If there is one thing that tourists need, it is sunshine. How can you truly comprehend the magnificence of the city you are visiting if you can’t see through the incessant rain? On rainy days, tourists need museums. San Francisco disappointed us with its sheets of rain as we got off the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) at 16th Street Mission station. We had jackets with hoods but no umbrella. The plan was to take a cab directly to Golden Gate Park. But finding a cab required hovering at a street corner, flagging down every yellow taxi that drove by. Most were already full. We stood in a bus shelter for a few minutes. A homeless man with braided hair approached people for a cigarette and proceeded to spread some gospel in a loud, sing-song manner. We chose to escape into the rain and luckily got into the next cab.
We had our first view of the sloping streets of San Francisco, soaked and shiny in the rain. The cab driver proceeded to drive us in typical cabbie fashion, reminding us of our own drivers back home. A long line had piled up outside the California Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park, obviously all tourists resorted to museums on such days (a fact confirmed the next day by a Canadian lady who rode the cable car with us and had pretty much taken the same route keeping the weather in mind). The building was full of interested visitors; school kids on a field trip, an old couple from Europe and many young families with little babies in strollers. I went in search of tickets for the planetarium and got tickets for the 2.30 p.m. show. The special exhibit from April to September was on “Extreme Mammals”.
The highlight of this newly restored museum (I am not sure it that is the right term since it also houses an aquarium, a planetarium, and a natural history museum) is the rainforest exhibit. Rising upto to 4 floors, it takes you through the various levels at which the dense forest provides a safe habitat for its residents, ranging from the multi-colored geckos, albino snakes, birds and trees. You start with Borneo on ground level and walk up the ramp to Madagascar and Costa Rica. With each step you see the plant and animal life that flourishes in that zone of the forest where the exact amount of sun, water and nutrients exist to enable these creatures to survive. You take an elevator down to the lowest level which depicts life in the flooded Amazon forest as you walk through an acrylic tunnel under the fish.
Many exhibits depicting the adaptation of mammals in the deserts have life-like mounted specimens encased in glass cases shaped with a curved backdrop which has been painted to look like dry brush. The Foucault pendulum swings gently but consistently providing proof the earth’s rotation. Expeditions of the Galapagos Island describe the efforts of the naturalists to study the variety of unique flora and fauna found there. The aquarium has a stunning display of fish with little information cards to help you identify coral reefs and the colorful tropical fish that zip by. Most exhibits either have informational panels or videos and the most interesting ones have hands-on activities which drive home the point.
The most unique part of the museum is its Living Roof. It is an experiment to design and operate a building that fits into the surroundings. Seven hills give an undulating topography to the roof that matches the surrounding areas. The hills are green, covered with plants that allow the building to remain cool unlike other city buildings. Solar panels generate some power to meet a portion of the needs of the building and the central courtyard gets natural light and ventilation with the unusual rooftop.
The planetarium provided a wonderful introduction to “Journey to the Stars” a 30 minute show narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. Our favorite resident of the museum was the albino turtle in the swamp exhibit whose face was pressed against the viewing glass. There he remained, mouth open and motionless, until Aparna took his picture. Then he blinked and moved his tongue – Yuck!
We had hoped the weather would clear up and allow us a few hours to explore other parts of the city. But by the time we did the rounds, it was almost 4 p.m. and the rain had started falling with renewed vigor. We ran into the solitary taxi standing outside the building, glad for the rain, which had allowed us to spend a day in this wonderful museum.
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