San Francisco with Kids: The Exploratorium

The Exploratorium is a suggestion that EVERYONE makes when telling you about places to visit with kids, and when you go in, you'll realise why. It's like a Science Museum on steroids.. one day is barely enough to see it all. If you can avoid school holiday time, you might have an easier time of it, as when it's crowded you might end up waiting around a bit for popular exhibits as we did. But there's enough to experience that you can keep moving around and come back later to the ones you missed as well. The post is more of a photo tour, as I can't really do justice and describe the variety of stuff. You can find more details of the different spaces etc. at the link given on the first line.

This is an exhibit in the Colours and Light section (which is where most of my pics are from) that showed how perception makes the difference when viewing colours. I was curious to see if it would come through in photos as well:

What colour would you say that is? White?

The one on the left is the "white" one from the previous pic!

The rightmost one is the newest now.. 

The card in 2nd position is the one we saw in the first pic - dark grey if not black.
Pretty cool, especially for the kids.

Who doesn't want to make funny and colourful shadows if you get the chance. I was also part of the fun along with trying to click it ;).

This is what we looked like on a screen that detected our infrared radiation. The one with the black i.e. VERY COLD nose is me :P. Checked after a couple of hours spent inside and it was back to normal. You could also press your hands on some cold shapes and check out your "tattoos" on the screen.

On to a small room where everything was lit in monochromatic (yellow) light. It was fascinating to see how that drains out most colour. My blue jacket was dark grey, our shoes were drab, and this lovely rainbow looked absolutely washed out. Compare to the one just outside the room just below. The room also had small torches giving out white light that the kids could shine on things to see the difference that made. A box with jellybeans, a set of crayons, a painting of a landscape, were some of the examples in the room.

Monochromatic light

A similar one in normal white light

We'd seen this type of mirror before but it's always fun to go at it again. I was not going for Leonardo's Vitruvian Man symmetry, but that's what I managed to look like ;)

This one was titled Floater Theatre where we watched a BLANK WHITE SCREEN for a few minutes with a narrative playing alongside, with the floaters in our eye showing up and giving a performance based on how we moved them. Amazing use of something I always assumed was a minor irritation but otherwise never thought about.

The kids, especially D, were fascinated with this one

My post probably covers about 3-4% of the place, as most activities were hands-on and I was only clicking the occasional one. Do check it out if you are ever in San Francsisco, I am sure the kids will find it memorable.

Signing off with a lovely if slightly garbled pic of D and S with an even more shadowy me on the side..

San Francisco with Kids - Children's Creativity Museum

We've been on holiday in San Francisco, and decided that we would stick to finding places in the city to explore rather than traveling around much this time. We did the whole whirlwind tour experience in 2013 and I even later attempted an A-Z set of posts to capture it all ;).
Never actually completed the alphabet, but it was fun to write! Start reading here if you would like to check it out.

We had a lot of recommendations from friends and family on what to check out, especially with the kids, but sometimes you come across a place serendipitously - this time thanks to looking at a map (a paper one for a change ;)) and finding it marked there. It turned out that it wasn't too far from where we were so decided to give it a try and the kids had an amazing time!

The Children's Creativity Museum has something for kids of all ages, and though I was a bit concerned if D would find it too simple, both of them (12 and 9) found enough to do and had lots of fun. The ones we especially enjoyed were:

First stop: The Animation Studio. We made models out of clay, using the provided metal skeleton as a base. The first coat was with with mixed multicolour blocks (loved that they repurposed the clay for as long as possible), and the outer layer was with the colours to create the characters. Can you guess who made what from the pics?

After making the figures, the kids learnt how to make an animation video using multiple still photos of the characters, moving them a bit every time. We had a whole storyline with the princess and penguin walking along and the zombie coming out to scare them away, but managed a grand 4 second video after what seemed like a ton of clicks :)

Basic figures

And tadaah.. yes the unimaginative penguin is mine ;)
the one on the left is a Spiderman zombie ninja warrior in case you missed that.

