We flew from Beijing to San Francisco on an afternoon flight. On this flight we got the twelve hours back that we lost on the flight to Beijing. So, we left Beijing in the afternoon and arrived in San Francisco in the afternoon. Strange how a place 3000 miles away from home can feel like home.
We stayed at a hotel in Oakland near the coliseum because it was much cheaper than staying downtown and we were planning on going to the Raiders game on Sunday anyway. So Thursday, Friday and Saturday we rode the BART train downtown to explore San Francisco.
The first thing on our agenda was a visit to the BrightWorks School. This little school in downtown San Francisco is a great example of education done well. It defines a new area of focus every year but then relies on students' intrinsic motivation for them to explore, learn and produce something for public consumption. They do great work and the students seem very happy, productive and open.
The school is in old mayonnaise factory and much of the spaces have been developed by students as needs come up. The students often choose to build things so BrightWorks has a workshop space with many tools and lots of scrap material for them to work with.
After BrightWorks we headed up to the waterfront to the Aquarium of the Bay. It was here that we noticed that the Blue Angels were in town. And, in fact, would be flying around the city all weekend.
In the aquarium we saw lots of creatures that can be found on the California coast. There was a touch pool for stingrays (a bit of foreshadowing for Lisa) and a nice river otter habitat. On the bottom floor they had glass tunnels that we walked through and enjoyed getting buzzed by sharks and other fish. 
We purchased a 3-day city pass for the weekend which seemed to be a great deal. $89 gets an adult admission to the Aquarium, Exploratorium, Cal Academy of Sciences and intra-city public transport. It also came with a boat ride. The neat thing about this is that we never, ever would have ponied the $20-$30 each to go on a boat ride around the Bay but since it came with the City Pass of course we hopped on. We had a choice of an hour long cruise or 30 minutes on a Rocket Boat. Rocket Boat. The Rocket Boat was fast, high horsepower boat that simply buzzed around the bay. The driver did his best to spray us with water and surprise us with sudden 180 degree turns and a soundtrack of 80's rock blasted over a loud sound system. The best part was that the Blue Angels did a full show right over us as we rocked out to Danger Zone and Bon Jovi.
We stayed at a hotel in Oakland near the coliseum because it was much cheaper than staying downtown and we were planning on going to the Raiders game on Sunday anyway. So Thursday, Friday and Saturday we rode the BART train downtown to explore San Francisco.
The first thing on our agenda was a visit to the BrightWorks School. This little school in downtown San Francisco is a great example of education done well. It defines a new area of focus every year but then relies on students' intrinsic motivation for them to explore, learn and produce something for public consumption. They do great work and the students seem very happy, productive and open.
The school is in old mayonnaise factory and much of the spaces have been developed by students as needs come up. The students often choose to build things so BrightWorks has a workshop space with many tools and lots of scrap material for them to work with.
After BrightWorks we headed up to the waterfront to the Aquarium of the Bay. It was here that we noticed that the Blue Angels were in town. And, in fact, would be flying around the city all weekend.
We purchased a 3-day city pass for the weekend which seemed to be a great deal. $89 gets an adult admission to the Aquarium, Exploratorium, Cal Academy of Sciences and intra-city public transport. It also came with a boat ride. The neat thing about this is that we never, ever would have ponied the $20-$30 each to go on a boat ride around the Bay but since it came with the City Pass of course we hopped on. We had a choice of an hour long cruise or 30 minutes on a Rocket Boat. Rocket Boat. The Rocket Boat was fast, high horsepower boat that simply buzzed around the bay. The driver did his best to spray us with water and surprise us with sudden 180 degree turns and a soundtrack of 80's rock blasted over a loud sound system. The best part was that the Blue Angels did a full show right over us as we rocked out to Danger Zone and Bon Jovi.
On Friday we spent much of the day at the Exploratorium. These guys are really good at interactive exhibits. Just about everything there requires some input from the user and some are designed so that the user might use it ways not intended.
If anyone is interested, here's how a rear differential works!
The highlight might have been the Tactile Dome. We had to pay a bit extra for the girls to go into the dome that they had to navigate in the dark. Inside there were a variety of surfaces and obstacles to navigate. After everyone else in our time slot had their fill the girls were still doing laps and the attendant let me and Lisa try it. I got this picture of the outside because the dome is similar to a cardboard dome we built with my astronomy summer campers last summer.
We finished the day by having dinner (and ice cream) at Fenton's!
Saturday was another great day. We headed in to the Cal Academy of Sciences. We thought we might be a bit museumed out but this place had the nicest salt water aquarium I had ever seen. Combine that with a huge planetarium, earthquake simulator and more Blue Angels from the roof and we were happy. A huge bluegrass festival was happening in Golden Gate Park so we wandered down to catch the tail end of Bela Fleck's set and then walked into town to get some food. After that, back to the Academy of Sciences to explore some more.
On Sunday got to see old friend and former student Ben Smith and then went to a Raiders game. The Raiders looked terrible and lost badly but it felt good to finally get to Raiders home game after all these years. Definitely not your average NFL crowd. 
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