A lovely SF afternoon

Jenn and I had a blast in San Francisco. After a lazy morning (because we're on vacation, dammit!) we went to Golden Gate park to visit the museums there. First was the National Academy of Science where they set up an excellent indoor rainforest exhibit. Inside a giant sphere they house different birds, bugs, and plants representative of the different rainforests around the world. This included Costa Rica, so we were able to see familiar butterflies and spiders, and birds. 

The museum was really impressive. Particularly the aquarium it houses, which had awesome 8 foot tropical fish, and a neat hands on experience with starfish. 

Jenn wanted to go see the museum particularly for the penguin exhibit they have. It was your typical penguin habitat, except they're kept at the end of a hallway of taxidermy African animals. As we watched the birds playing, I heard a little girl ask her mom if they were real. I don't blame her for being confused after walking through that hall of corpses. 

With time to spare we dashed across the street to the DeYoung. It's always been on the backlist of things we've wanted to do in SF, and the exhibits they had were pretty good. I was surprised I enjoyed the wing of traditional/folk art far more than the American art galleries. Its funny, because I used to dismiss those sorts of things as"craft", not art (much to grandma's chagrin). Comparing the tribal masks and figurines to painfully symbolic Randian early american works, I was able to appreciate the artistry and personality of the folk art far better. Jenn and I were excited to spy an installation by earth artist Andy Goldsworthy outside the museum- a single, seemingly random crack stretching from the street to the entrance of the museum. 

Also the view from the DeYoung tower is magnificent! We also wandered around Golden Gate Park a bit.

For dinner we found a nice little Indian restaurant (called Tikka Masala). It's been so long since we have had proper naan and tikka masala, it was over whelming! 

 A nice little walk around inner sunset and then we decided to join the commuters on their trek on the Caltrain. Jen is out girling it up with Kristine, and I'm a tired old fart whose going to bed. 

Tomorrow: ALCATRAZ