting her face against it and it really made it feel like she was in the water with them.

I am not sure exactly what the name of this fish is, but it looked just like a prehistoric gigantic sucker. It cruised around on the floor and sand slowly.

Here is another of Tracey and Lucian. Holly was quite energetic, and Lucian is so big.

Next we decided to check out the star fish, this was in a waiting pool where she could actually put her hand in the water and touch the starfish. The water was very cold, and there were both hard and soft starfish for us to feel. I didn't let her do it much though because she liked putting her fingers in her mouth, I think it was the cold water, and well I didn't think it was the healthiest thing for her to be doing.

More fish around every corner.

Holly was mostly having a good time. She was a little antsy, one minute wanting me to carry her, the next wanting to walk and crawl, and then she wanted to be in the stroller, or at least I wanted her there when my arms started to get tired. I had a new hip and shoulder carrier I wanted to try out but it really wasn't that comfortable, at least not when Holly wasn't in it.

I loved the jellyfish. They were so pretty glowing in the dark blue water.

This is a Giant Bass fish, he reminded me of an old man, so big and just floating there surveying his domain.

I thought this was a cool picture, I think these are clams but now I don't remember.

Other then the pics of Holly, of course, I think I liked this one the best. The glowing Orange creatures just amazed me. They were in the deep dark exhibit, and I am assuming they were some type of sponge, but I am not sure.

These were also a different type of Jellyfish, I thought they looked really cool. The base of the tank reminded me to black pearls, it was mesmerizing to watch them swim around and around.

This was a tank of tropical fish. The colors were so bright.

Holly loved hanging out and watching the fish. She really enjoyed simply pressing up against the glass blowing raspberries, and cruising around looking at the fish.

We had a lot of fun. We did end up having only about two hours to look around so we definitely need to go again, we only really had a chance to check out the fish and didn't see any of the other cool stuff.

I had a lot of fun watching this eel, it was cool seeing him slither through the water.

Here, is one last sea creature before we headed out.

We planned on going for coffee so I could wait out the traffic. By this time Holly was pretty cranky and since her earlier nap was so short I had hoped she would fall asleep in the car on the way to the coffee house. Sadly, when Tracey got to her car, or where it was parked anyway, it was gone and she found out it had been towed. It was in a no parking from 4-6 (rush hour) zone. i was horrified for her and felt so bad, but she handled it with such composure, and dealt. Her and Lucian walked home and we called it a night. Holly did indeed fall asleep, which was good since the traffic was horrendous. But all in all, it was an amazing day, and I can't wait to go back.