Bay Area Discovery Museum

I have finally caught up on blog posts!  Lately I've been valuing a solid 8 hours sleep over blogging so there was a serious back-log but no longer!  Here is our latest 'day-venture':

Bay Area Discovery Museum

We recently spent a Saturday morning at the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito.  Not only is this museum in a spectacular spot (underneath the Golden Gate Bridge), it has fantastic interactive exhibits for children.  We just made it to the last days of Adventures with Clifford The Big Red Dog exhibit.  It was so cute but I think I appreciated it more (they don't show Clifford in Australia).  Highlights, besides the view: Lookout Cove's The Shipwreck, based on The San Augustin that carried riches from China to Mexico, and explored the California Coast.  The real ship sank in Drake's Bay in 1595 and was never found.  The Shipwreck allowed children to dig through the sand and uncover artifacts.  The Tot Spot was the perfect spot for MissE and Mr.E.  There is a size restriction in there so the cousins had separate play time.  Mr.E loved the outside The Stream.  If he could climb into it, he would have!  MissE loved the inside Wetlands.  In this room, they had ponds (water beds) to jump on!  One had an aquarium ceiling with goldfish!  Also worth a mention was Cafe Discovery.  Frank Klein and Chad Newton, the critically acclaimed restaurateur and chef behind SF's Fish & Farm restaurant and the Muir Woods Café, created this cafe featuring the best local, sustainable, organic sandwiches, salads, soups and burgers for kids & grown-ups, plus delicious pastries from the acclaimed organic Rustic Bakery.  My burger was tasty!



Imagination Playground

Adventures with Clifford The Big Red Dog

Arg! Pirate Eden

Eloise re-enacting Splash Mountain

Bay Hall: Ports of Oakland and SF
Where do I get the Golden Gate Bridge for our train table???

Catch of the Day! 

Tot Spot: Streams

Leaping Bee?

Cousins

Us!

Pretend City

On the last day of our Disneyland Adventure, we had a few hours before our flight so we took the opportunity to see Cousin G.  After lunch, she suggested we check out Pretend City for MissE.  Okay, I know this is for children but Mr.H, Cousin G, and I thought this place was so cool!  I wish there was a place like this in Sydney!

What it is
What their website says: Through 17 interactive exhibits and activities guided by a highly trained professional staff, children learn foundational math, reading and science skills, while fostering curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, organization, teamwork, self-confidence and socialization. 

City map

In my terms, it is literally a pretend city.  There is a grocery store, post office, library, fire department, police department, dentist, doctor, gas station, eco-friendly home, farm, marina, beach, theatre, restaurant, etc.  Children 'worked' in the grocery store, post office, restaurant to earn stamps for their time cards.  They could then use their time cards in various ATMs to get cash to buy groceries, etc.

Withdrawing cash her paycheck!

Buying groceries

Fishing

Dr.Eloise (her favorite exhibit)

Patient Eloise

On stage: Shark!  The Musical

We spent 3.5 hours here, missed 3 exhibits and had trouble getting MissE to leave!  It's definitely a place to visit again... on our next Disneyland Adventure?

Exploratorium

Here's another place I haven't been in years!  My childhood memories of the Exploratorium were of the cow-eye dissection and of the shadow box (pose, a flash, and your pose is captured!) and in my early-20's memories were of the Tactile Dome.  I was excited to come re-visit, knowing how much Mr.H and MissE would enjoy it.

While the we missed the cow-eye dissection (but given that I had to do hours in Baltimore's morgue in graduate school, I didn't really need to see this!) and the shadow box is no longer there, old favorites like the 'pin' table, bubbles, and Alice in Wonderland's room were!  There were so many favorite exhibits (new and old) to choose from but MissE liked the sand drawing and bubbles.  My favorite was capturing a photograph of a water drop. 

Exploratorium

Cousins creating a tornado

Eloise's sand art

Bubbles!

If you look closely, there is an image in the water drop!  Amazing!

Is he really drinking out of a toilet???

Palace of Fine Arts

  

CuriOdyssey

We had a lovely day at Coyote Point and CuriOdyssey.  Both areas have had a serious face-lift since the last time I was there.  Coyote Point playground used to be a giant concrete hill that would burn our bums and put holes in our pants when we visited.  And the museum was well, forgettable.  Now, the playground is called "Magic Mountain" and has an enormous slide, and the museum is hours of fun!

We had a picnic with Ms.Liu and her soon-to-be-hubby and a little bit of playtime too.

Eloise & Ms.Liu

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

This slide was so much fun, MissE went on so many times, we lost count!

Eden and Ms.Liu comparing tongues

Touch Science. Meet Animals.

Peek-a-boo Eloise!

Sleeping badger (so cute!)

 This was Eden's favorite exhibit: he spent 30 minutes putting foam pieces into the air tube and watching the foam fly out the top.  When this happened, he would exclaim "Oh!" then crawl to get more pieces! 

Eden's favorite science exhibit

Eloise also enjoyed the hands-on science exhibits.  She wanted to do each one, and her favorite was the marble maze.  Seeing how much she enjoyed this, we took her to the Exploratorium a few days later.

Angela Castille Photography

Angela Castille Photography
We had a few family photos taken by a friend of my sister to mark Eden's 1st birthday.  He is at a difficult age for photographs because he (a) won't sit still and (b) doesn't smile on cue.  Add to it jet-lag, we were worried.  But they are gorgeous! Here are a select few:

Happy Hallow

Happy Hallow is a favorite of ours: it's part amusement park and part zoo, all geared towards the toddler to kid-set.  We took MissE at 18 months and what fun she had!  This time, she was able to go on more rides, in preparation for Disneyland.  Mr.E joined in on the fun, but he preferred the zoo than the rides (he did NOT like his cheetah on the Carousel going up and down!).

Happy Hallow

Frog Hopper

Driving Miss Eloise (Mini Putts)

We went on this twice!
Pacific Fruit Express Family roller coaster)

Hi meercat!

This goat liked to lick

Eden patting the goats

Children's Fairyland Oakland

Children's Fairyland
Once upon a time...

There was a magical place called Children's Fairyland!  According to the history of the park, this was the first storybook theme park.  It opened in 1950 and boasts Walt Disney visited and incorporated ideas from Fairyland in his “magic kingdom,” which opened in Anaheim in 1955.

We had such fun there, it was hard to get MissE to leave.  Mr.E liked sitting atop of Jack & Jill's Hill and MissE loved Alice in Wonderland Tunnel so much, we went 3 times!

Children's Fairyland entrance

Jack & Jill went up the hill

Down the rabbit hole! (Alice in Wonderland maze)

Off with her head!

Which way???

... and human hands!

And they lived happily ever after!

We finished our adventure with a late lunch at one of my favorite diners, Mel's Drive-In.  I have fond memories of the diner from childhood.  My dad used to take me there in his Mercedes convertible (top down, of course) and we would sit at the counter with our burgers and milkshakes.  I would also get to pick a song on the jukebox (usually The Lion Sleeps Tonight).  Fast-forward to 2012 and I still love their burgers (Patti Melt) and milkshakes... and I chose The Lion Sleeps Tonight too.

Chocolate milkshake... the RIGHT way!

MissE's grilled cheese & fries