{"id":4955,"date":"2011-06-08T04:27:19","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T12:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/?p=4955"},"modified":"2011-06-08T04:34:42","modified_gmt":"2011-06-08T12:34:42","slug":"the-exploratorium-san-francisco-birthday-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/?p=4955","title":{"rendered":"The Exploratorium – San Francisco Birthday Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

I did not have a great 40th birthday last year – I was really sick<\/a>. Two courses of antibiotics and I was finally able to eat normal food. This year, I wanted to do something fun for my birthday (It’s today). We were at a BBQ with friends and I casually mentioned that it would be fun to go to San Francisco… that turned into a possible trip to the Exploratorium (the museum of science, art and human perception) and plans were made for an early celebration on Saturday the 4th.<\/p>\n

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We woke up to rain. Lots and lots of rain. That did not stop us from heading to the city. We met up at our friend Aaron’s place and the boys went in one car and the girls went in another.<\/p>\n

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We arrived just as the museum opened and immediately headed upstairs to begin exploring. The last time I had been to the Exploratorium was probably on a field trip in the 3rd or 4th grade.<\/p>\n

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Dan is a huge science guy. He immediately hopped on the pedal generator and started pushing buttons as he pedaled.<\/p>\n

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I was interested in the cool ceiling art leading into the plankton exhibit…<\/p>\n

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But not before enjoying something else in the museum… One of my favorite things to do as a child in the 70’s was to play with my Spirograph<\/a> – I loved that I could create unique masterpieces in a matter of minutes. If I wasn’t playing with my Spirograph, I was playing with Spin Art or Sun Prints in the backyard.<\/p>\n

Deede and I walked by the huge Spirograph exhibit and it looked closed… a few minutes later Deede came running towards me – It’s open! It’s open! – come get in line. We waited in line and I immediately started thinking about what colors I wanted to use on my giant work of art. You could choose different colored markers to go inside of a large pendulum-type “pen” that would draw the same Spirograph shapes and patterns that the toy plastic inserts did when I was a kid.<\/p>\n

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Black was my first color. I was able to push on the large pendulum platform to change the shape\/pattern and I thought I had gotten all crazy and it turned out to be a big Oprah “O”.<\/p>\n

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Orange was up next…<\/p>\n

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Then green and a second round with black…<\/p>\n

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I got to go home with my butcher paper masterpiece.<\/p>\n

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Super cool birthday fun… reliving awesome memories from my childhood, can’t beat that!<\/p>\n

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The wind and water display was interesting.<\/p>\n

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Danger… High Voltage – it took me 5 tries to get the photo while Dan was pushing things to make it happen.<\/p>\n

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This was a display of plants that reproduce by cloning themselves. Kalanchoe plants kind of scare me.<\/p>\n

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We all took turns spinning the chair as we tilted the bicycle wheel… it doesn’t take much… ha! ha!<\/p>\n

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Leave it to Deede… this cone shot out air to keep a beach ball floating above it… hmm… not exactly sure where it said to put your face over the hole… LOLOLOLOL.<\/p>\n

A chair display was our next stop…<\/p>\n

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Big Chair…<\/p>\n

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Little chair…<\/p>\n

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OMG, where’s the chair?<\/p>\n

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We then cloned ourselves in a mirrored pyramid…<\/p>\n

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The Mind exhibits <\/a>were some of my favorite.<\/p>\n

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The Rolling Through the Bay<\/em> exhibit was insane… Scott Weaver spent 3093 hours over the past 36 years on his roughly 103,427 toothpick sculpture depicting San Francisco. The sculpture has 4 paths that ping pong balls roll through… absolutely incredible!<\/p>\n

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You must see this in person – these photos suck compared to the beauty of this sculpture. Scott used toothpicks from all over the world. Check out the Rolling Through the Bay<\/a> website if you want to see more.<\/p>\n

We had fun playing in the Alice in Wonderland “distortion room” where you seem to shrink and grow as you walk across the slanted, checkered floor.<\/p>\n

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Me…<\/p>\n

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Aaron…<\/p>\n

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Deede’s Hub…<\/p>\n

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Deede… Dan came running towards the camera, so his photos were all blurry \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

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These connected rods let you experiment with wavelengths and wave interaction.<\/p>\n

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I had to get something cooking related on the “food blog” – This was a skillet display that showed you how they heat up differently, depending on what they’re made of. A good skillet is one that heats evenly. A skillet that doesn’t is more likely to develop “hot spots” that burn food or cause it to stick. Whether a skillet heats evenly depends on how quickly heat moves through it. Aluminum and copper are among the best conductors of heat, but they don’t always make the best skillets because they react chemically with some foods, affecting their taste and color. That’s why many aluminum and copper pans are lined on the inside with nonreactive stainless steel or tin… and that my friends is your cooking\/science lesson for the day! Move over Alton Brown…<\/p>\n

We ended our museum tour with a quick trip into the gift shop to watch all of the kids cry and scream when their parents wouldn’t give them what they wanted, hah!<\/p>\n

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This Fred and Friends SPILT MILK\u2122 bowl was one of my favorite things. Cereal is a staple in our house and how could you not smile eating out of this bowl? My other favorite thing was a giant CAKEWICH\u2122 pan. I wanted to get it, but it was pretty pricey. Dan ended up scanning the bar code on his iPhone and ordering it off Amazon for my birthday cake surprise. Most. Awesome. Husband. Ever.<\/p>\n

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He got to work in the kitchen and baked my cake from a recipe on the CAKEWICH\u2122 box. Pound cake from scratch with a homemade peanut butter frosting and strawberry jam.<\/p>\n

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I present to you my bad ass\/giant peanut butter and jelly sandwich birthday cake made by Chef Dan.<\/p>\n

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Proper placement of the milk prop…<\/p>\n

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My iPhone for scale…<\/p>\n

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I can’t wait to slice into it later tonight. The best part of my birthday is our “cake” tradition… I love that we never do store bought, we bake and decorate each others birthday cakes. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

This post is going to win an award for the longest post ever! I will save part II – Visiting a Diners, Drive-ins and Dives “Bar” for lunch and a few other side trip adventures for my next post.<\/p>\n

Thank you Dan and friends for joining me for some birthday fun… I had a blast – Love you guys!
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I did not have a great 40th birthday last year – I was really sick. Two courses of antibiotics and I was finally able to eat normal food. This year, I wanted to do something fun for my birthday (It’s today). We were at a BBQ with friends and I casually mentioned that it would … <\/p>\n

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