Back to Nature

The California Academy of Sciences was a favorite destination when the kids were young, but we let our membership lapse when the museum moved South of Market for a few years during construction of a new facility in Golden Gate Park. It finally opened again at the old location, but the high admission price ($25 per adult or $160 for annual family membership) has kept us away.

Yesterday we finally committed to a family membership, reasoning that it's close to home and would be fun to duck in for short visits as we have with our membership to the DeYoung and Legion of Honor.

The museum opened to great fanfare earlier this year and it's still very crowded on weekends -- as we discovered during our 45 minute wait to walk through the 4-story rainforest exhibit. My first impression of the new museum is that the animal habitats haven't changed as much as the human habitat (which is spectacular), but that may be the right priority. If humans are drawn to the place and take more interest in animals, it's bound to help the animals living outside captivity.


Rainforest exhibit