My wonderful wife got me a membership to the California Academy of Sciences for my birthday, which is officially reopening this weekend after being under construction for the last several years. It’s one of the ten largest natural history museums in the world and houses the Steinhart Aquarium, Morrison Planetarium, a four-story rainforest exhibit, penguin exhibit, and more. I absolutely love aquariums, and we didn’t have a great one here in the city until now, so I’m really excited. We went to a member’s preview today, and I was very impressed. The building design is phenomenal, with lots of open space and natural lighting. And the aquarium is sweet, with catwalks over the water so you can view from above, below-waterline viewing areas, and even a tunnel that cuts through a sunken rainforest freshwater exhibit. Very cool.
I was also very excited to learn that they’re looking for volunteers to help with all aspects of the museum, including hands-on stuff with at the aquarium. If you’re rescue diver certified, you can even be a volunteer diver to help feed the animals, clean the glass, etc. I’m not rescue certified yet, but I definitely will look into it.
I didn’t bring my camera, but here’s a Flickr group that has some good photos…enjoy!