The next stop was the Robotics Studio where the kids figured out how to write programs on the provided tablets to take the robots through a variety of tasks.. This one was to find its way out of the maze. There were also ones that drew, threw a ball into a hoop etc. The commands were simple ones, but the challenge was to find the most efficient way to complete the task. More suited for younger kids, but even my 12 year old enjoyed the novelty of it.

The kids and I had the most fun in the Music Studio where you could create your own music video :). They had a green screen background that they could use to add in one from a range of backgrounds and also provided karaoke versions for a selection of popular songs. We actually ended up going back there again later in the day to try and get more videos in ;).
Would have loved to share the videos but I have been following a policy of privacy on the kids' photos and videos, at least until they're online themselves and I have to come up with new rules ;).

There were a couple more spaces.. one based on a winter wonderland theme which had some art based activities.. but these were more catering to the younger kids so we didn't spend much time there.

Ornaments for a paper tree

I was really glad to have found this place by chance, and I hope this post helps someone who visits SF with kids in the future. All details of admission and tickets can be found here. The museum is usually closed on Mondays but was open all days for a couple of weeks thanks to the holiday season.

H is for Heat - Hello Warmth and California!

After we left Newark, our next stop was San Francisco where we were staying with family at Fremont. While G was stationed in SF due to working that week, we had a nice taste of home food and comfort. I was the one who most needed to taste some rice by then ;).

The first day after our arrival was full of activity thanks to my cousin who took us sightseeing to the highlights of the city. First stop was the Golden Gate bridge that I had seen in so many movies by now that it didn't feel like I was seeing it for the first time :).

We were planning to walk the length of the bridge then realized when we got halfway that we would have to walk back as well ;).

Then on to ride the cable car, and finally the day ended up at the ferry ride around Alcatraz. The kids lost interest in the audio descriptions within minutes, but I was fascinated by all the history.

A fun ride, but at 6$ a person not something we could do over and over :).

Ghirardelli Square had to be a part of the agenda!

I can't hear it properly! 

Loved the seagulls 

Alcatraz

On Day 2, we took the BART into San Francisco to meet G who was working there. After catching a quick lunch, I made the kids work it all off by climbing the Coit Tower steps. they were surprisingly good sports and only needed a little nudge now and then ;). Photos of the greenery in my post on Gardens.

A lovely day for a climb? ;)

Beautiful views during the climb

You can see that D was the one who needed the most persuasion to climb that last part :).
Coit Tower in the background.

Some of Day 3 was spent at a friend's place who lived quite close to my uncle's in Fremont, and on Day 4 my uncle took us to go see the "17-mile Drive". It was a lovely place with beaches and picturesque spots like this Lone Cypress, though I felt guilty that we had to travel nearly a 100 miles to reach there!

The Lone Cypress

Surrounded by beauty, and wee bit envious of the folks who have homes there ;)

Bravely about to venture into the icy cold water :) 

She did it!

We also managed a quick visit with some old friends on our last day in SF, which was a bit hurried but great to catch up! And that was the end of our activity filled 4 days :). Next stop San Diego!

G is for Gardens :)

To a gardener, G has to stand for gardens :). Let me digress from my ordered travelogue to write about some of the gardening experiences I had on this tour..

Climbing the 400 steps up to Coit Tower in San Francisco got much easier once I saw the greenery on the way ;). These giant nasturtium leaves caught my attention immediately. And yes, my kids were such good sports they climbed with me with only a wee bit of complaining!

These pics are from a friend's place where I stayed in Fremont.

Strawberry Tower

Broccoli looking super healthy

Waiting for those cabbages

The next pics are from Sea World at San Diego where I must have been the only one more interested in this small garden space :).

Fennel

Artichoke - I'm fascinated when I see them using it in cooking shows

Swiss chard - I was almost tempted to swipe some seeds :)

Asparagus

After hearing so much about the gloomy weather in Seattle, I was amazed to find clear sunny skies and the most amazing greenery all around. This tree just amazed me with its majesty.