september 27, 2008

i got a great start to saturday as i semi-successfully ran to golden gate park and back. semi-successful, because out of the 6.5 miles, i ran at most 2 miles. but to rationalize my walking… there was a HUUUGE hill i had to cross, and walking over that hill was a ridiculous exercise in itself. making it over the hill on my way back was seriously miracle… in spite of the very foggy conditions over the golden gate bridge, the scenery was still awesome. and there were lots of people at crissy field as SF RUN CLUB was going on, and i was able to enjoy my creepy people watching habit to full potential.
the run/walk actually took a lot longer than i initially expected, and i made it back just in time for the start of the michigan football game vs wisconsin. i’m no football analyst, but it was a pretty sweet game at the end. in any other year, i would describe the game as embarrasing despite the win. not this year my friends… we’ll take anything we can get…
we planned on going to the grand opening of the california academy of sciences at golden gate park to take advantage of free passes, but heard from our friends that they ran out of the free passes earlier in the morning. the website only confirmed our friend’s info, but we decided to head out anyway because outside is more fun than inside. apparently all the people of the bay area decided to take advantage of the free pass, and i even heard rumors that there were 15,000 people within a couple hours of the opening. whether that is true or not, the fact is they ran out of free tickets and didn’t let anybody in after 2pm. the entrance area seemed almost chaotic as guards stood at the gates to make sure no one could enter the museum. although not getting into the museum was a bummer indeed, we still enjoyed the weather and the outside festivities. i can see how people that traveled down from outside the city with young kids would be upset at the situation, especially because the museum did nothing to accommodate the rejected crowd. the museum was given a lot of hype as the building supposedly cost close to $500 million to build, and is considered the most eco-friendly museum in the world. a must visit for the future… but not in the immediate future as i want the hype to settle down a bit.

(we stopped by the conservatory of flowers in the gg park before heading over to the CAoS)

(tickets were $5, and it was definitely NOT worth it, but i still enjoyed it ^^)

(haha, ‘cool-growing’ orchids)

(these things supposedly grow wide enough, and are strong enough to hold up humans)

(i’m not sure if this slug was supposed to be in here eating away at the exhibit… )

(also not sure why these plants were in this box labeled ‘san francisco)

(hah, ‘double coconut’ aka butt coconut)

(crazy double thorns)

(crazy rhino looking thorns)

(i contributed to the “HOW DO YOU SAY BUTTERFLY” board… until chris pointed out the somebody already wrote “Nabby”… i erased that one before i left as it’s not NABBY….)

(the left wing of the museum had a butterfly exhibit)
(호랑나비!)

(cacoons! how cool)

(the scene at CAoS when we got there)

(police guarding the entrance)

(free water!)

(turtles are awesome. one of a few reptiles a random women was displaying)
(hah… aimee didn’t want to leave these ducks)

(we finished off the trip with dinner at buca di beppo)






















