Yerba Buena Gardens and Steinhart Aquarium

Monday August 13, 07
It took us 1.75 hours (double our usual time) to drive from home into San Francisco for Kai's model shoot. Here he is eating a bag of cheese-flavored goldfish in a big warehouse where the shoot was held.
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I am sorry to say that he did not have the tolerance for the session today and did not last even 5 minutes on the set. He clung to me when a man put blush on his cheeks and when 3 strangers appeared on the set making faces at him (to make him smile)- he did just the opposite and began to cry. Oh well! He still gets paid anyway.

So to make the most our time in the city- we stopped at Yerba Buena Gardens to try out the carousel next to the Metreon.


The Zeum carousel was hand-carved in 1906 and survived both an earthquake and fire. It was finally placed here under glass cover after being restored in 1998. What luck that Kai had the opportunity to ride another merry-go-round. (He's ridden 6 so far!)


It appears he is not enjoying it this time- as he begins to cry as I step back for this photo.

Yerba Buena attractions.

This structure leads to the playground.

Kai gives it a hand at playing the chimes.

We later head off to the Steinhart Aquarium Natural History Museum (http://www.calacademy.org/) and check out the marine life on the ground floor. You can even have your own personal tour guide by cell phone!

The coral reef tank.

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I discovered this is only a temporary set-up before the official opening of the new California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park in 2008. They boast that it will hold the largest "green" building in the world and be topped by a "living" roof of 1.7 million native California plants, a four-story rainforest, and a 212,000-gallon coral reef tank. This will definitely be on my must-see list!

Kai was just enthralled by all the fish, and weird looking marine creatures!

An elegant seahorse.

Tropical fish Greg and I had seen on our dives in the Carribean.

Ugh, a snake!

A Chinese Giant Salamander! This thing is as big as Kai. YUCK! And I always thought salamanders were tiny!

Fish as long and big as Kai!

Piranha! We saw this in the Amazon! I have a set of piranha teeth I brought back from there...razor sharp!

There's a playroom upstairs, where I kicked back and let Kai take apart everything there he could get his hands on. Then I had to put it back... I'm pooped!

Kai thought this gorilla was a doggie- and kept hugging it.

Some more interesting things seen on the second floor.

At 2pm, the Academy biologist feeds the fish in the big coral reef tank you saw Kai leaning against in the picture above. This biologist, as seen above, dives into the tank in full Scuba gear and cleans the tank walls.

What begins with a "B"? Butterflies and Beetles, b-b-b!

Video: Marine animals. Seahorse dance!