Things to Do in San Francisco

San Francisco is one of my favorite cities in the world. I grew up there from age 8 to 18 and have lived in the Bay Area off and on for several years since. I never get tired of it!

San Francisco is a world-famous city located on the Pacific Coast in northern California. It lies on the northern tip of a peninsula which runs along the west side of the San Francisco Bay. To the north of San Francisco lies the Golden Gate, a narrow stretch of seawater separating the city from Marin County. The Golden Gate Bridge connects San Francisco to Marin. To the west lies the Pacific Ocean and to the south lies South San Francisco and Daly City.

San Francisco has a huge Asian population. Many of them moved to Chinatown about 100 years ago, located downtown. Chinatown has lots of great restaurants and "schlock shops". The more recent Chinese immigrants moved further west, to the Richmond and Sunset districts near the ocean.

San Francisco has two large parks, Golden Gate Park and the Presidio. Until a few years ago, the Presidio was an army base - now it's a national historic park. The Presidio is filled with Eucalyptus trees, which were imported from Australia in the 19th century to make railroad tracks. When found unsuitable for this task, they were planted instead. Golden Gate Park is also quite beautiful. On Sunday some of the roads through the park are closed off for bikers and roller skaters.

One of my favorite parts of San Francisco is the Embarcadero, which lies on the northeast corner of the city. A few years ago, an ugly freeway there was torn down, now providing a spectacular view of the Bay Bridge and the East Bay. The Embarcadero has a large shopping center with four buildings. One can walk along a walkway through all the buildings and past several modern sculptures.

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The Exploratorium in San Francisco

The Exploratorium in San Francisco is one of my favorite museums. I have visited the museum dozens of times since I was a child. I also worked there as an explainer for two summers as a teenager. I highly recommend the Exploratorium to anyone who is interested in science.

The Exploratorium was founded in 1969 by Frank Oppenheimer, brother of Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the atomic bomb. Both Robert and Frank were blacklisted in the 1950s, during the McCarthy era, for their involvement in the communist party. Frank decided to make something good of the rest of his life by founding the Exploratorium, the world's first hands-on science museum.

The Exploratorium is housed in the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina. This is the only one of 18 remaining buildings which were build for the Pan American Exposition in 1915. Since its inceptiion, the museum has grown considerably. Now it contains over 1000 exhibits.

The museum is divided into several sections, including weather, animal behavior, vision, sound, heat and temperature, electricity, and light and color. Most of the exhibits are hands-on, meaning that the viewer can play with them to see how they work. Children love the Exploratorium for this reason.

I had the privilege of working at the Exploratorium as an explainer for two summers. We wore orange jackets with name tags and were assigned to a particular section of the museum for an hour at a time. We went around to visitors and explained and demonstrated various exhibits to them. There were also two demonstrations we performed, a helium-neon laser and a cow's eye dissection.

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