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San Francisco dreaming part 1
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“The Bay Area is so beautiful I hesitate to preach about heaven while I’m here,” said Evangelist Billy Graham. His words sum up the affection residents and visitors alike feel for this outstanding city.
San Francisco (and care over the spelling here, it’s not San Fransisco, it’s San Francisco, we love it when people get it right!) is a city where you will never get bored. Golden Gate Park, for example, has attractions for everyone. Originally nothing more than an expanse of sand dune, the park is now over a thousand acres of grass, trees, shrubbery and athletic facilities. It even has its own bison, yacht lake, nine hole golf course and a few museums.
And whatever else you see in San Francisco, be sure to check out the Academy of Sciences, located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Originally founded in 1853 as the first science institution in the west, the Academy moved to the park after the 1906 earthquake damaged its original location downtown.
The building, which was designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Renzo Piano, has the aim of showing how humans can live and work in environmentally-responsible ways. And it does from the minute you walk in by having you enter into a large piazza and face an awesome interior four stories high.
Here you’ll find the Rainforests of the World exhibit with 40 types of birds on display, along with a variety of plants and trees. Note that the visitor gets a sense of both transparency and connectedness between the building and the outside park through the use of clear glass. You feel that you’re actually outside IN the park, rather than inside a confined building. All this gives the institution an open, airy feeling.
Enjoy the Amazonian Flooded Rain Forest and see the piranhas on display. You’ll be glad there’s a lot of tunnel between you and them!
On the lower floor there’s the Water Planet with over 100 tanks to view. There’s even an albino alligator on display. But don’t worry -- he’s not too interested in the humans watching him, he’s much more interested in staying snug on his heated rock.
Beautiful in its setting is the Coral Reef with 212,000 gallons of water and over 2,000 fish. This is the world’s second biggest (and world’s deepest) coral reef exhibit after the one in Townsville, Australia..
Huge is the coral reef exhibit and huge too is Buccalo, a giant sea bass who’s been with the academy since 1980. Kids of all ages just love him.
Be sure to see the “Living Roof” with its native strawberries, stonecrop and California poppies. These plants will all reduce storm water runoff by up to 3.6 million gallons of water per year and will even attract the endangered bay checkerspot butterfly. The award-winning San Francisco Academy certainly deserves its title as Leader of Scientific Research On The Natural World. Don’t miss it!
Crowds are big, so go in the off-peak times for a chance to view everything. Hours are Mon to Sat 9.30 to 5pm and Sunday 11 to 5. Admission for adults is $24.95.
For more, see part 2.
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