Though it’s old news by now, the California Academy of Sciences recently reopened after a nearly 5-year reconstruction.  I was there for opening day of the new building on Saturday, 2008 September 27.

You can find the full gallery of photos here: Gallery Link

I was expecting a long line, and sure enough when I got off the #5 Muni at the northern edge of Golden Gate Park (around 10:30am) there was a throng of people stretching way past around the corner.  That’s okay I thought, I’ll just walk to the end…

But the line kept going.  And going…

After about 15 minutes of briskly-paced walking I finally reached the end…

The line was arduously long.  About an hour and a half in (having moved just a couple hundred feet), a man from the Academy came out and passed out some candy bars for rations.

I passed by a few musicians who had taken to perform alongside the line during the wait.  A young boy was playing violin about halfway through, and an older man played a didgeridoo/oboe/bassoon not too far past that:

I had a lot of time in line so I was snapping photos of just about everything.

 After what seemed like an eternity, I did eventually get to the front.

By this time the Academy was over-capacity, and they were giving out rainchecks to come back to the Academy later on in the day.  So for the time being I settled for this picture in front of the entrance.

Here’s a map of the line I stood in.  It ended up being exactly a mile long, and took 5 hours to get through all of it.

The ticket I got was for a 7:00pm entrance, and it was 3:30pm, so I had about 3 and a half hours to kill.  They had some art performances and booths set up on the old Music Concourse, so I decided to take a look around.

I didn’t go into the de Young museum, but there was a Chihuly exhibit on display and one of the pieces was outside at the entrance:

I took a short walk up north to grab a bite to eat (ended up eating a sandwich at a cafe… eh).  By the time I got back it was 6:30, and they were letting anyone with a ticket in (which makes me wonder how much earlier I could have gotten in…).  So after 8 long hours, I was finally in the Academy of Sciences.  Here’s just a sample of some of the pictures – you can find the full set of photos on my gallery.

 I didn’t actually get to the rainforest – byt the time I had gotten around to it they had closed the line.  So it’s on my to-do list for the next visit.

 I disappointing area of the academy was the new aquarium.  Those who ever visited the old Academy probably remember the huge multi-story spiraling aquairum.  There’s nothing of the same scale at the new academy – instead there are many smaller tanks which probably makes things easier to manage and maintain.

 I spent just about 2 and a half hours there (the Acadmy closed at 9pm), and I really didn’t even get a chance to explore probably the two biggest attractions – the Indoor Rainforest and the Planetarium.  I suppose I’ll have to head there again for another trip someday.

Tags: Academy of Sciences, albino alligator, Cal Academy, California Academy of Sciences, California Academy of Sciences Opening, California Academy of Sciences Reopening, Chihuly, de Young Museum, frogs, gila monster, Grand Opening, indoor rainforest, jellyfish, living roof, long line, opening day line, pendulum clock, San Francisco ballet

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 1:05 and is filed under Photobloggery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.