Penguins, turtles and jellyfish anyone?

The Pinks have minimum days this week so I took the afternoon off and hauled them into the city to see the newish California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. Paige, always up for dosing the kids up with culture, brought her entourage, too. The picture at left is five of the eight kids we had with us, and additional proof that twins can look nothing alike.

Renzo Piano designed the museum, which was ten years in the works and cost $500 million to build. It includes an aquarium, a planetarium, a natural history museum and a 4-story rainforest plus a 3D theater, a lecture hall, a Naturalist Center, two restaurants, an adjacent garden and aviary, a roof terrace, and the requisite gift shop. It is striking architecturally. However, the feature I most appreciated was the huge underground parking lot with very clear directional signage.

The Greenie in me feels compelled to tell you that it's also the largest public Platinum-rated building in the world, and also the world’s greenest museum. The Academy earned the platinum rating for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. This extends from the bike racks and rechargeable vehicle stations outside the building to the radiant sub-floor heating inside the building to the energy-generating solar panels on the roof. It's a stellar example of sustainability.

Fortunately or unfortunately it was the third Wednesday of the month, also known as Wachovia Wednesday, so the museum was free. It was crowded but it didn't stop us from having fun watching the penguins, petting the star fish in the tide pool exhibit and evaluating our carbon footprint in the conservation exhibit. I am completely entranced by jellyfish. I could have spent all day watching them. However, I could have lived my whole life without seeing the live Hissing Cockroaches. Still, a good time was had by all and The Pinks are eager to return.