A Smash At The Academy Of Science
Our plans for the day included going to the California Academy of Science, the Filbert Steps and walking around Lombard Street. Unfortunately we only got to do one of the above before our day was rather discourteously disrupted, but I’ll talk more about that later. We drove over to the Academy of Science and parked around five minutes away. We walked over to the entrance through the Music Concourse, which was an area developed for the California Midwinter International Expo in 1894. There are some fountains in the concourse, as well as a stage, the M.H. de Young Museum is on one flank while the California Academy of Science is on the other. We headed straight up the steps and into the museum. We already had our passes, since we had bought the CityPass, and an older gentleman at the entrance informed us that there was going to be a penguin feeding in a couple of minutes, so that’s where we headed. The penguins were African penguins and they were fed using a reward system. In order to get a fish, each penguin had to step up on a scale so they could be weighed, since weight is how their caretakers keep track of their health. The penguins are also identified by bands on their wings. Females have
bands on their right wings, males have bands on their left, and mated pairs have band of a matching colour. After the feeding was done, we headed over to the Planetarium to get some tickets for the Planetarium show at 11:30am. There was some time before the show started, so we headed down to the lower floor where the aquarium is. The aquarium was split into sections. They had the wetlands, complete with an albino crocodile, coral reefs, deep sea, Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian to name a few. I flitted through most of the sections, since we didn’t have much time before the show started, and we hopped back upstairs to get in line when the time came. The name of the show was Incoming!
and it was about asteroids. Studying asteroids gives scientists a good insight into the history of our solar system, our galaxy, and the universe itself. One of the most interesting parts of the show was when they talked about the possibility of a ninth planet in our solar system. Apparently, almost all other solar system have a planet similar to this speculated one. It has a massive oval-shaped orbit that would take approximately 15000 years to complete, which would explain why we haven’t observed it in recorded history. It is estimated to be quite a massive planet, about 10 times the weight of Earth and 4 times the size. Since it travels so far away from the sun, it would also be completely frozen. Scientists are trying to estimate where the planet would currently be in orbit, so they can try and find it. Scientists first began to think that this planet might be a possibility due to the strange orbital patterns of objects in the Kuiper Belt, which is a massive frozen belt in the outer regions of the solar system. If this
planet exists, it would mean that our solar system is not nearly as unique as some people would like to think and is in fact very much like every other system out there. After the show, we headed over to the cafeteria so we could eat lunch, and then checked out the seismic activity section after we were finished eating. Apparently, because San Francisco is built on so many fault lines, there a insignificant earthquakes every day. Because the shoreline is so precarious, thanks to the San Andreas Fault, only earthquakes over a magnitude of 6.0 are concerning. There was a map of the world that showed the location of every single recorded earthquake over the last fifty years. After the seismic section, we headed upstairs to watch another show about the rainforests. The video was composed of clips taken by research scientists who had taken a trip to the Amazon. The video explained the importance of the rainforests to the ecosystem and how essential it is
that we work to preserve them. They supply most of the Earth’s oxygen and it would kind of suck to lose that. It was a very informative show. Our last stop in the museum was the Rainforest Dome, a four story, enclosed dome that showcased the different levels of the rainforest and had samples of wildlife and plant life from different rainforests around the globe. There were lots of butterflies in there, as well as some weird looking fish in the pond in the middle, a couple of macaw’s, and separate tanks for some of the more delicate creatures, which included some species’ of frogs, snakes, insects, and fish. It was very well done and it was really warm, so it was a good way to end our museum trip. Then our great visit of
the museum was ruined somewhat when we returned to the truck and found the rear passenger window smashed in, with glass all over Isaac’s seat. It didn’t seem like anything was missing and my i-Pad was still there, which was fortunate. Dad cleaned out the glass as best he could and then we found a nearby glass repair shop to take the truck to. The whole thing kind of wrecked out plans for the day, since we had to spend two hours in the repair shop waiting room while the truck was being fixed. We took a different route back home when we got the truck back, and got to see some of the really steep streets that are always showcased in movies set in San Francisco. It was when we got back to the trailer that we discovered that one of the backpacks was missing, so whoever smashed our window must have seen the backpack on the seat and went for it. The backpack only had some water bottles and Mum’s glasses, which is a nuisance for her, but she ordered new ones when we were in Calgary, which she’ll get when we arrive in Okanogan. It could have been a lot worse so we were lucky. Ah, good times. Peace out m8s.