I came for the Halloween After Dark where my friend presented. All of the talks were funny and…read moreinformative and well delivered. Very imaginative and fun! The drinks are crazy expensive but thats to be expected. The festivities around Halloween were fun - costume contest, pumpkin carving (though not enough for everyone), etc.

Been always wanting to go here and we finally did it! Came into this thinking we didn't need the…read moreentire 3+ hrs but we did! There is SO much to see, with about over 5 different sections and all being interactive it's a place your inner child can run free. Our favorite part were the many games you could play with a partner or group such as a snake video game, 1:1 table games, and much more. Such an eventful night with music playing and chances to buy a drink. Highly recommend to visit with some friends or for a fun date night!

Always a classic when visiting Pier 39, this double decker Carousel is fun for both adults and…read morechildren. Pick your animal of choice, and enjoy the spin. Wish you could get a better view of the bay when riding it, but it's still a nice time. Definitely pricey for a ride - I believe it was $9/person to ride, which was definitely a little pricey. Not to mention not all of the "horses" worked properly, so I ended up on a panda that was broken. Overall, it's a nice Carousel, but it can definitely add up if you're coming with a family.

Not impressed with the experience here at all. Brought my out of towner visitor to the Fisherman…read moreWharf and pre-purchased a ticket for a three year old via Groupon (a lot cheaper btw). It did say that kids under 42" need an adult to accompany them, but I figured just like every other carousel that the parent doesn't need a ticket. When I got up to the booth the guy said I needed to get an extra ticket for the accompanying adult, I was shocked but didn't say anything just got a $9 ticket for the adult. They went ahead took the Groupon ticket for the kid and the $9 ticket for the adult and let them board. Once they were on the carousel another employee told them they needed another ticket. What?? My niece doesn't speak English very well so she wasn't real sure what they were saying. I don't know if they decided to let it go or if they finally figured out their mistake, but whatever. I personally won't be giving them any more of my money.

Lovely group and hooray for raptors and good cause but the director is discriminatory…read more They gladly accept seniors with oncoming dementia but after training - an excellent veterinary fit volunteer as she was just getting diagnosed with sudden onset pots syndrome- and not aware what her limitations may be disclosed to the director He told her he "did not want to slow the group down" This is flat out discrimination .

Wow! It's beautiful! We've been here a lot of times but this was a good time to take pictures…read morebecause it was clear. There were no clouds or fog. The perfect time to take a picture is at sunset.

We had a great time on the Bay this weekend on the USS Potomac for Opening Day. Not only did we get…read moreblessed we were second in line behind the fireboats in the Parade of Ships. An experience I truly recommend!!

Delightful positive excursion to set foot on a naval officer vessel. It may be from the earlier…read more20th century during the time of Roosevelt. I am not sure. It says World War II. It shows old radios and it uses beds for family members of the naval officer. Nice view of Jack London Square and the ferry from Oakland. It was nice outing and walkable near Chinatown and the Bart station. The railroad is nearby and desolate. Interesting history option near San Francisco. They showed the submarines and this old naval officer boat. It was positive and neat. There's a gift shop and topics. The theme is presidential and I bet it was used by a naval officer.

Wow, this place is so amazingly cool ~ what a really fun East Bay hidden gem. I never knew this…read morespot existed, yet alone that Point Richmond had anything like this. It looks like currently The Golden State Model Railroad Museum is on winter break and will reopen on April 5th, but def worth the trip if this is something you may be into. This is a 10,000 square foot museum of operating model trains replicating areas of Central and Northern California. Pricing is $10 for families, $5 for Adults and children over 12, $3 for seniors (63+), $3 for children under 11, and free for kiddos under 4. There is a small parking lot and street parking in front/across the street where Miller-Knox trails/park/picnic areas are located. There's a small merch area and just the kindest staff members who are happy to share knowledge of railroad history. The East Bay Model Engineers Society is one of the oldest model railroad clubs in the US! Looking forward to returning with the fam and learning more about the model trains ~ there's just so much to see, so many intricate details! You have to see it to believe it :)

