Last week Marco and I were in San Francisco for the holidays with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. It was a short trip, but a lot of fun! I didn’t take too many pictures this time, but here is a small sampling:
One of the piers at San Francisco
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (not to be confused with the Golden Gate bridge which everyone photographs)
Powell and Market cable car
This cable car is positioned at the turnaround point – the cable car stops on a wooden platform before being rotated to head back in the same direction it came. See a demonstration at YouTube.
Sugar castle at Westin St. Hotel lobby, San Francisco (free to view, donations optional)
We also visited the Exploratorium, an interactive exhibit hall for both kids and adults. It was a lot of fun and I can highly recommend it. One of the exhibits was the Curious Contraptions exhibit. Clicking the link will show a short 47 second video of what made them so curious…
Turn a crank and watch the item move (or in this case, press a button on the outside of the glass since these items are too delicate to be touched directly).
Another example of automata are the Dutch Strandbeest creatures created by Theo Jansen, born in nearby Scheveningen. Those were also referenced in the Exploratorium.
Finally, here is a fun workout for you:
“Your turn counts” exhibit
Read more about it at the exhibit page – basically if you turn the lever at the right, the wooden wheel spins. Turn that ten times and the grey wheel (currently at 0, though the 9 can also be seen) turns once. Turn THAT once (so the wooden wheel 100 times) and the next wheel turns, the black one currently at 0, and so on. Patience…
All in all a fun trip. And you better believe we raided a few grocery stores for some American snacks!
Life in the Hague 