Tripping down memory lane...

Once upon a time, I lived in the Big City, right across the street for Golden Gate Park. I used to take my little one to the playground there regularly, and every so often, on a pretty day, we would walk down to the Academy of Sciences, where there was an aquarium, a planetarium, and a museum of natural history. Many a happy moment was spent strolling down that concourse and into that big marble building that looked as permanent as the Rock of Gibralter. Except that the last time I was across the street, at the De Young Museum, in their new observation tower, where the Academy had crouched so stately, there was nothing but a big hole. Well, they finished the new one, and it is a pip. Because it is still a major whoppee, I got tickets in advance and took my little guy, now 6 ft. 5 in. tall and 40 years old, for a day of exploring and saying "wow" a lot. Little kiddo and her beau joined us later, after we had done the rain forest (there are more than 5,000 species of butterfly in the rain forest - wow), and were beginning to check out all those fish. Upside down jellyfish were pretty spectacular, as were the little moon jellies. The freshwater rays were bespeckled, and the big black one with white spots kept lording it over the babies, chasing them away. I loved the shrimp, some of them smaller than my fingernail (probably why they are called "shrimp", you think) and all brightly colored and just amazingly delicate. Then we came to the lumpsuckers. No, I didn't make that up, there are actual creatures with that name, and they look like tiny hippos. They don't swim very well and tend to perch on the rocky bottom like strange little fat birds. Oh, and there was the fish that guards the shrimp' hole, and the pipe fish, and the sea horses, and the decorator crab. I came away just in awe of the variety of life we have on this little dirt ball we live on, and how precious it all is. In the end, we found the penguins behind a big window at the end of the natural history museum, and a bunch of us humans were all fascinated by this one little guy, who kept coming up to the edge, looking like he was about to dive in, only to sidle away and hop to another rock, before hopping back and perching on the very edge again. He knew he had us, this rapt audience, and continued this for about 10 minutes before finally diving in. We all applauded. Humans are so easily amused, you know. All in all, it was a fine outing, nostalgic as well as new and exciting, and next time, I hope to do a planetarium show. It is in a huge orb, very futuristic, and I bet that is really scintillating. I may be old, but I can be childish forever.