Day 39 - Exploratorium-ing San Francisco

Well, I may have goofed at booking the hotel, but at least it had a free breakfast.  Unfortunately, the breakfast at this hotel was pretty lame, though it did have their famous cinnamon rolls.  We all did our best to get our bellies full knowing that we would have a full day exploring San Francisco.  Then we dropped our bags with the front desk and headed off to see the sights.

Since we were in Fisherman’s Wharf, we started by heading to the piers. 




Our first stopped turned out to be a spot I wasn’t sure would still exist - the arcade.  We gave Sebastian and Robinson each a dollar and after a lot of decision making (they must have seen each machine there a dozen times), they both decided to play the Simpsons.  We all had fun playing a bit and in the end Robinson ended up having enough points to be second place on the scoreboard!  Go Robinson!




Next stop was Pier 39 so we could see the sea lions.  We learned that in the summer most sea lions go south.  Fortunately for us, there were a few that hung around so we could add wild sea lions to list of animals we had seen in the trip!





After a little time watching the sea lions (some of which were actually swimming around) we headed further down the piers.  We passed the aquarium by the bay (we had just done the Monterey Bay Aquarium so another one didn’t seem necessary) and headed for the Exploratorium - one museum the boys were very excited about!


As it turns out, they were excited for a reason.  All of us agree that the Exploratorium was THE BEST science museum we had ever been at, and we’ve seen a lot.  As a bonus, because of our Durham Life and Science membership being part of the ASTC, we got in for FREE!


Some of the notes from all of us are

  • The museum is HUGE

  • There’s a solar fountain you can control the flow on based on the solar panel output

  • The challenge of whether or not you could drink water from a fountain that looked like a toilet - my boys had no issue - hooray?



  • Robinson perfected quiet walking - there was an exhibit that measured the sound you made when walking on gravel. It took a LOT of tries, but he eventually got a super low score

  • He also really enjoyed the “black sand”, magnetic sand



  • There was a volunteer dissecting a cow eye - a bit too much for the boys

  • We enjoyed the “Animal symphony” exhibit - an immersive experience highlighting the sounds of nature

  • Robinson found the GIANT bubble maker



  • We could see the golden gate bridge through a periscope of mirrors

  • There was a monochromatic room

  •  


  • Sebastian found out how many blood cells he has (9.7 trillion)

  • The number of times we heard "hey what's this" "hey what's that", "I love this place"


We then walked back toward Chinatown for dinner.  We found a great place that served us dim sum, ramen for Robinson, edamame, and Sebastian was able to get his sesame tofu.  The route we took was, let’s say, educational, but we got there.  



After dinner, on our way to get our bags, we diverted over to Lombard Street so the boys could see just how steep San Francisco could get. 



From there I diverted back to the hotel to get our bags while Amy took the boys over to Ghirardilli to get some dessert and souvenirs. 



I got over there only to find out how big the place was.  I tried to get in touch with Amy but nothing went through.  Eventually she called me and we met at the cable car turnaround spot to go to our next hotel.


Our walk to the next hotel took us from the cable car and, would you believe it, right past Lombard Street.  Oh well, I guess a bit of hill work is what we needed today.  The hotel we stayed at was on the edge of a rougher part of town, but it was a cool historic, non-standard hotel. It had old school brass faucets and some fun features like wallpaper and a bidet (and a phone next to the toilet?!!).  It was strange, but a great way to finish our tour of San Francisco.





Miles Traveled - 6,230
# States/Provinces - 14


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