Akit's Furlough Adventure #8 - All Around San Francisco

Today was another day on furlough, and what better way to spend my morning and afternoon but walking all around the city. Let's take a tour, shall we?

First stop was at the Folsom platform for the N-Judah/T-Third line for a walk along the public shore towards AT&T Park. Here's a great view facing Northwest from the platform.


The legendary Herb Caen, oh how he is missed around our great city. I hope the city fixes this sign. How does it get bent like that when it's up so high?


It's off to the legendary Coit Tower where the views are outstanding and you hear the wild parrots of Nob Hill. You can pay to head to the top, or just get your camera and just walk around the surrounding area for wonderful shots.


With at least a 10X optical zoom, taking photos from Coit Tower is wonderful. This shot is of the Alcatraz Cruises terminal. I've never been to Alcatraz (sad, ain't it?).


This is what happens when Muni is piss poor and people fare evade... they can't afford the push bars!


Off to the California Academy of Sciences! Ever been in the Osher Rainforest? It's really humid in there, but the butterflies and birds makes it really special. Here's a great shot of a butterfly.


Here's another great photo of a butterfly!

To view the entire album, watch this slideshow:

Akit's Furlough Adventures 5 & 6

Courtesy of a furlough program by my employer at SF State, everyone got a four-day weekend covering Friday to Monday. Too bad I have to return to work tomorrow, otherwise I'd lose more than 10% of my paycheck that's already been cut.

As promised, I'm keeping up with documenting my furlough days with "adventures" to various Bay Area locations. I'm combining both furlough days in one blog posting.

Friday, October 23, 2009: I went in at 9:30AM to the California Academy of Sciences. Since I'm a member, admission was relatively quick and I was able to secure a ticket for the new planetarium show that is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg.

This photo is of the Philippine coral reef tank at the lowest level of the Academy. This tank is one of the most popular spots of the aquarium due to its large size, seating, and a scheduled talk with a person in scuba gear. Since I got in at the earliest time, there was no crowds and I had the entire space for myself for at least 10 minutes. No screaming kids and it was absolutely quiet; something we adults need badly at museums and exhibitions.


The African penguins is popular exhibit at the Academy. While some stay on the rocks, many dive into the water and are playful with the people when they run their fingers over the glass. I was trying to kill time before I had to line-up to gain entry to the planetarium.


After the planetarium, I ate lunch down at Kiki's on 9th Avenue between Lincoln and Irving, a sister restaurant to Kitaro's on Geary. Cheaply priced sushi and their cooked lunches are tasty. After eating a good meal, it was a hop on the N-Judah where the ride was "free" thanks to a broken fare box. I was planning to visit Chinatown, but it was getting too late and I eventually turned back for the long bus ride journey home.

Monday, October 26, 2009: After seeing an ad in the Chronicle about the Star Trek Exhibition at the San Jose Tech Museum, I thought I'd give it a try. It took a lot of planning, especially that I didn't want to drive down there. Instead, I planned out to park my car at Daly City BART and take the Caltrain Baby Bullet Express from Millbrae.

Parking at Daly City BART wasn't that bad, the lot wasn't even 1/4 full at 7:30AM. I actually found a great parking spot after I reserved a space on BART's website and paid a $4.50 fee. The thing I hate about BART south of Daly City is the not so frequent service; direct Millbrae trains run on 15 minute frequencies, so timing was important to not miss the Caltrain express.


Hey, look... TransLink! It's a little beat-up, but it worked perfectly fine.


Here's a northbound train heading towards San Francisco. It was one of a few trains passing by while I was waiting for the express. It turned out that the express train I was riding was the original Caltrain cars and it was a heck of a bumpy ride.

Unfortunately, the Tech Museum banned photography at the Star Trek exhibit. The $25 cost is totally not worth it. I'm only a mild Trekkie fan, but I remember most of the TV shows and films. There's a ton of props (some replicas and actual), many costumes, and some opportunities to take photos with official designated photographers who want to rip your butt off. Some things didn't even look right, including there was parts of the exhibits showing their wear and tear, holes in some of the displays (from a previous show?), lighting was poor, and the exhibit route was really odd.

The best traveling exhibition at the Tech Museum was the human bodies about a year or two ago, and that was amazing to view. For the Star Trek exhibit, I was expecting more interactive exhibits. When Star Trek was at the old California Academy of Sciences, it was very interactive, you can touch the screens, and play interactive games while learning about the world of Star Trek. The only "interactive" thing they offered was a $5 simulator ride that was below par.

If you were to compare the Tech Museum's Star Trek exhibit to the one at the Las Vegas Hilton, the Hilton kicks this traveling show to the ground and keeps on stomping hard.

Just to make matters worse, you also get admission to the Tech Museum and there was hundreds of kids playing with everything there. Tons of them are very disrespectful, including ones who thinks it's fun to play around escalators.

So after all this bullshit and spending less than 90 minutes in San Jose, I left on the next local Caltrain back home.

Akit's Furlough Adventure #2 - Twin Peaks & Cal Academy of Sciences

Just one vote made the difference between going to the Rockridge district of Oakland and Twin Peaks. This furlough adventure winner is Twin Peaks.

Unfortunately, today was a terrible day at Twin Peaks, the fog ruined the view. After a few minutes of snapping photos, I scrapped this trip.

After bailing on Twin Peaks, I decided to go visit the Cal Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, and got sort-of lucky at the parking garage with a parking space of this complicated and expensive parking lot. $2.75 an hour... damn!

Since I have membership to the Academy, it was quite easy to get in, but as usual, it's tourist season and the damn place was packed. I arrived at about 11AM and the planetarium show tickets were given out for the 3PM showing. Take my advice, don't go to the 3D Bugs movie, the screen is small, and they allow screaming babies and kids who likes to kick your seat.

One of my favorite exhibits is the African Penguins. They are so cute! And when they swim in the water, they always go against the glass to play around with the visitors.

One of the best features of the Cal Academy is the aquarium, and especially the Philippine Coral Reef exhibits, including the one where a diver enters the aquarium and talks to the host of the program. One item of note, every time they do one of those diver showings, it's a fire hazard because people are spilling out in the aisles and folks are sitting all over the floor.

If haven't had the chance, go to the rainforest exhibit in the big glass dome. It's quite humid inside, but you get to see all kinds of birds, butterflies, odd looking fish, and plenty more. The wait is 15 minutes to get in, but it's well worth the wait.

And don't forget the site of the former 74X CultureBus! Rest in peace... but Muni forgot to paint over the damn yellow signage.

As for lunch... thanks to Oprah's failed KFC bit, I finally was able to claim my free meal. The chicken pieces are so small! I've never seen a drumstick that small... EVER.

See the entire slideshow here:

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Furlough adventures #3 and #4 is scheduled for Friday, September 4th, and Tuesday September 8th (it's a five day weekend). You can post a comment here at Akit's Complaint Department to give suggestions on what I should do or visit next. You can also e-mail me at complaints@NOSPAMakit.org (take-out the "nospam" notation).

All suggestions will be reviewed and a poll will be posted in the next week or two. Two items from the previous poll will return: Cable Car Museum and Rockridge district.