When we hit the Bay Area Discovery Museum, we had modest expectations. After all, we’re hitting all the best attractions in town and some of these places charge crazy top dollar to let us in to see what they have, but this place charges less than expected while giving more than you’d expect, specifically, they sink your kids and put them on television… what on earth?
We’d already seen most of the buildings, rooms, outdoor play places and other sorts of attractions when it came time to take a dive in a room that could be described as anything but. At first it just looked like a normal room, you know, except that it had a bunch of fishy type things and a rock wall with interactive levers for us to see and play with anything from the deadly starfish* to the placid great white shark.**
But then I saw the television and it looked really interesting. It was an undersea adventure of sorts, but with a subtle difference. There was this fish on the screen that was running around all crazy. I watched him run around, curious how fish could have feet by which to run, but my curiosity was quickly replaced by my wondering as to why he was wearing a sweater, and why he was bald… wait a minute, that’s no fish, that’s my brother!
Left – This animation should give you a better idea what I’m talking about. Thanks to patented “green carpet technology” he can appear on the overhead and apron monitors playing in the water with seals, sharks and other peculiar water critters.
Once I figured out that the underwater-cam I was looking at had my own brother in it, I was entranced. How strange is that, Patrick is a fish on television. What kind of a museum would do such a thing to my own brother?
I panted like a dog, jumped around in confused excitement, and finally managed to calm down. As it turns out it’s not that strange. No, it’s just another of the many exhibits available at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, and in this instance what’s to be discovered is that you just never know who might turn up on the tube in the form of a fish.
The Bay Area Discovery Museum is located at East Fort Baker, 557 McReynolds Rd, (technically) in Sausalito, CA (across the bridge), with working hours of Tuesday – Friday, 9am – 4pm and Saturday & Sunday, 10am – 5pm. The museum is target for kids 0 to 8 and their families with current admission rates of $8.50 for adults; $7.50 for children.
Children under 1 and members getting in for free. Check them out online at their website for maps, driving directions and seasonal adjustments to hours, rates and attractions.
* I later learned that starfish are not deadly.
** I also did not learn until later that the great white shark is actually quite dangerous, even though they don’t have tongues. Isn’t that strange? All that mouth but no tongue. Without a tongue how can they possibly detect if their macaroni and cheese is generic?
Above – Here you can see Patrick checking himself out on the monitor, trying to dodge the return of the naval seal, whose belly button was never actually visible to us.