Cal. Academy of Sciences Field Trip

Last weekend Mr. VV and I finally made a trip to the new(ish) California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. We have been meaning to go for years, but never got around to it. I was super excited because this museum, which was completely remodeled a few years ago, was my favorite museum when I was a kid. I went on many field trips here over the years. Here you can see right in the middle is a huge bio-dome with free-flying birds and butterflies!

A small black tip shark greeted us when we came in.

And a GIGANTIC leopard spotted stingray. I mean this dude’s stinger was super long…

There it is. Eeek.

The water in the tide-pool area is so pretty. Many colorful sea urchins in it and actual waves. I really wanted to jump in!

Cute giraffe.

My favorite part of the museum is what I call the stuffed animal area. Even when I was a kid I was totally fascinated with these little worlds behind glass. I always loved making dioramas out of shoe-boxes, and this reminds me of a gigantic sized diorama. Makes me want to go make one right now actually.

I can’t remember what these things were but the one standing up reminds me of Squirt! She always does this.

Cheetah!

Lion pride.

While walking through the exhibit all the sudden I heard this growl and I looked up. This is what I saw, a leopard in a tree waiting to pounce!

Sneaky.

On the roof of the building you can look out over at the DeYoung Museum right across the way.

Right where you see those trees at the bottom of the photo is where we always ate lunch on my field trips.

The roof is a sustainable “living roof”. Pretty cool and futuristic looking.

These friends were on the inside of the Bio-dome.

Butterfly inside bio-dome.

Creepy-ass HUGE spider inside exhibit in bio-dome. This sucker was huge. I would die from fright if I ever saw one outside a container.

This cute little baby mountain lion was inside a learning area. They have spots when they are little. He’s about Chewbacca’s size!