This is a great place to see model trains of three different popular scales (O, HO and N scales) in…read moreoperation rolling through tunnels, across large bridges and into tiny towns and big little cities. It's a wonderful and safe place for kids of all ages as the trains operate right behind the glass just inches from your nose! :). Historians will appreciate the exacting scale reproductions of Santa Fe's Muir Trestle and the ginormous Oakland Mole Train Shed/Station that once stood next to the Bay Bridge until 1960. Lots of other cool things to see too! Not into trains? There's a beautiful park right across the street where you can enjoy a nice trail and picnic area facing San Pablo Bay and watch the tanker ships in port. Pro Tip: VERIFY hours for public visits before coming out. This is a volunteer operation! Pro Tip #2: Lots of cute little restaurants on the other side of the tunnel in Point Richmond for grub before or after your visit!

8/2/2023 Walking has…read moreso many benefits.. lol.. If I was in a car, I probably wouldn't stop. Getting my cardio in and happened to stop . Nice and open with a view of the ocean.. It's busy with tourists and great to see.

The mighty BALCLUTHA!…read more The crown jewel of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. If you are visiting the Park, you must see this ship! From the Website: Stand on the stern of Balclutha, face west to feel the fresh wind blowing in from the Pacific Ocean. Located in the Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park offers the sights, sounds, smells and stories of Pacific Coast maritime history. Balclutha is a three-masted, steel-hulled, square-rigged ship built to carry a variety of cargo all over the world. Launched in 1886 by the Charles Connell and Company shipyard near Glasgow, Scotland, the ship carried goods around Cape Horn (tip of South America) 17 times. It took a crew of about 26 men to handle the ship at sea with her complex rigging and 25 sails. AWARD WINNING EXHIBITS: The Cargo is King! multimedia exhibit, located on the 'tweendeck of the 1886 square-rigger Balclutha, was awarded first place in the 2009 National Association for Interpretation (NAI) Media Competition. Please visit Balclutha soon and descend below deck to enter this lantern-lit, immersive environment. Discover the important cargoes Balclutha transported around the world and the stories of the people who depended on them. BALCLUTHA HISTORY: Balclutha was built in 1886 by Charles Connell and Company of Scotstoun in Glasgow, Scotland, for Robert McMillan, of Dumbarton, Scotland. Her namesake is said to be the eponymous town of Balclutha, New Zealand, but her name also refers to her first homeport, Glasgow, Scotland, which is a "City on the Clyde" - the meaning of her name derived from the Gaelic Baile Chluaidh. Designed as a general trader, Balclutha rounded Cape Horn 17 times in thirteen years. During this period she carried cargoes such as wine, case oil, and coal from Europe and the East Coast of the United States to various ports in the Pacific. These included Chile for nitrate, Australia and New Zealand for wool, Burma for rice, San Francisco for grain, and the Pacific Northwest for timber. In 1899 Balclutha transferred to the registry of Hawaii, and traded timber from the Pacific Northwest to Australia, returning to San Francisco with Australian coal. In 1902 Balclutha was chartered to the Alaska Packers' Association (APA). After having struck a reef off of Sitkinak Island near Kodiak Island on May 16, 1904, she was renamed the Star of Alaska when bought by APA for merely $500. After extended repairs she joined the salmon fishing trade, sailing north from the San Francisco area to the Chignik Bay, Alaska, in April with supplies, fishermen, and cannery workers, and returned in September with a cargo of canned salmon. For this trade she carried over 200 crew and passengers, as compared to the 26-man crew she carried as the Balclutha. In 1911 the poop deck was extended to the main mast to accommodate Italian and Scandinavian workers. This expansion is called the shelter deck. In the 'tween deck, bunks for Chinese workers were built. Her last voyage in this trade was in 1930, when she then was laid up after her return home. In 1933, Star of Alaska was renamed Pacific Queen by her new owner Frank Kissinger. In this guise she appeared in the film Mutiny on the Bounty starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton. She then eked out an existence as an exhibition ship, gradually deteriorating, and was for a while exhibited as a "pirate ship". In 1954, Pacific Queen was acquired by the San Francisco Maritime Museum, which restored her and renamed her Balclutha and moored her at Pier 41 East. In 1985 she was designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1988,she was moved to her present (2014) mooring at Hyde Street Pier of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. She is host to a monthly Chantey Sing in the shelter deck[6] 8pm to midnight on the first Saturday of every month.

