Day 10: Falling in love with science at the San Francisco Exploratorium

The moment I stepped into the Exploratorium, I knew this will be something I would save for, for my nephew and niece to experience someday. The more than 1,000 interactive exhibits brought back my excitement over science once again.  Mary and I were back to our childhood and were ready to explore!

Snoozing while waiting for the museum to open

The Exploratorium has several galleries , to indulge our senses. My favorite gallery is the Human Phenomena Gallery, which is located close to the entrance. The experiments allow you investigate and find out more about your feelings, memory, behaviour and personality. It would have been cool if we had them in our psychology classes before!  Another favorite is the Light and Sound gallery where you get to play around with your shadow or high five with upside-down hologram-like image. There is also the the Tinkering gallery where visitors can do experiments on electricity, magnetism and the likes. Here you will also find the 100,000 toothpick sculpture which shows the different San Francisco landmarks. The Living Systems gallery is about learning about the different livings things, once again- just like in grade school and high school- only better.  Then there is also the Bay Observatory Gallery and the Outdoor Gallery.

A happy day for my nerdy self.  Science rocks! Yeah baby! 

Day 9- Duck Tour! :)

Floram and Clarisse left for Vancouver early in the morning.  It was just me and Mary, who took 2 days off so she can be with me.  To humor ourselves, we did the duck tour!  

I have always wondered what a duck tour would be like.  There was one in Singapore but I never tried it. All I know is that you get to ride a vehicle which travels both on land and water.

It turned out to be a fun ride.  Our "Captain" is a hilarious guy who gave us very interesting information as we went through the major historic streets of San Francisco (which we should reward, btw, by blowing the duck whistles every now and then). It's a great way to get an overview of the city. Our very energetic captain drove us around the Fisherman's Wharf, China Town, Ghirardelli Square, Union Square, and many other places.

And then we splashed down into the bay.  Children (and some adults) had fun driving the "duck" themselves.  We enjoyed the view of the city, the Bay Bridge and the Ballpark.  

Cape Hudson and the Bay Bridge

Lovely seals!

All in all, it was one fun, quacky ride! Then it was time for late lunch at Applebees. 

(Note: As of September 2015, the Ride the Ducks , has stopped its operation in San Francisco).

USA Day5c- Quickie Drive Through at Lombard Street

Our next stop was this very quaint street called Lombard.  Lombard has a very steep slope, and is a very crooked one.  Zigzagging through its 8 sharp turns, we survived the difficult drive at the speed of 5kph per hour. It could very well be one of the most crooked streets in the world, well at least its the most crooked I have seen.

The street was designed as such to make it more navigable.  It would be very difficult to drive, or to walk that street if it were a straight line, given its slope. 

Today, it has become a popular tourist spot.  It was a good, very slow zigzag ride from the top, capped with picture taking at the bottom with the sight of cars maneuvering the crooked road at the background.