{"id":982,"date":"2012-04-20T11:05:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T11:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/family-travel-california-academy-of-sciences\/"},"modified":"2023-02-23T10:42:23","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T10:42:23","slug":"family-travel-california-academy-of-sciences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/family-travel-california-academy-of-sciences\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Travel: California Academy of Sciences"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/miles-away\/wp-content\/uploads\/files\/2012\/4\/CaliforniaAcademyofSciences.jpg\" alt=\"Family Travel: California Academy of Sciences, Flickr: johnloo\" title=\"Family Travel: California Academy of Sciences, Flickr: johnloo\" width=\"450\" height=\"340\" align=\"middle\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<strong>Hatches at the Academy<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\nThe California Academy of Sciences, located in San Francisco&rsquo;s <strong><a href=\"\/news\/10-fun-things-to-do-in-san-franciscos-golden-gate-park\">beautiful and diverse Golden Gate Park<\/a><\/strong>, touts itself as being the only place on earth where an aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum, and a four-story rainforest co-exist under one roof. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The structure of the museum is within itself a major accomplishment and architectural achievement.&nbsp; Taking nearly 10 years and $500 million dollars to build, the new building is an amazing structure that from certain angles blends almost completely in with the natural park environment.&nbsp; The museum is also the greenest on the planet, possessing the platinum rating for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).&nbsp; Recycled water systems, soil and recycled blue jean insulation, a living roof equipped with solar energy panels, natural light and floor heating panels help to make this museum incredibly sustainable. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you aren&rsquo;t swayed to visit by the green architecture, never fear.&nbsp; The most popular exhibits in the museum include the 4-story dome walk-through rainforest&mdash;it&rsquo;s hot in the rainforest, so dress in layers if you plan to spend any time in this exhibit!&nbsp; The rainforest is full of free flying birds, reptiles, amphibians, an underground view of the river fish, and even a cave with bats!<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the Steinhart Aquarium, also part of the Living Collection, is home to more than 38,000 animals from all around the world.&nbsp; The 25-foot deep coral reef aquarium is one of the largest on the planet.<\/p>\n<p>The Morrison Planetarium is the world&rsquo;s largest all-digital dome.&nbsp; Planetarium shows run every hour on the half, and are included with your admission.&nbsp; Tickets are given out on a first come first serve basis and usually fill up quickly.&nbsp; Note to parents: kids under three are not allowed in the planetarium, and the recommend age for most shows is six.<\/p>\n<p>The Kimball Natural History Museum carries 150 years of research under its belt, in addition to the 20 million specimens on site ready for discovery.&nbsp; In addition to a variety of permanent and rotating exhibits, a giant T-Rex, Foucault Pendulum, and sixteen dioramas fill the museum&rsquo;s corners with plenty of hands-on-learning opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>The museum offers two restaurants, the Academy Caf&eacute;, a casual quick service restaurant with numerous multi-cultural options, and Moss Room, a fine-dining experience.&nbsp; Chef Charles Phan oversees both restaurants where fresh, organic and healthy meal options abound.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nMuseum admission starts at $29.95 for adults, $24.95 for kids 12-17, and $19.95 for kids 4-11.&nbsp; Children under 4 are free.&nbsp; Four times a year, the museum offers free days on a first come, first serve basis.&nbsp; To encourage sustainable practices, discounts are offered for arriving to the museum via public transportation or bicycle.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<br \/>\nBook a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/travel\/travel_resources\/family-travel.asp\">family trip to San Francisco<\/a><\/strong> today and experience all that the California Academy of Sciences has to offer!\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<br \/>\n<em>Don&#39;t forget to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cheapoair\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#39;Like us&#39;<\/a><\/strong> on Facebook for exclusive travel deals! <\/em>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<br \/>\nphoto: <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/johnloo\/3540774257\/sizes\/m\/in\/photostream\/\" target=\"_blank\">johnloo <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hatches at the Academy The California Academy of Sciences, located in San Francisco&rsquo;s beautiful and diverse Golden Gate Park, touts itself as being the only place on earth where an aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum, and a four-story rainforest co-exist under one roof. &nbsp; The structure of the museum is within itself a major accomplishment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":97217614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-interests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97217615,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions\/97217615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97217614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}