A trip to the California Academy of Sciences

The boys and I recently spent a week in California with my parents.  Near the end of our vacation, we went to the recently renovated California Academy of Sciences.  Wednesday is free admission day! This is actually a very substantial savings as adult tickets are normally $29.95 and kids are $19.95.  This would have cost well over $100 for the 5 of us to go (for the brief duration of 2 and 4-year-old attention spans). 

The “new” museum is gorgeous and one of the most environmentally friendly museum buildings in the world.  I remember reading about its renovation in a number of national magazines, with heavy attention spent on its “living roof” which recycles water and collects solar energy.  When we walked in, we were greeted by a towering T-Rex skeleton, which was an immediate hit.  We walked on a bridge over various deep tanks filled with rays, sharks, and other fish and were able to watch them under our feet.  There is also a coral reef filled with colorful tropical fish.  My parents had introduced the kids to The Little Mermaid just the previous day and the kids enjoyed seeing Ariel’s world.  There were many exhibits, which we skipped due to my kids inability to wait patiently in line, but we did enjoy the dino coloring pages and crayons in their waiting areas. 

Showing off a T-Rex coloring page, with Grandma hard at work in back

I knew the group would last about 90 minutes on good behavior, so we were only able to hit the highlights – which were fantastic.  The kids were up close and personal with various tortoises and lizards, and were able to watch them play, move around their environment, and eat vegetables.  

This Turtle and Lizard "tank" is right at 2-year-old eye level

We enjoyed the hall of African animals, which includes a fantastic penguin exhibit that is half below-water so the crowd could watch the penguins dive and frolic in the water and above on the rocks.  There were full size lions, gorillas, and other African animals along the hall as well.  We moved on to the Swamp and an amazing aquarium on the lower level with many tanks including reefs, jellyfish, a touch/tide pool area, and other aquatic attractions.     

All of the animals really held the kids attention and they asked a lot of great questions.

We broke for lunch at the right time – just as our first meltdown hit – and ate at the garden café.  There is indoor and outdoor seating, and we had a great time in the very kid-friendly outdoor patio and yard.  There were benches, seal statues to climb on and a large lawn for running.   The San Franciscans and tourists seemed to not mind a little noise, and one lovely lady was watching the kids play and offered to take a family photo for us. 

A great post-lunch play on the lawn behind the CA Academy of Sciences

 The adventure continued even after we returned home.  The California Academy of Sciences website offers a live penguin web cam.  My kids like the underwater view the best, where we can see the penguins’ feet, flippers and bellies as they swim around, and the whole penguin comes into view when they dive.  http://www.calacademy.org/webcams/penguins/.