This week has been spent finishing last minute shopping and heading to new sights in SF. My original plan of rock climbing, snowboarding and ice skating were sadly changed a few weeks ago when I fractured my knuckle dog sitting the cutest pooch. While it was quite painful at the time, it's now just more annoying to have a splint over half of my right hand. However, I've started telling people it happened during a bar fight as that's so much easier a story...
I met my dad in SF on Tuesday and we heading to the Conservatory of Flowers in GG Park. I had always wanted to go while I was living in Oakland but it seemed to be always under renovation. It's certainly one of the cheapest sights in SF to visit and the warmest place to be on a cold day. The Conservatory itself is fairly small but filled with some pretty amazing plants. It has a wide variety of beautiful, unique orchids, as well as a large population of pitcher plants. The special exhibit was a toy train winding its way around sights of SF made with recycled materials. The Conservatory was made from fruit baskets and the Golden Gate had red Mardi Gras beads.
Conservatory of Flowers with my dad
Wed. found me heading down to the South Bay for dinner with Ben and some friends. It's nice to be visiting in a place where I already know the transportation system!
Thurs. I met my brother at the California Academy of Science. I know that I was there as a little kid but have no memory of it as the Exploratorium usurped all memory space from that time period. The the newly renovated Academy is amazing now however and is truly memorable. They maintained the original dioramas of the African animals and added in some surprising effects to some. We got our ticket to the Planetarium show. The new planetarium is the largest digital planetarium in the world. The seats are reclined back enough so no neck craining is needed and the view is 360 degrees. The inside is actually slightly pressurized to help reduce nausea. While the show starts there is definitely a sensation of movement however, the seats are staying still and it's just your eyes playing tricks with your brain. Once the show was over we went to the living roof with 7 hills to represent the 7 hills of SF. Then it was down to the living rainforest and then to the aquarium. It was hard to not compare the aquarium with Monterey but they did a good job...no otters though :( There was a ginormous sturgeon and an albino alligator. The Academy is very keen on being green and ecological so there were many exhibits discussing ways to help reduce the carbon footprint etc.
Mark & me and our T-Rex friend
Visiting friends has been another highlight of this trip so far and meeting new babes. Friday was spent with my old roommate and her family including her new little one, in their new house in Concord. They were having 12 people to their house for Christmas so the decorations needed to go up and is a bit difficult with a 2 month old. Needless to say it was almost like old times, but with the new addition of Gabriel :)
Now I'm off to my mom's house for Christmas.
Current conditions at my Mom's house
I hope everyone has a lovely holiday season!
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