The Doug Siden Visitor Center, located at Crown Memorial State Beach, was the site of the annual…read moreCrab Cove Fish Festival this past Saturday. This was a lovely event, in its 90th anniversary, which included fishing lessons (program including basic tackle, knot tying, and conservation and habitat), fish themed  games and activities for kids, a freshwater fish mobile aquarium, as well as access to the visitor center, and even a puppet show. I enjoyed checking out the adorable turtle swimming around with various fish species in the giant fish tank, and picnicking near the rocky shore (they were not selling any food at the festival, just a Kona Ice truck in the parking lot, but I brought my own food/drink). And though a majority of the activities and displays were geared toward kids, the exhibits were still interesting and educational, even for adults. Live calypso music was performed by Asheba, which was fitting for the event. He was so sweet, letting the kids play some of his instruments while on break from performing hits like Bob Marley's Jamming. Beautiful sounds to make you feel like you're on an island. The weather was ideal for a relaxing afternoon by the water, sun shining, cool breeze, and just a carefree atmosphere overall. Great family-friendly event, free of cost, and not crowded at all.

If you're expecting an immersive, interactive experience where you'll feel like you won't have…read moreenough time to do everything, then you'll be sorely, sorely, sorely disappointed. The first problem is that it's called a museum--I know, where else do you keep T-rex fossil casts other than a museum? you've got me there, but I want to let your hopes down so that you'll have a properly amazing experience here. The first thing to know is that it's housed in the Valley Life Sciences Building, or VLSB for those of us in the know who use University of California campus building-name acronyms on the regular. It's a living, breathing, working building on campus, which means there are offices and a library, in addition to "museums," which again is a disappointing misnomer. When it was built in 1930, not only was it the largest building in the City of Berkeley, but it was also the largest concrete building in the US west of the Mississippi. It's still the largest building on campus, I believe. When I worked on campus, my classes were often (and my office hours were always) in Wheeler Hall, whose bathrooms leave a lot to desired, to understate it quite ridiculously. So I was always on the lookout for better, less traveled bathroom options. Not just near Wheeler, but everywhere on campus and especially between Wheeler and the western edge of campus, because I often worked part time at my current job while also working as a reader at UC, so I was always walking back and forth between campus and our office in Downtown Berkeley. Anyway, I thought i had found a perfect candidate in a particular men's room on a particular side of a particular floor of VLSB. Who would enter this random, imposing building looking for a restroom, and even if they did, who would go anywhere but the bathrooms on the first floor? Happy with myself, after my second visit to the secret bathroom, I was about halfway back to my office when I realized I didn't have my wallet. I remembered taking it out of my pocket in the stall, so I rushed back up there. And what did I find? My wallet was sitting there on the toilet-paper dispenser, my ID, debit card, and credit cards still there. Whew! But I was also aghast, because the $36 I had in cash was missing. I'm still conflicted to this day--replacing my license and credit cards would have been a huge pain, and if someone had returned my wallet to me, I probably would have rewarded him with at least $20. So should I be angry for this person for stealing from me but not making it as bad as it could have been? I don't really know, and I haven't been back to that benighted bathroom since. So here's the best way to experience the Museum of Paleontology: By total surprise. The first time I came in here, I had no idea I'd find these Pteranodons floating around or this Tyrannosaurus rex hanging out near the staircase. Yes, take the elevator to the fourth floor and then take the stairs down. You'll be so wowed. It's amazing. And that's how you have a four-star experience. Just don't give kind thieves the opportunity to steal some of your valuables.

Once upon a time I attended the University of California, Berkeley for graduate school in…read moregeophysics. Some of my classmates/department peers were into dinosaur bones, so I got to explore the Museum of Paleontology (on-campus) with geochemist(s) as my guide. Since none of us were actively studying fossils/vertebrates, we all got to spitball our guesses. It was our idea of a wild time. I might have brought up the dinosaur bones as something to see when my sister visited me, however, she was not very interested. She majored in anthropology as an undergraduate at the University of Washington and did not share my zest for things existing millions of years before us. While I was unsuccessful on that occasion, I did later use space by the entrance/exit for work if my office in McCone Hall got too loud.