Week of August 16th 2010: Exploratorium

Like I said, the first few posts will be a backlog of what I've already done. This also means they might be shorter because it's hard to remember exactly everything that went on over a month ago...

My first foray into exploring San Francisco was one of those things Kevin and I had talked about doing, but never got around to. I remember the first time we drove past the Palace of Fine Arts and Exploratorium and he told me how much fun he had when he went there as a kid. Since I will never have the experience of being a kid in San Francisco (and that's never really stopped me from doing kid things anyways) I told him that he would have to take me someday. Jump two years into the future and we finally found the time to make it out.

Mostly the Exploratorium is exactly what you would imagine - a fun filled science center with a lot of "Did you know.." type of activities for kids. I had a fun time playing with all of the gadgets and things upstairs but if you're short on time, I think the downstairs has more interesting exhibits. However, make sure to see how sneaky of a hunter you would be in the sound section. You basically have to walk on gravel and see how much sounds registers from your footsteps. It's pretty tough, especially if you're heavy. The kids all did really well, I did ok (the hardest part was not talking for 10 seconds...), and Kevin did pretty bad. Sorry Kevin, you're just too heavy.

Like I said, downstairs was really cool. We first entered the food court area which has all of these geometric play structures for kids. As someone who likes to climb and used to seriously own jungle gyms as a kid, I was really wish I was half my height and age so I could play as well.

The next room was filled with mind games - my favorite! No, seriously, that stuff is my favorite. The first was a game where you had to put a stack of cards in two piles one was female names & family oriented words, the other was male names & work related words (one person had that set up, the other had female/work and male/family) and you had to see who could separate the stack quickest. I won both times. I'd like to think it's because I'm an a modern American woman who believes in career and family... or I'm just quicker.

There was also a table where you each held a board with eye slits in front of your face and had to "speak with your eyes" to the other person. This was pretty hilarious and I definitely got a few of the "Oh, I've seen that face before!" remarks. I'd also recommend the bluffing table... one person sees a set of cards and has to say the same statement 4 times, but one of the times it's actually true and the other has to guess which. We both failed.

We continued on our way and I saw this board that had pairs of adjectives (e.g. brave/timid, outgoing/introvert etc.) and you could slide panels to say how much of each quality your friend had. We had fun with it but I still stand by the fact that I can see the big picture and am not just detail oriented KEVIN!!! Just kidding, but seriously... have a sense of humor with it...

We kind of blew through the rest of the Exploratorium because we forgot to eat breakfast and were starving. A lot of it was optical illusions and stuff (cool stuff but nothing else that really popped out). There were a bunch of fun water fountains and things too that I started having fun playing with. At that point though Kevin's stomach was practically dragging me out of the place...

So much for a short post!

(oh and in case you're wondering, the actual Palace of Fine Arts structure was under construction so technically I haven't been there either)